h9e
Can't start application after upgrading elixir/erlang and oban packages
Hello, we recently upgraded a few services:
- elixir 1.15.8-otp-25 to 1.18.4-otp-27 (live deployed)
- oban ~> 2.18.1 to ~> 2.19
- oban_pro ~> 1.4.11 to ~> 1.5.0
- oban_web ~> 2.10.2 to ~> 2.11
In my current task, I’m trying to upgrade 3 oban packages and it works fine locally. However, when starting application in a remote (testing) environment, it failed to start.
I have reverted oban versions and the app starts normally in test env. Remove cache in test env doesn’t help. We have postgresql 14.17
Any help on what’s happening? Please let me know if you need anything @sorentwo @sorenone . Thanks!
This error is logged in the remote server.
{"time":"2025-09-16T11:24:52.614Z","severity":"error",
"message":"GenServer {Oban.Registry, {Oban, {:producer, \"migration\"}}} terminating\n** (ArgumentError) errors were found at the given arguments:
* 1st argument: the table identifier does not refer to an existing ETS table
(stdlib 7.0.2) :ets.select(:pro_ack_tab_0, [{{{:ack, \"Oban\", \"migration\", :_}, :_, :_, :_}, [], [:\"$_\"]}])
(oban_pro 1.5.5) lib/oban/pro/engines/smart.ex:1012: Oban.Pro.Engines.Smart.get_acks/1
(oban_pro 1.5.5) lib/oban/pro/engines/smart.ex:552: Oban.Pro.Engines.Smart.fetch_jobs/3
(oban 2.19.4) lib/oban/engine.ex:252: anonymous fn/4 in Oban.Engine.fetch_jobs/3
(oban 2.19.4) lib/oban/engine.ex:387: anonymous fn/3 in Oban.Engine.with_span/4
(telemetry 1.3.0) /__w/balanced/balanced/deps/telemetry/src/telemetry.erl:324: :telemetry.span/3
(oban 2.19.4) lib/oban/queue/producer.ex:253: Oban.Queue.Producer.start_jobs/1
(oban 2.19.4) lib/oban/queue/producer.ex:244: anonymous fn/2 in Oban.Queue.Producer.dispatch/1 Last message: :dispatch
State: %Oban.Queue.Producer{conf: %Oban.Config{dispatch_cooldown: 250, engine: Oban.Pro.Engines.Smart, get_dynamic_repo: nil, insert_trigger: true, log: false, name: Oban, node: \"pr-4147-84588b87fc-cbwqg\", notifier: {Oban.Notifiers.Postgres, []}, peer: {Oban.Peers.Database, []}, plugins: [{Oban.Pro.Plugins.DynamicPruner, [state_overrides: [cancelled: {:max_age, {1, :hour}}, completed: {:max_age, {1, :month}}, discarded: {:max_age, {3, :month}}]]}, {Oban.Pro.Plugins.DynamicLifeline, []}], prefix: \"public\", queues: [...truncated...], repo: Balanced.Repo, shutdown_grace_period: 15000, stage_interval: 1000, testing: :disabled}, foreman: {:via, Registry, {Oban.Registry, {Oban, {:foreman, \"migration\"}}}}, meta: %Oban.Pro.Producer{__meta__: #Ecto.Schema.Metadata<:loaded, \"public\", \"oban_producers\">, uuid: \"01995245-2893-7c51-af4c-60a4400ca0a4\", name: \"Oban\", node: \"pr-4147-84588b87fc-cbwqg\", queue: \"migration\", started_at: ~U[2025-09-16 11:24:48.147420Z], updated_at: ~U[2025-09-16 11:24:48.147424Z], ack_async: true, ack_tab: :pro_ack_tab_0, refresh_interval: 30000, xact_delay: 1000, xact_retry: 5, xact_timeout: 30000, meta: %Oban.Pro.Producer.Meta{local_limit: 1, paused: false, shutdown_started_at: nil, global_limit: nil, rate_limit: nil}}, name: {:via, Registry, {Oban.Registry, {Oban, {:producer, \"migration\"}}}}, dispatch_timer: #Reference<0.534427290.921698305.255298>, refresh_timer: #Reference<0.534427290.921698305.253530>, dispatch_cooldown: 250, running: %{}}",
"metadata":{"error":{"initial_call":null,"reason":"** (ArgumentError) errors were found at the given arguments:\n\n * 1st argument: the table identifier does not refer to an existing ETS table\n\n (stdlib 7.0.2) :ets.select(:pro_ack_tab_0, [{{{:ack, \"Oban\", \"migration\", :_}, :_, :_, :_}, [], [:\"$_\"]}])\n (oban_pro 1.5.5) lib/oban/pro/engines/smart.ex:1012: Oban.Pro.Engines.Smart.get_acks/1\n (oban_pro 1.5.5) lib/oban/pro/engines/smart.ex:552: Oban.Pro.Engines.Smart.fetch_jobs/3\n (oban 2.19.4) lib/oban/engine.ex:252: anonymous fn/4 in Oban.Engine.fetch_jobs/3\n (oban 2.19.4) lib/oban/engine.ex:387: anonymous fn/3 in Oban.Engine.with_span/4\n (telemetry 1.3.0) /__w/balanced/balanced/deps/telemetry/src/telemetry.erl:324: :telemetry.span/3\n (oban 2.19.4) lib/oban/queue/producer.ex:253: Oban.Queue.Producer.start_jobs/1\n (oban 2.19.4) lib/oban/queue/producer.ex:244: anonymous fn/2 in Oban.Queue.Producer.dispatch/1\n"},"error_logger":{"tag":"error","report_cb":"&:gen_server.format_log/1"},"function":"error_info/7","line":2785,"module":"gen_server","time":1758021892614425,"file":"gen_server.erl","domain":"[:otp]","erl_level":"error"}}
▸ Evaluation failed with: errors were found at the given arguments:
▸ * 1st argument: the table identifier does not refer to an existing ETS table
Our config looks like
config :myapp, Oban,
repo: Myapp.Repo,
engine: Oban.Pro.Engines.Smart,
plugins: [
Oban.Pro.Plugins.DynamicLifeline,
{
Oban.Pro.Plugins.DynamicPruner,
state_overrides: [
cancelled: {:max_age, {1, :hour}},
completed: {:max_age, {1, :month}},
discarded: {:max_age, {3, :month}}
]
}
],
queues: [
default: 1,
other_jobs: 1,
... truncated
],
dispatch_cooldown: 250
And all children are started in application file
def start(_type, _args) do
maybe_install_ecto_dev_logger()
Appsignal.Phoenix.LiveView.attach()
children =
maybe_cluster_supervisor() ++
cache_supervisors() ++
[
MyAppWeb.Endpoint,
MyApp.PromEx,
MyApp.Repo,
MyApp.Vault,
MyAppWeb.Telemetry,
{Phoenix.PubSub, [name: MyApp.PubSub]},
{Task.Supervisor, name: MyApp.TaskSupervisor},
{Oban, oban_config()}
]
Oban.Telemetry.attach_default_logger()
Oban.Web.Telemetry.attach_default_logger()
opts = [strategy: :one_for_one, name: MyApp.Supervisor]
Supervisor.start_link(children, opts)
end
defp oban_config do
config = Application.fetch_env!(:myapp, Oban)
if config[:plugins] do
Keyword.update!(config, :plugins, fn plugins ->
Keyword.put(plugins, Oban.Pro.Plugins.DynamicCron, crontab: periodical_jobs(), timezone: "Etc/UTC")
end)
else
config
end
end
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First 3 of 3 Posts
sorentwo
How are you upgrading the system? Is there any chance you have old code running in that environment? The stack trace you shared indicates that an ETS table is missing, but that’s started by the
oban_proapplication itself and they can’t just disappear without the whole application having an issue.Also, since you rolled back, did you follow the upgrade guide for Pro v1.5, namely, did you run the migrations?
h9e
Hey @sorentwo
We did follow closely to the upgrade guide for Pro v1.5. But there was two issues during running migration locally and we found a workaround for that. I’m not sure that’s related to my original question, but i will post them below.
First issue, one of our migration (priv/repo/migrations/20250415122526_remove_fb_cron_jobs.exs) back in April 2025 has this error
the migration
Our workaround is to comment the execute/1 part out.
Second issue locally
after investigation, we tried to prune manually completed jobs that caused this constraint violation, with another migration (below) that will run before the
upgrade_oban_promigration. Note: we found our unique job config was wrong and also fix that to prevent future unique index violation.After 2 issues resolved locally,
upgrade_oban_prorun successfully withmix ecto.migrate. Then we had the current issue in the original post with remote server.We can start each test environment per PR, server works totally fine for all PRs except this one with oban upgrades. As mentioned, we removed also caching for CI/CD, but it didn’t help.
At this point, we couldn’t find anyone asking similar issue, maybe there’s something with our data specific? Or issue related to the wrong unique setup? But we still cannot think of how ETS table is missing at this point
sorentwo
Based on the issues you shared, no, it looks like those issues wouldn’t be related to the problem you’re seeing. I wanted to confirm that the proper tables were there and there wasn’t a chance that the
oban_proapplication shut down.Sorry, this is the first we’ve heard of this issue. It definitely wouldn’t have anything to do with your unique setup, or anything related to the actual jobs.
Will you try confirming a few things? First, that the Pro application is running with
Application.start(:oban_pro). If it’s running, you’ll get an:already_startederror.Then, if it’s there, double check whether the tables are running: