# Issue with upstream **URL:** \ **Category:** NGINX\ **Created:** [November 16, 2010, 2:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/issue-with-upstream/199189 "2010-11-16T14:17:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![okkezSS](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/85f322/32.png) [@okkezSS](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/okkezSS)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 2:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/issue-with-upstream/199189/1 "2010-11-16T14:17:32Z")
I’m having some problems configuring upstream servers with localhost backup (error page) upstream backend1 { server 1.2.3.4; server 2.3.4.5; server localhost backup; } upstream backend2 { server 3.4.5.6; server 4.5.6.7; } Works, but: upstream backend1 { server 1.2.3.4; server 2.3.4.5; server localhost backup; } upstream backend2 { server 3.4.5.6; server 4.5.6.7; server localhost backup; } Causes: Testing nginx configuration: [emerg]: invalid parameter “backup” Is this a bug? Cheers Phil. ---
**Author:** ![phoyce](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@phoyce](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/phoyce)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 3:29pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/issue-with-upstream/199189/2 "2010-11-16T15:29:07Z")
Problem solved, strangely enough the order in which my servers are loaded seams to trigger this error, it’s actually nothing to do with the upstream settings but forcing one of my server configs to be loaded last resolved the issue. On 16 November 2010 13:16, Phil B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > ``` > server 3.4.5.6; > > ``` > > Is this a bug? > > Cheers > Phil. – Phil B. Developer Techlightenment 3.08 Tea Building | 56 Shoreditch High St | London | E1 6JJ t: +44 (0) 8445814444 m: +44 (0) 7711117117 e: [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) [www.techlightenment.com](http://www.techlightenment.com) _Social Media Developer positions available. See [http://bit.ly/afmRt4](http://bit.ly/afmRt4) for info_ ---
**Author:** ![phoyce](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@phoyce](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/phoyce)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 3:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/issue-with-upstream/199189/3 "2010-11-16T15:50:27Z")
Hello! On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 01:16:25PM +0000, Phil B. wrote: > ``` > server 3.4.5.6; > > ``` > > Is this a bug? > Most likely you used backend2 somewhere in proxy\_pass before > defining upstream backend2. This is not generally supported and > and shouldn’t be allowed, but happens to “work” (though with > several unexpected side effects) for now. Attached patch makes sure such configuration like server { location / { proxy\_pass backend; … } … } upstream backend { … } will generate “upstream “backend” defined too late” error during configuration parsing. Maxim D. ---
**Author:** ![phoyce](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@phoyce](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/phoyce)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 7:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/issue-with-upstream/199189/4 "2010-11-16T19:25:53Z")
Hello! On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 03:02:00PM +0000, Phil B. wrote: > I had actually prefixed upstream and localhost 000 and everything else 100 > to force them to load in the correct order. > On 1 particular domain it would throw that error unless it was loaded last, > hence just giving it a prefix 101 solved the issue. > Bit strange! Addition prefixes isn’t going to do anything good as nginx doesn’t sort included files (I assume you used something like “include /path/\*.conf”) and they are loaded in unspecified order (as filesystem returns them). You have to manually preserve correct order, i.e. use something like include /path/to/generic/includes/_.conf; include /path/to/virtual/hosts/_.conf; Maxim D. p.s. Please do not top-post. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![phoyce](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@phoyce](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/phoyce)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 4:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/issue-with-upstream/199189/5 "2010-11-16T16:03:00Z")
I had actually prefixed upstream and localhost 000 and everything else 100 to force them to load in the correct order. On 1 particular domain it would throw that error unless it was loaded last, hence just giving it a prefix 101 solved the issue. Bit strange! On 16 November 2010 14:49, Maxim D. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > ``` > > server 2.3.4.5; > > > > ``` > > > > upstream backend1 { > > upstream backend { > [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > [mailman.nginx.org archive](http://nginx.org/mailman/listinfo/nginx) – Phil B. Developer Techlightenment 3.08 Tea Building | 56 Shoreditch High St | London | E1 6JJ t: +44 (0) 8445814444 m: +44 (0) 7711117117 e: [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) [www.techlightenment.com](http://www.techlightenment.com) _Social Media Developer positions available. See [http://bit.ly/afmRt4](http://bit.ly/afmRt4) for info_ ---
**Author:** ![phoyce](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@phoyce](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/phoyce)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 7:39pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/issue-with-upstream/199189/6 "2010-11-16T19:39:03Z")
On 16 Nov 2010 18h24 WET, [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Addition prefixes isn’t going to do anything good as nginx doesn’t > sort included files (I assume you used something like “include > /path/\*.conf”) and they are loaded in unspecified order (as > filesystem returns them). > > You have to manually preserve correct order, i.e. use something > like > > include /path/to/generic/includes/_.conf; > include /path/to/virtual/hosts/_.conf; Well that’s interesting. I was under the (wrong) impression that in fact it operated like in Apache. Where there’s a 000-default vhost config file in Debian that is a symlink created when enabling the site. I have a 000-default file that just returns a 444 when the Host header doesn’t match any of the server\_name directives. I guess that I should be loading that file explicitly before all other. include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/000-default include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/[a-z]\* Right? Thanks, — appa ---
**Author:** ![phoyce](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@phoyce](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/phoyce)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 8:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/issue-with-upstream/199189/7 "2010-11-16T20:02:52Z")
Hello! On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 06:32:19PM +0000, António P. P. Almeida wrote: > > > strange! > > > include /path/to/virtual/hosts/_.conf; > > > include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/000-default > > > include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/[a-z]_ > > Right? Alternative solution is to use “listen … default;” (or “listen … default\_server;” which is the same) in a server which should be default on a given socket. > **[How nginx processes a request](http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/request_processing.html#how_to_prevent_undefined_server_names)** > > nginx first decides which server should process the request. Let’s start with a simple configuration where all three virtual servers listen on port \*:80: Maxim D. ---
**Author:** ![phoyce](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@phoyce](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/phoyce)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 9:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/issue-with-upstream/199189/8 "2010-11-16T21:15:45Z")
If you order them 000, 001, 002 that is the same order as the filesystem returns: phil@proxy:~$ ls -l /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/ total 0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 28 2010-11-12 22:56 000-l\* lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 27 2010-11-13 00:19 000-u\* lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 26 2010-11-13 02:06 100-p\* lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 29 2010-11-13 00:20 101-d\* lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 33 2010-11-15 20:30 200-p\* lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 46 2010-11-15 20:30 201-s\* lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 50 2010-11-16 14:11 202-p\* Maybe not the case on all OS? This solution worked perfectly for me, Ubuntu 10.10 server 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![phoyce](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@phoyce](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/phoyce)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/issue-with-upstream/199189/9 "2010-11-16T21:34:05Z")
Hello! On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 08:14:34PM +0000, Phil B. wrote: > lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 46 2010-11-15 20:30 201-s\* > lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 50 2010-11-16 14:11 202-p\* ls returns sorted results, see here: > **[ls](https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/ls.html)** > Maybe not the case on all OS? This solution worked perfectly for me, Ubuntu > 10.10 server 🙂 Some filesystems may return sorted results, but it’s unlikely to be so in your case. Maxim D. ---
**Author:** ![phoyce](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@phoyce](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/phoyce)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2011, 9:01am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/issue-with-upstream/199189/10 "2011-01-06T09:01:22Z")
Hello! On Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 05:49:16PM +0300, Maxim D. wrote: […] > Most likely you used backend2 somewhere in proxy\_pass before > defining upstream backend2. This is not generally supported and > and shouldn’t be allowed, but happens to “work” (though with > several unexpected side effects) for now. Disregard this (and patch). Actually, the only thing which won’t work as expected is an attempt to redefine unix socket with upstream{} block. New patch attached. Maxim D. ---
**Author:** ![phoyce](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@phoyce](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/phoyce)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2010, 1:38pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/issue-with-upstream/199189/11 "2010-11-17T13:38:09Z")
You might be right, find returns different order. I guess to be safe, I’ll move the upstream declarations into a new folder ‘sites-enabled-upstream’ and stick that first in nginx.conf