pm2 Startup not starting up on Ubuntu

Question

I am having difficulty getting pm2 to restart (itself and two node/express files, app.js & app2.js) on a server re-boot.

Below is the processes I have tried:

pm2 startup
pm2 start app.js
pm2 start app2.js
pm2 startup ubuntu (also tried systemd and with/without -u username)
pm2 save

I ran the above commands in every possible combination and nothing worked. I tried running as root and it did not work either.

My ~/.pm2/dump.pm2 file contains information so I am not sure where else to look.

I have attempted to modify my /etc/init.d/pm2-init.sh file according to this issue but it did not help.

My Setup:
Digital Ocean Server
Ubuntu 15.10
Node v5.4.1
PM2 v 1.0.0

Other references I tried..
http://pm2.keymetrics.io/docs/usage/startup/
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-pm2-to-setup-a-node-js-production-environment-on-an-ubuntu-vps
https://gist.github.com/leommoore/5998406
https://www.terlici.com/2015/06/20/running-node-forever.html
https://serversforhackers.com/node-process-management-with-pm2 http://nodered.org/docs/getting-started/running.html#starting-node-red-on-boot
https://github.com/Unitech/pm2/issues/1316

So far, each time I reboot the server, pm2 fails to startup automatically (unless I need to wait a few minutes? - nginx restarts instantly).

Can someone help me out with this? What is the order in which the commands should be run? Do I need to modify any additional files?

score 24 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 12 '19 at 09:57

24

You have to save your node app using

 pm2 start [app_name]
 pm2 save

Then do:

 pm2 startup [operation system]

This will create a dump.pm2 file that pm2 needs to run your app on reboot.

Operation system:

systemd: Ubuntu >= 16, CentOS >= 7, Arch, Debian >= 7
upstart: Ubuntu <= 14
launchd: Darwin, MacOSx
openrc: Gentoo Linux, Arch Linux
rcd: FreeBSD
systemv: Centos 6, Amazon Linux

edited Jul 12 '19 at 09:57

João Pimentel Ferreira

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answered Jun 01 '16 at 04:32

Michael Rechenberg

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This worked for me on Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS. Readout from my initial stab at `pm2 startup ubuntu` told me to use `pm2 startup upstart`. Did that, now my app starts up on reboot. – pwbred Jul 25 '17 at 03:11
I am using Ubuntu Xenial 16.04. What worked for me was: pm2 save...pm2 startup upstart. Yeah! – Chong Lip Phang Dec 25 '17 at 10:39
@pwbred it depends on the processes management which ubuntu uses, which depends on ubuntu versions. You may check case specifics here: http://pm2.keymetrics.io/docs/usage/startup/ – João Pimentel Ferreira Jul 12 '19 at 09:54
if i manually stop an application `pm2 stop 1`, should it be restarting when the machine reboots if i've done these steps? i thought it would but it isn't. – Switch386 May 24 '23 at 21:30

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 15 '19 at 05:33

The solution for me was restarting pm2 with systemctl: systemctl reload-or-restart pm2-root

When I setup my Ubuntu 18.04 server on the first time, I ran pm2 start app.js to start my app. Then when I tried to run pm2 startup + pm2 save to restart the app on boot, this seemed to be not working, as by running systemctl list-units, pm2 didn’t show up in the services list. Even though the app was running (pm2 list confirmed that). So I ran systemctl list-units -all, and pm2 showed as “inactive” and “dead”.

So I did:

systemctl status pm2-root (just to confirm that it was "inactive"/"dead")
systemctl reload-or-restart pm2-root (to restart pm2 through systemctl)
systemctl status pm2-root (to confirm that pm2 now was “active”/“running”)
Then I also ran systemctl enable pm2-root, to enable PM2 to run on startup (not sure if necessary)
And pm2 startup + pm2 save again (for the start on boot)

OBS.: I used pm2-root in my commands, as I was running pm2 with root user, but you should replace for your user (pm2-<USER>), if needed.

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 24 '16 at 03:20

4

I think I solved the problem

I played with pm2, and found two working way for CentOS 7 (in your project folder index.js - main file):
1
sudo pm2 start index.js
sudo pm2 save
sudo pm2 startup centos
2
pm2 start index.js
pm2 save
pm2 startup centos
'# and run the script generated in the previous code under sudo

answered Mar 24 '16 at 03:20

ktretyak

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I'll have to give this a shot! – Rastalamm Mar 24 '16 at 04:16

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 05 '16 at 10:36

1

Have you tried checking your boot logs on Ubuntu ( cat /var/log/boot.log )?

You probably see an error like:

Error: EACCES, permission denied '/home/<USER>/.pm2'

I haven't been able to solve this issue myself but at least this should point you in the right direction.

answered Feb 05 '16 at 10:36

Grumpy Old Man

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I checked that file and there is nothing in there :( – Rastalamm Feb 06 '16 at 03:11
Could it be that the permissions on that folder are too strict? Just a guess. – Will Brickner Mar 06 '17 at 22:00
This is the solution to permission issue: https://github.com/Unitech/pm2/issues/1321#issuecomment-510348227 – Hasan Sep 10 '19 at 15:47

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 17 '20 at 03:28

The got following codes in Ubuntu:

pm2 start main.js
pm2 save
pm2 startup ubuntu

Note that "pm2 save" will create a dump.pm2 file in /root/.pm2/dump.pm2 and this one will be used when your machine is restarted.

And if you don't know your operation system name just use:

pm2 startup

PM2 will detect your operating system automatically.

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 05 '21 at 09:25

Solution is:‎

Move to folder where you installed the PM2 (such as /home/ubuntu). There will be ‎a folder ‘.pm2 ‎.‎
Run ‘PM2 startup’ to generate an active startup script.‎
Run ‘PM2 save’ to freeze a process list for automatic respawn.’.‎

Now all the processes will auto start on roboot.

pm2 Startup not starting up on Ubuntu

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