Remix + Postgres "Server has closed the connection"

JavaScript
1

I have a Remix app with Postgres and everything works great, but when things are idle for a bit loading the app will error out with a “Server has closed the connection.”.

I am not sure what I need to do to prevent this error from happening. Is it a matter of scaling things up or is there an easier fix?

2

Hi,
Which Postgres Server/Service are you using for your app?
How do you configure your Database for your app?
How does you fly.toml file(s) look like?

3

Thanks @thomasf42

I am using the shared-1x-cpu@256MB postgres. I just used the cli to create and attach the DB. Here is my toml file:

app = 'bmn-events'
primary_region = 'dfw'

[deploy]
  release_command = "npx prisma migrate deploy"
  
[build]

[http_service]
  internal_port = 8080
  force_https = true
  auto_stop_machines = 'stop'
  auto_start_machines = true
  min_machines_running = 0
  processes = ['app']

[[vm]]
  memory = '1gb'
  cpu_kind = 'shared'
  cpus = 1
  memory_mb = 1024
4

and where do you see this error pop-up? in the fly app running the remix app or in the logs of the postgres cluster you created?
Could you share the cli command you used to create the postgres db?

You could try to out to set autostop of your postgres db cluster to falsefly machines update --autostop=false --autostart --app <postgres-db-cluster-name> on all machines to prevent them to stop or suspend.

In your remix app, how are you connectcing to the postgres db? Make sure the client has some kind of reconnection / pooling logic built-in as well

1 Like
5

Thanks again @thomasf42 for getting back to me.

I see the following error in my logs.

2025-03-26 10:46:04.459	
Server has closed the connection.
2025-03-26 10:46:04.459	
Invalid `prisma.application.count()` invocation:
2025-03-26 10:46:04.459	
PrismaClientKnownRequestError:
2025-03-26 10:45:49.723	
GET /admin/vendor 200 - - 2339.573 ms

So it looks like the DB needs to be booted back up.

I used the command npx fly postgres create --name <db-name> to create the database.

The app uses prisma to connect with the following:

datasource db {
  provider = "postgresql"
  url      = env("DATABASE_URL")
}

I will try these commands and see if that fixes it!

6

Looks like I still get the error popping up. Prisma just threw this

Can't reach database server at `bmn-events-db2.flycast:5432`

Please make sure your database server is running at `bmn-events-db2.flycast:5432`.

It will have that issue, but then when the user refreshes it works fine.

7

If you want something to Just Work :registered: then paying for a managed database may be a whole bunch easier. Myself, I am trying Supabase, and I reckon I can get by on the free tier initially. It then bumps up to 25USD/month for the next tier, which should be fine for most commercial enterprises.

8

Interesting, since its using a .flycast tld, the fly-proxy should start up your database machine when there is a new connection made to it.
Have you disabled autostop for all machines of the postgres db (fly machines update --autostop=false ...)?

Maybe its work trying to create a new postgres cluster with the same command but dont create a “development” cluster?