CRE-2025-0074

Temporal Worker → Server Downtime → Connection Refused FailureCritical

Impact: 10/10

Mitigation: 6/10

CRE-2025-0074View on GitHub

TemporalWorker ProblemsgRPCConnection RefusedStartup Failure

Description

Detects failure when a Temporal worker is unable to reach the Temporal server.

• This typically occurs during startup or after server downtime.
• Worker log contains gRPC error: "connection refused".

Cause

ROOT CAUSES:

• Temporal server was stopped or not reachable on port 7233.
• Worker container started before the server was healthy.
• Network misconfiguration or resource contention during startup.

Mitigation

IMMEDIATE:

• Confirm server is running: `docker ps`, `docker logs temporal`
• Ensure worker starts only after server is available.
• Restart worker manually or with retry logic.

RECOVERY ACTIONS:

• Add health checks for the server container.
• Use startup dependencies in Docker Compose.
• Improve alerting for “connection refused” messages.

PREVENTION STRATEGIES:

• Monitor port 7233 availability.
• Delay worker startup until Temporal is healthy.
• Add retry logic in the worker code.

References

• https://docs.temporal.io/
• https://docs.temporal.io/production-deployment/production-deployment-overview
• https://grpc.io/docs/guides/
• https://github.com/temporalio/samples-go