Troubleshooting

First steps

If you can't find an answer to your problem below - please check the following (in this order):

• Check the log.txt file that is created and placed in the installation folder for Lime BI.
• Search for answers on the Lime CRM Forum.
• Lime BI is a white labelled version of Metabase. Please read their documentation if you run into troubles.
• Visit the Metabase forum.

Common problems

The Lime BI service does not start after installation. What to do?

This is most likely due to the password for the user running the Lime BI service being typed incorrectly during the installation process.

To verify and fix the passwords:

• serviceuser: Go to Services, scroll to Lime BI, right-click and select Properties. Go to the Log On tab and paste in the correct password.
• postgres: Search for "Environment Variables" in the start menu and click on "Edit the system environment variables". Click on "Environment Variables" and find the variable MB_DB_PASSWORD under System variables. Update the value with the correct password.

You can also check in Services if the Lime BI service appeared and is running.

The installation of Postgres failed with the following error - The database cluster initialisation failed

This could be either due to:

1. Not enough access rights when installing PostgresSQL. In this case - make sure that you are running the installation of PostgresSQL as an administrator

2. Password for the postgres user includes unsupported characters (such as Å, Ä, Ö). Please update the password to not include those kinds of characters.

The lime-bi sync command prints the error "Failed to sync databases. Are you sure you entered the correct url, username and password?"

Check if the application_config.yaml has a site_url value under config.lime-bi, and remove it before running the "lime-bi sync" command again. Possible to add it back after the sync command is finished.

The desktop/webclient shows the message "Not found" in the view when loading a Lime BI dashboard

This could be due to a configuration error. Make sure that you have configured the correct site_url for Lime BI. The site_url should look something like this: https://customer-domain/lime-bi.

Adding Lime CRM database in Metabase times out on-premise

There are several reasons for why Metabase might not be able to connect to the SQL Server.

Metabase requires the SQL Server to allow SQL Login, but in some cases that is limited to Windows Authentication logins

Make your customer aware of that and enable SQL authentication via SQL Management Studio (SQL Server -> Properties -> Security -> Server authentication: SQL Server and Windows Authentication mode). Afterwards restart the SQL Server.

Your database user login doesn't work

Make sure that you can connect to the SQL Server via SQL Login via SQL Management Studio with the exact same credentials that you want to use from Metabase.

The SQL Server hostname isn't localhost

Open up the desktop app SQL Server Configuration Manager. Click on SQL Server Services and find the correct instance. Open the instance's properties through a right click, switch to the service tab. Make sure to use the same hostname in Metabase as listed here.

integratedSecurity is not supported

integratedSecurity=true is set automatically when windows_auth is true (the default). If integrated security causes issues, set windows_auth: false in config.lime-bi and use SQL Server authentication instead.

The customer might have a TLS setting "Forced Encryption"

trustServerCertificate=true is included automatically when windows_auth is true. This section only applies if windows_auth is false — in that case, add trustServerCertificate=true to the JDBC additional-options in the Metabase database connection manually.

Port 1433 is blocked

Even when Metabase and the SQL Server are installed on the same machine, the SQL server port has to be open for Metabase to be able to connect.

SQL Server uses a dynamic port

Check the TCP/IP Properties in the SQL Server Configuration Manager. It might list a port under "TCP Dynamic Ports" (see image below). Use that number as the port in the Metabase configuration.

Your Metabase and SQL Server combination requires a different version of the JDBC driver

Follow the instructions below to update the driver.

Saving a database connection throws error "this driver is not configured for integrated authentication"

In some cases the Metabase and SQL Server combination requires a different version of the JDBC driver than provided in installation package, which means that you have to update the driver manually:

1. this error produced a log entry that says exactly which version Metabase expects. Look for Caused by: java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: no mssql-jdbc_auth-<VERSION> in java.library.path: [<LIME BI INSTALLATION PATH>\jdk-21.0.9+10\bin...]
2. write down the version from the logs and find that exact version here
3. download the driver as zip
4. unzip it and copy the dll from the auth folder to <LIME BI INSTALLATION PATH>\jdk-21.0.9+10\bin* (with the original name)
5. restart Metabase
6. saving the database connection should work now

Info

<LIME INSTALLATION PATH> typically is C:\Lime BI

Upgrading Lime BI fails due to: "Failed to unzip jdk"

Old files are blocking from downloading the correct new files.

1. Remove the file C:\Users\[COMPUTER-USERNAME]\Appdata\Local\Temp\lime-bi.zip.

2. Remove the folder C:\Users\[COMPUTER-USERNAME]\Appdata\Local\Temp\lime-bi.

3. Finally, re-run the installer.

I'm getting "502 Bad Gateway" errors

This error can occur when the service running the PostgreSQL instance is turned off. Make sure it is running before continuing the troubleshooting.
Example of the service name: "postgresql-x64-13 - PostgreSQL Server 13"

License activation fails due to blocked domain

To identify which domain needs to be unblocked:

1. Open <servername>/lime-bi in a browser, click the ⚙️ up to the right and click Admin settings.
2. Go to Settings, License and Billing.
3. Make sure the license key is entered and click Activate.
4. If the request fails, go to Troubleshooting, Logs and scroll to the bottom. The log entry should state which domain was called.
5. Open that domain in the firewall.
6. Click Activate again to validate the license.

"Bad Message 431" displayed instead of dashboard

If a "Bad Message 431" error is displayed instead of a dashboard, Metabase's web server Jetty needs to be configured to allow larger header sizes. This can be set using the environment variable MB_JETTY_REQUEST_HEADER_SIZE, with a recommended value of 16384 (16 kB is usually sufficient).