Service 2026.2.0 will not start

Support
1

1. What is the issue? Please be detailed.
When trying the latest release of odkcentral v2026.2.0 the service container will not start. It generates the following error message:

 service + ./start-odk.sh
 service !!!
 service !!! You have the DB_SSL variable defined (in your .env file, probably).
 service !!! This variable is no longer supported from Central 2026.1 onwards.
 service !!! There is a new way of configuring SSL for your database, please see:
 service !!!
 service !!!   https://docs.getodk.org/central-install-digital-ocean/#using-a-custom-database-server
 service !!!
 service !!! Please refer to the Central 2026.1.0 release notes for more information on this change.
 service !!!
 service !!! ODK Central backend will not start until this issue is resolved.
 service !!!

2. What steps can we take to reproduce this issue?
Start the odkcentral service with a connection to a postgres database and make sure the DB_SSL variable does not exist anymore

3. What have you tried to fix the issue?
I have removed the DB_SSL variable from my environment but the issue persists

❯ kubectl iexec service
# env | grep DB
DB_NAME=odkcentral
DB_PASSWORD=xxxxxx
DB_HOST=hostname
DB_USER=odkcentra

possible reason for error

I think that the startup.sh script is not really correct it is still looking for the variable DB_SSL with a value of "null". If the variable does not exist it will fail and not start odkcentral at all

I suggest to use something like:

if [[ -n "${DB_SSL}" ]] && [[ "${DB_SSL}" != "null" ]]; then
2

Hi Tino,

Can you confirm if there are local changes to your docker-compose.yml?

Or if you're not using Docker Compose at all :upside_down_face:

If you're not using Docker Compose, can you try setting DB_SSL to the string "null", and see if that works around the problem for now?

3

Hello @alxndrsn,

We are running it on our kubernetes cluster, so no docker-compose.yml :wink:

setting DB_SSL not "null" will work, but i might be something to consider for the next releases of ODKCentral

4

:+1: I think it will be - should be fixed by https://github.com/getodk/central/pull/2064