Resolved Wordpress not downloadable/installable in different versions on several servers [due to rate-limiting on WP side]

[Bitpalast]

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Wordpress not downloadable/installable in different versions on several servers

PRODUCT, VERSION, OPERATING SYSTEM, ARCHITECTURE

Alma 8.9
Obsidian 18.0.61 #5
WP Toolkit 6.4.1-8525

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION

WP installation fails as described in https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/...load-the-WordPress-package-from-wordpress-org

But as the user the commented on the above article in April, we now also see such failures on new domains or subdomains to existing domains. The issue is not about an existing domain or subdomain.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE

1) Have an empty existing domain or subdomain OR create a new domain or subdomain.
2) Enter WP Toolkit.
3) Select any version of your choice.
4) Click "Install" and start the installation process.

ACTUAL RESULT

Error "Unable to download the WordPress <version> package from https://wordpress.org/. Please try again later or contact the server administrator."

EXPECTED RESULT

Trouble free installation.

ANY ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

I checked what https://wordpress.org/ resolves to:
# ping wordpress.org
PING wordpress.org (198.143.164.252) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from wordpress.org (198.143.164.252): icmp_seq=1 ttl=50 time=117 ms
So obviously the server can be reached. The IP is not blocked here in a firewall (e.g. it is not blocked in iptables). But it is thinkable that WP Toolkit does not actually obtain the packages from wordpress.org. Please clarify.

YOUR EXPECTATIONS FROM PLESK SERVICE TEAM

Help with sorting out

 

[Bitpalast]

Wordpress packages exist in /usr/local/psa/var/modules/wp-toolkit/packages/
as described in https://support.plesk.com/hc/en-us/...he-WordPress-package-from-https-wordpress-org

[root@<user> <user>]# cd /usr/local/psa/var/modules/wp-toolkit/packages/
[root@<user> packages]# ls -la
total 914208
drwxr-xr-x 2 psaadm psaadm     4096 Jun 25 17:25 .
drwxr-xr-x 9 psaadm psaadm     4096 Jun 25 17:26 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 14052039 Jul  6  2022 wordpress-5.5.9.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 16712477 Jun 25  2021 wordpress-5.6.4.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 16866576 Apr 15  2021 wordpress-5.7.1.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 16866701 May 14  2021 wordpress-5.7.2.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 16911934 Sep 27  2021 wordpress-5.7.3.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 16911197 Nov 16  2021 wordpress-5.7.4.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 16865632 Mar 25  2021 wordpress-5.7.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 16494956 Sep 10  2021 wordpress-5.8.1.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 16494675 Nov 16  2021 wordpress-5.8.2.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 16494898 Jan  6  2022 wordpress-5.8.3.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 16494917 Apr  6  2022 wordpress-5.8.4.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 16496057 Jul  7  2023 wordpress-5.8.7.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 16480644 Jul 21  2021 wordpress-5.8.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 20268494 Feb 27  2022 wordpress-5.9.1.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 20270503 Mar 21  2022 wordpress-5.9.2.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 20271907 Apr  6  2022 wordpress-5.9.3.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 20272216 Sep  8  2022 wordpress-5.9.4.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 20675334 Jan 25  2022 wordpress-5.9.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 22771633 Jul 13  2022 wordpress-6.0.1.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 22772803 Sep  8  2022 wordpress-6.0.2.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 22774224 Oct 19  2022 wordpress-6.0.3.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 22766944 May 25  2022 wordpress-6.0.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 24369959 Nov 21  2022 wordpress-6.1.1.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 24370664 May 17  2023 wordpress-6.1.2.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 24365389 Nov  2  2022 wordpress-6.1.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 24498767 May 17  2023 wordpress-6.2.1.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 24498824 Jun 21  2023 wordpress-6.2.2.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 24509219 Oct 17  2023 wordpress-6.2.3.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 24509593 Feb 13 08:10 wordpress-6.2.4.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 24497322 Mar 30  2023 wordpress-6.2.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 24938800 Aug 30  2023 wordpress-6.3.1.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 24962936 Oct 17  2023 wordpress-6.3.2.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 24963309 Feb  3 06:03 wordpress-6.3.3.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 25039463 May 20 09:19 wordpress-6.3.4.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 24937774 Aug 12  2023 wordpress-6.3.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 25955109 Nov 21  2023 wordpress-6.4.1.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 25954973 Dec  6  2023 wordpress-6.4.2.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 25960271 Feb  3 06:04 wordpress-6.4.3.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 25962362 Jun  6 05:04 wordpress-6.4.4.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 26192669 Jun 24 19:17 wordpress-6.5.2.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 26193148 May 14 19:26 wordpress-6.5.3.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 26192290 Jun  6 05:05 wordpress-6.5.4.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 26189860 Apr  7 08:19 wordpress-6.5.zip

 

[Bitpalast]

Re-downloads of the packages work, too, e.g.

wget -O /usr/local/psa/var/modules/wp-toolkit/packages/wordpress-6.5.2.zip https://wordpress.org/latest.zip

runs without issues, demonstrating that the server-to-server connection is not blocked here.

 

[Bitpalast]

There is clearly a bug. I was able to reproduce it here and the solution was to overwrite the existing package files with a new download from wordpress.org. After I re-downloaded the .zip files manually and overwrote the existing files, an installation became possible.

 

[Kaspar@Plesk]

I suspect that there is some restriction or rate limit WP's side that is causing this. Would you be able to open a ticket with support next time you encounter this?

 

[Bitpalast]

I can do so, but that would mean that all the sudden a rate limit to several servers applies while I don't see any significant number of new WP installations on them. Further, why would one manual overwrite of a package (that is already downloaded) solve the problem?

 

[Bitpalast]

Same issue now on another server, and again by running
# wget -O /usr/local/psa/var/modules/wp-toolkit/packages/wordpress-6.5.5.zip https://wordpress.org/latest.zip
once, the latest 6.5.5 Wordpress can be installed afterwards - although the wordpress-6.5.5.zip package was already present in the same path before running the extra command line command.

Let's ask @custer what could be going on there.

 

[Kaspar@Plesk]

The consensus within the WPT team is that it's likely caused by rate limiting on WP's part. But it's interesting to know that this is still happening. We'll keep on eye on it.

 

[Bitpalast]

Same problem on the next server. Here however, the 6.5.5 version package did not yet exist:
.
.
.
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 25955885 Nov 8 2023 wordpress-6.4.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 26190939 Apr 11 16:45 wordpress-6.5.2.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 26193148 May 13 08:17 wordpress-6.5.3.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 26189860 Apr 3 12:10 wordpress-6.5.zip

But downloading it manually worked:

[root@<host> packages]# wget -O /usr/local/psa/var/modules/wp-toolkit/packages/wordpress-6.5.5.zip https://wordpress.org/latest.zip
--2024-06-30 08:19:26-- https://wordpress.org/latest.zip
Resolving wordpress.org (wordpress.org)... 198.143.164.252
Connecting to wordpress.org (wordpress.org)|198.143.164.252|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 26192669 (25M) [application/zip]
Saving to: ‘/usr/local/psa/var/modules/wp-toolkit/packages/wordpress-6.5.5.zip’

/usr/local/psa/var/modules/wp-toolkit/p 100%[===============================================================================>] 24.98M 544KB/s in 48s

2024-06-30 08:20:15 (534 KB/s) - ‘/usr/local/psa/var/modules/wp-toolkit/packages/wordpress-6.5.5.zip’ saved [26192669/26192669]

.
.
.
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 25955885 Nov 8 2023 wordpress-6.4.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 26190939 Apr 11 16:45 wordpress-6.5.2.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 26193148 May 13 08:17 wordpress-6.5.3.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 26192669 Jun 24 19:17 wordpress-6.5.5.zip
-rw-r--r-- 1 psaadm psaadm 26189860 Apr 3 12:10 wordpress-6.5.zip

Right afterwards, WP was installable again through the toolkit.

 

[Kaspar@Plesk]

I'd recommend considering opening a ticket with support next time your encounter the issue.

 

[Bitpalast]

For this case it's probably not feasible, because we cannot let customers wait so long. I have now updated all Wordpress packages preemptively manually and hope to avoid more user complaints. If the issue occurs again on the next Wordpress version, I'll try to go through ticket support.

 

[Bitpalast]

@Kaspar@Plesk There must be a bug and I wonder why it cannot be reproduced by Plesk. I now see the same issue with the latest WP 6.6 on a host that was previously not affected. Again in the /usr/local/psa/var/modules/wp-toolkit/packages/ directory, no 6.6 version package exists and the Toolkit claims that it cannot download it. While I can easily run
# wget -O /usr/local/psa/var/modules/wp-toolkit/packages/wordpress-6.6.zip https://wordpress.org/latest.zip
to download it from the command line. I don't have a support contract on that machine so for support access I'll need to wait until it happens on one where I have a support contract. But I am almost certain that it must be reproducable by the team anyway.

 

[Kaspar@Plesk]

You're are still with Hetzner right?

 

[Bitpalast]

Yes, but on dedicated servers only.

 

[Kaspar@Plesk]

Yes, but on dedicated servers only.

Can you sent the IP of the affected server via PM?

 

[Bitpalast]

Plesk was so kind to check with Automattic and found that Automattic has rate-limited the cURL induced downloads of new Wordpress packages. So for others who run into the same issue: The problem seems to affect servers with many Wordpress websites. Such servers may not be able to download the latest Wordpress packages from the Wordpress servers as too many requests are sent from the same IP address.