Troubleshooting CredHub

Page last updated:

This topic provides guidance for resolving errors that may occur when you deploy, upgrade, or interact with CredHub.

Deployment Failures

CredHub deployment failures include:

• Configuration errors
• Pre-start errors
• Post-start errors

For additional information about troubleshooting CredHub deployment failures, see Error List in Troubleshooting Guide in the CredHub repository on GitHub.

Configuration Errors

Configuration errors occur before CredHub deploys. For example:

Using deployment 'credhub'

Evaluating manifest:
  yaml: line 63: could not find expected ':'

Exit code 1

Configuration errors start with yaml and occur before the BOSH task is created. They indicate an error in parsing your manifest.

To correct a configuration error, review the structure of your manifest at the line specified in the error message to ensure its format and indentation are valid.

Additionally, you may see the following error format:

Task 474

18:20:35 | Preparing deployment: Preparing deployment (00:00:13)

18:20:52 | Error: Unable to render instance groups for deployment. Errors are:
  - Unable to render jobs for instance group 'credhub'. Errors are:
    - Unable to render templates for job 'credhub'. Errors are:
      - Error filling in template 'application.yml.erb' (line 22: Can't find property '["credhub.data_storage.type"]')

Started  Thu Jan 26 18:20:35 UTC 2019
Finished Thu Jan 26 18:20:52 UTC 2019
Duration 00:00:17

Task 474 error

Updating deployment:
  Expected task '474' to succeed but was state is 'error'

Exit code 1

This error occurs when a required field is not defined in the manifest. In the example above, the following configuration value is missing:

Can't find property '["credhub.data_storage.type"]'

Missing or invalid values may cause another similar error:

Task 697

21:27:55 | Preparing deployment: Preparing deployment (00:00:14)

21:28:13 | Error: Unable to render instance groups for deployment. Errors are:
  - Unable to render jobs for instance group 'credhub'. Errors are:
    - Unable to render templates for job 'credhub'. Errors are:
      - Error filling in template 'pre-start.erb' (line 15: undefined method '[]' for nil:NilClass)

Started  Thu Jan 26 21:27:55 UTC 2019
Finished Thu Jan 26 21:28:13 UTC 2019
Duration 00:00:18

Task 697 error

Updating deployment:
  Expected task '697' to succeed but was state is 'error'

Exit code 1

When troubleshooting this error, use the line number and the template specified in the error message to identify the missing or invalid value.

Pre-Start Errors

Pre-start errors occur when CredHub is unable to perform pre-start tasks. For example:

Task 789

22:34:08 | Preparing deployment: Preparing deployment (00:00:14)
22:34:26 | Preparing package compilation: Finding packages to compile (00:00:02)
22:34:28 | Updating instance dan-credhub: credhub/0261faa8-f5f4-4f6e-8ebe-3cfcba3f7190 (0) (canary) (00:00:18)
            L Error: Action Failed get_task: Task c69563a2-51e7-4b10-5c64-bb084ef85863 result: 1 of 1 pre-start scripts failed. Failed Jobs: credhub.

22:34:46 | Error: Action Failed get_task: Task c69563a2-51e7-4b10-5c64-bb084ef85863 result: 1 of 1 pre-start scripts failed. Failed Jobs: credhub.

Started  Thu Jan 26 22:34:08 UTC 2019
Finished Thu Jan 26 22:34:46 UTC 2019
Duration 00:00:38

Task 789 error

Updating deployment:
  Expected task '789' to succeed but was state is 'error'

Exit code 1

Accessing Logs

CredHub stores pre-start logs in the /var/vcap/sys/log/credhub/pre-start.stderr.log and pre-start.stdout.log files.

To access these logs when troubleshooting a pre-start error, you must SSH into the CredHub VM or SCP the logs from it.

Post-Start Errors

Post-start errors occur when a post-start script fails. For example:

Task 478

20:03:32 | Preparing deployment: Preparing deployment (00:00:13)
20:03:49 | Preparing package compilation: Finding packages to compile (00:00:02)
20:03:52 | Updating instance credhub: credhub/0261faa8-f5f4-4f6e-8ebe-3cfcba3f7190 (0) (canary) (00:02:34)
            L Error: Action Failed get_task: Task 5fe7ac60-4ccc-4bda-4ccb-6e88908597ef result: 1 of 1 post-start scripts failed. Failed Jobs: credhub.

20:06:27 | Error: Action Failed get_task: Task 5fe7ac60-4ccc-4bda-4ccb-6e88908597ef result: 1 of 1 post-start scripts failed. Failed Jobs: credhub.

Started  Thu Jan 26 20:03:32 UTC 2019
Finished Thu Jan 26 20:06:27 UTC 2019
Duration 00:02:55

Task 478 error

Updating deployment:
  Expected task '478' to succeed but was state is 'error'

Exit code 1

Accessing Logs

The CredHub log is stored in the /var/vcap/sys/log/credhub/credhub.log file.

To access these logs when troubleshooting a post-start error, you must SSH into the CredHub VM or SCP the logs from it.

Note: The CredHub log is written according to the log level, log_level, specified in your manifest.

To locate the cause of the failure, search for ERROR in the logs. Because Monit attempts to restart a failing CredHub process, you may see multiple instances of the same error.

Additionally, you can review other log files in the /var/vcap/sys/log/credhub directory.

Usability Failures

Usability failures occur after a successful deployment of CredHub. If you receive an internal server error without a descriptive error message, review the CredHub log as described in Accessing Logs.

For additional information about troubleshooting usability failures, see Error List in Troubleshooting Guide in the CredHub repository on GitHub.