AWS AMI Meilisearch-v1.14.0-Debian-11 fails to start meilisearch service

[roparz]

Description

Meilisearch AWS last AMI (ami-039d51adc61823600, Meilisearch-v1.14.0-Debian-11) fails to start meilisearch service after setup.

Expected behavior

Meilisearch service is expected to start correctly when running it on last AWS AMI

~$ systemctl status meilisearch.service
● meilisearch.service - Meilisearch
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/meilisearch.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Thu 2024-07-25 17:26:14 UTC; 10 months 0 days ago
   Main PID: 5284 (meilisearch)
      Tasks: 7 (limit: 4624)
     Memory: 851.5M
        CPU: 4h 29min 48.059s
     CGroup: /system.slice/meilisearch.service
             └─5284 /usr/bin/meilisearch --db-path /var/lib/meilisearch/data.ms --env production --dump-dir /var/opt/meilisearch/dumps

Current behavior

It ends with following error

~$ systemctl status meilisearch.service
● meilisearch.service - Meilisearch
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/meilisearch.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Mon 2025-05-26 10:49:25 UTC; 1min 50s ago
    Process: 891 ExecStart=/usr/bin/meilisearch --db-path /var/lib/meilisearch/data.ms --env production --dump-dir /var/opt/meilisearch/dumps (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
   Main PID: 891 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
        CPU: 1ms

May 26 10:49:25 ip-10-2-0-116 systemd[1]: Started Meilisearch.
May 26 10:49:25 ip-10-2-0-116 meilisearch[891]: /usr/bin/meilisearch: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.35' not found (required by /usr/bin/meilisearch)
May 26 10:49:25 ip-10-2-0-116 meilisearch[891]: /usr/bin/meilisearch: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.32' not found (required by /usr/bin/meilisearch)
May 26 10:49:25 ip-10-2-0-116 meilisearch[891]: /usr/bin/meilisearch: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.33' not found (required by /usr/bin/meilisearch)
May 26 10:49:25 ip-10-2-0-116 meilisearch[891]: /usr/bin/meilisearch: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.34' not found (required by /usr/bin/meilisearch)
May 26 10:49:25 ip-10-2-0-116 systemd[1]: meilisearch.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
May 26 10:49:25 ip-10-2-0-116 systemd[1]: meilisearch.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

Environment (please complete the following information):

• OS: Debian GNU/Linux
• Meilisearch version: v.1.14.0
• AWS Region : eu-west-3
• Instance type : t3.medium
• AMI ID : ami-039d51adc61823600
• AMI Name : Meilisearch-v1.14.0-Debian-11

[bvanzile]

Having the exact same issue on the lastest: ami-0ba1e627c37268f06. Are there older, working AMIs selectable somehow? This is the only one that gets searched when creating a new EC2 instance.

May 28 02:13:11 ip-172-31-15-26 systemd[1]: Started Meilisearch.
May 28 02:13:11 ip-172-31-15-26 meilisearch[1202]: /usr/bin/meilisearch: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6: version `GLIB>
May 28 02:13:11 ip-172-31-15-26 meilisearch[1202]: /usr/bin/meilisearch: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIB>
May 28 02:13:11 ip-172-31-15-26 meilisearch[1202]: /usr/bin/meilisearch: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIB>
May 28 02:13:11 ip-172-31-15-26 meilisearch[1202]: /usr/bin/meilisearch: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIB>
May 28 02:13:11 ip-172-31-15-26 systemd[1]: meilisearch.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
May 28 02:13:11 ip-172-31-15-26 systemd[1]: meilisearch.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

[jsjexpert]

I just had the same issue deploying to Digital Ocean. It seems like Debian 11, upon which the build is based has GLIBC 2.3.1 which is too old.
I was able to update GLIBC following the info found here: StackOverflow:

Add the following lines to /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian sid main
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian sid main

When that's done, run apt -t sid install libc6 which will run through the upgrade procedure.

Once complete, you can restart the Meilisearch service with systemctl restart meilisearch

Like I said, this was on a Digital Ocean droplet, but the steps should be pretty similar for AWS.

[curquiza]

Hello here, do you have the same issue with v1.15 now?

[roparz]

Hi, v1.15 does not seem to be available in eu-west-3.

[aduverger]

Hello @curquiza , could you please either fix the 1.14 AMI on AWS, or release 1.15 ?
This in kinda blocking right now 😅
Thank you

[aduverger]

@jsjexpert I would not recommend upgrading GLIBC this way, as it would introduce Application Binary Interface incompatibilities.

I think the simplest solution - if you want to go with the AMI - is to downgrade the meilisearch version to 1.13.0, which is compatible with Debian 11.

If you want to access the latest meili version, you can start from a fresh Debian/Ubuntu instance and set up meilisearch yourself with a shell script.
That's what I ended up doing, at least then you are not relying on an AMI \o/
All the required install scripts can be found in this repo.

[curquiza]

Hello here, I'm sorry to announce that the Meili team will no longer maintain the AWS AMI for Meilisearch

Cf the communication on our README

⚠️ We are no longer maintaining or publishing the official Meilisearch one-click deploy images on AWS Marketplace and DigitalOcean Marketplace.

If you are currently using these images, to keep receiving the latest features and updates:

• You can either deploy Meilisearch yourself (Docker, binary, or Helm chart)
• Or use Meilisearch Cloud, which offers flexible pricing (resource-based or usage-based). With Meilisearch Cloud, deployment and scaling are fully managed, and updates are applied automatically — making it the easiest way to always stay up to date.

➡️ For larger companies or teams with specific needs (including migration support), you can book a meeting with our sales team at sales@meilisearch.com.

💡 If you are running Meilisearch on your own infrastructure but need support for specific features, we also offer commercial licenses. Contact us to learn more at sales@meilisearch.com.

📩 If you wish to maintain an official image of Meilisearch on AWS or DigitalOcean, please reach out at bonjour@meilisearch.com — we’ll be happy to accommodate.
This repository is now archived and will no longer receive updates.