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There has been a critical error on this website. - Wordpress Container

David Carrick 0 Reputation points
2025-07-16T13:58:35.63+00:00

We are hosting a microsoft managed wordpress container. Recently it has failed with "There has been a critical error on this website"

Container logs are not particularly helpful. I can't seem to open a ticket for some reason. We are under and azure sponsorship for non-profits.

``2025-07-16T13:32:45.7591557Z 2025-07-16 13:32:45,758 INFO success: unison-cleanup-service entered RUNNING state, process has stayed up for > than 1 seconds (startsecs)

2025-07-16T13:33:29.9947057Z 2025/07/16 13:33:29 [error] 160#160: *11 open() "/home/site/temp-root/hostingstart_xmlrpc.html" failed (2: No such file or directory), client: 169.254.130.1, server: _, request: "POST /xmlrpc.php HTTP/1.1", host: "canadianaviationmuseum.ca", referrer: "https://canadianaviationmuseum.ca"

2025-07-16T13:35:46.0506161Z 2025-07-16 13:35:46,040 INFO exited: initial-filesync (exit status 0; expected)

2025-07-16T13:43:27.2148113Z 2025/07/16 13:43:27 [error] 1572#1572: *29 open() "/home/site/temp-root/hostingstart_xmlrpc.html" failed (2: No such file or directory), client: 169.254.130.1, server: _, request: "POST /xmlrpc.php HTTP/1.1", host: "canadianaviationmuseum.ca"

2025-07-16T13:43:32.2269766Z 2025/07/16 13:43:32 [error] 1572#1572: *29 open() "/home/site/temp-root/hostingstart_xmlrpc.html" failed (2: No such file or directory), client: 169.254.130.1, server: _, request: "POST /xmlrpc.php HTTP/1.1", host: "canadianaviationmuseum.ca"

2025-07-16T13:43:36.1569569Z 2025/07/16 13:43:36 [error] 1572#1572: *29 open() "/home/site/temp-root/hostingstart_xmlrpc.html" failed (2: No such file or directory), client: 169.254.130.1, server: _, request: "POST /xmlrpc.php HTTP/1.1", host: "canadianaviationmuseum.ca"

2025-07-16T13:43:37.039826Z 2025/07/16 13:43:37 [error] 1572#1572: *29 open() "/home/site/temp-root/hostingstart_xmlrpc.html" failed (2: No such file or directory), client: 169.254.130.1, server: _, request: "POST /xmlrpc.php HTTP/1.1", host: "canadianaviationmuseum.ca"

2025-07-16T13:43:40.2604491Z 2025/07/16 13:43:40 [error] 1572#1572: *29 open() "/home/site/temp-root/hostingstart_xmlrpc.html" failed (2: No such file or directory), client: 169.254.130.1, server: _, request: "POST /xmlrpc.php HTTP/1.1", host: "canadianaviationmuseum.ca"

2025-07-16T13:43:42.5002363Z 2025/07/16 13:43:42 [error] 1572#1572: *29 open() "/home/site/temp-root/hostingstart_xmlrpc.html" failed (2: No such file or directory), client: 169.254.130.1, server: _, request: "POST /xmlrpc.php HTTP/1.1", host: "canadianaviationmuseum.ca"

2025-07-16T13:43:42.7516854Z 2025/07/16 13:43:42 [error] 1572#1572: *29 open() "/home/site/temp-root/hostingstart_xmlrpc.html" failed (2: No such file or directory), client: 169.254.130.1, server: _, request: "POST /xmlrpc.php HTTP/1.1", host: "canadianaviationmuseum.ca"

2025-07-16T13:43:45.1646005Z 2025/07/16 13:43:45 [error] 1572#1572: *29 open() "/home/site/temp-root/hostingstart_xmlrpc.html" failed (2: No such file or directory), client: 169.254.130.1, server: _, request: "POST /xmlrpc.php HTTP/1.1", host: "canadianaviationmuseum.ca"

2025-07-16T13:43:57.4866322Z 2025/07/16 13:43:57 [error] 1572#1572: *29 open() "/home/site/temp-root/hostingstart_xmlrpc.html" failed (2: No such file or directory), client: 169.254.130.1, server: _, request: "POST /xmlrpc.php HTTP/1.1", host: "canadianaviationmuseum.ca"

2025-07-16T13:44:01.9365625Z 2025/07/16 13:44:01 [error] 1572#1572: *29 open() "/home/site/temp-root/hostingstart_xmlrpc.html" failed (2: No such file or directory), client: 169.254.130.1, server: _, request: "POST /xmlrpc.php HTTP/1.1", host: "canadianaviationmuseum.ca"

2025-07-16T13:45:30.8911067Z 2025/07/16 13:45:30 [error] 1572#1572: *29 open() "/home/site/temp-root/hostingstart_xmlrpc.html" failed (2: No such file or directory), client: 169.254.130.1, server: _, request: "POST /xmlrpc.php HTTP/1.1", host: "canadianaviationmuseum.ca", referrer: "https://canadianaviationmuseum.ca"

2025-07-16T13:56:20.9986554Z 2025/07/16 13:56:20 [error] 1573#1573: *56 open() "/home/site/temp-root/hostingstart_xmlrpc.html" failed (2: No such file or directory), client: 169.254.130.1, server: _, request: "POST /xmlrpc.php HTTP/1.1", host: "devweb.canadianaviationmuseum.ca"

2025-07-16T13:57:34.5411676Z 2025/07/16 13:57:34 [error] 1573#1573: *56 open() "/home/site/temp-root/hostingstart_xmlrpc.html" failed (2: No such file or directory), client: 169.254.130.1, server: _, request: "POST /xmlrpc.php HTTP/1.1", host: "canadianaviationmuseum.ca", referrer: "https://canadianaviationmuseum.ca"

Azure Container Apps
Azure Container Apps
An Azure service that provides a general-purpose, serverless container platform.

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  1. Anurag Rohikar 285 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2025-08-06T14:31:07.9966667+00:00

    Hello David Carrick, Thanks for reaching out on Microsoft Q&A and really appreciate your patience while we reviewed the details.
    The error message "There has been a critical error on this website" is a generic WordPress message. However, the container logs you provided offer a much clearer picture of the root cause, which is a server-level issue, not a typical WordPress plugin or theme conflict.

    The key log entry is:

    open() "/home/site/temp-root/hostingstart_xmlrpc.html" failed (2: No such file or directory)

    This error shows that your Nginx server, running inside the container, is trying to serve a specific placeholder file (hostingstart_xmlrpc.html) for requests to /xmlrpc.php, but this file does not exist. This indicates a misconfiguration or a corruption in the container's file system or server configuration. A simple restart of the container often resolves such transient issues by forcing the system to re-initialize correctly.

    Recommended Solution Steps

    • Restart the Container

    This is the fastest and most likely solution. Restarting the App Service will force the container to re-initialize its environment and services, which should fix the file pathing error.

    1. Go to the Azure Portal.
    2. Navigate to your App Service.
    3. On the Overview blade, click the Restart button at the top.
    • Restore from a Backup

    If a restart doesn't work, the most reliable next step is to restore your site from a recent, working backup. This will revert your site's files and database to a state before the error occurred.

    1. In the Azure Portal, navigate to your App Service.
    2. Select the Backups blade from the left-hand menu.
    3. Choose a recent backup and click Restore.

    The Kudu console is a powerful tool for inspecting your container's file system and running commands. You can use it to verify the integrity of your WordPress installation and check for missing files.

    1. In the Azure Portal, go to your App Service.
    2. Select Advanced Tools (Kudu) under the "Development Tools" section.
    3. Click Go to open the Kudu interface.
    4. Use the Debug Console to navigate to /home/site/wwwroot/ and verify that the core WordPress files, including xmlrpc.php, are present.

    -Important Note on troubleshooting:

    While general WordPress troubleshooting steps like disabling plugins, changing themes, and increasing PHP memory limits are good practices for generic "critical errors," they are unlikely to fix this specific issue. The log entries clearly point to a server-level file not found error (open() ... failed), which is a container configuration problem, not a PHP-level error from a conflicting plugin.

    -Additional References & Documentation

    1. Debugging in WordPress
      Disclaimer: This document is not maintained by Microsoft. It is being shared solely for your convenience.
    2. Azure App Service - Diagnose and Solve Problems
    3. Kudu - Azure App Service Advanced Tools
    4. Azure App Service Linux - WordPress FAQ
    5. Azure App Service File System Layout

    Let me know if this helps. Happy to assist further. Thank You!

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