[Koha] User instance-koha already exists

Wagner, Alexander alexander.wagner at desy.de
Fri May 3 19:05:24 NZST 2024


Hi!

> Koha v. 22.05.16
> 
> Removed an instance
> $koha-remove instance
> 
> Then I tried to create an instance with the same name
> 
> $koha-create --create-db instance
> 
> It displayed the following message "User instance-koha already exists"
> 
> How can I resolve this?

As I do this quite a bit during the setup procedures in our migration, I found that this usually seems to result from a job that did not yet finish when the instance is removed or that is just running interactively and I forgot about it. `koha-shell`, `koha-mysql` in some other tmux-window come to mind. (Usually, during removal I also get some complaint further down the stream as well.)

Anyway, what you have left is a _Unix_ user named like your instance. So, `deluser` (on Debian) is your friend to get rid of the user once all jobs of said user are finished/closed.


Btw: The following function is from the j2k-setup script. Feel free to cannibalize what you need to avoid this issue in the future.

```bash

koharemove() {
    echo "************************************************************"
    echo "*                  Start   R E M O V E                     *"
    echo "************************************************************"
    # The following needs root rights!

    # Remove a koha-instance from the system
    # Mind that we need to stop all processes running by the instances
    # user _first_ or we end up in some messy state
    j2kshowconfig
    for (( i=5; i > 0; i-- )); do
        echo -n " $i "
        sleep 1
    done
    echo -n "                                       [ GO ] "
    echo ""

    echo "Disabling sites and shutting down ..."
    sudo service apache2 stop

    echo "Killing common interactive shells ..."
    sudo killall -9 koha-mysql
    sudo killall -9 koha-shell

    echo "Stopping koha services ..."
    sudo koha-zebra   --stop $kohalibname
    sudo koha-indexer --stop $kohalibname
    sudo koha-worker  --stop $kohalibname

    echo -n "Waiting for background jobs to settle down"
    for (( i=10; i > 0; i-- )); do
        echo -n " $i "
        sleep 1
    done
    echo ""

    sudo service memcached stop
    sudo a2dissite $kohalibname

    echo "Removing $kohalibname ..."
    sudo koha-remove $kohalibname

    echo "Removing j2k created files and dirs ..."
    sudo rm /usr/share/keyrings/koha-keyring.gpg
    sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/koha.list
    sudo rm -rf $j2kbin
    sudo rm -rf $j2ketc
    sudo rm -rf $j2kopac
    sudo rm -rf $kohaopac/htdocs/j2ktheme

    # echo '(Re)starting servers with default settings ...'
    sudo service memcached start
    sudo service apache2 start
}

```

-- 
Kind regards,

Alexander Wagner

Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY
Library and Documentation

Building 01d Room OG1.444
Notkestr. 85
22607 Hamburg

phone:  +49-40-8998-1758
e-mail: alexander.wagner at desy.de


More information about the Koha mailing list