how to fix upstream sent too big header while reading response header from upstream?

Question

I have this error in my log :

upstream sent too big header while reading response header from upstream

And I tried to add

proxy_buffer_size   128k;
proxy_buffers   4 256k;
proxy_busy_buffers_size   256k;

to my nginx.conf http block but did not work

I also tried to add

fastcgi_buffer_size 128k;
fastcgi_buffers 4 256k;
fastcgi_busy_buffers_size 256k;

to my conf file but I could not locate any location ~ .php$ {

So I wonder how I can over come this error ? adding

fastcgi_buffer_size 128k;
fastcgi_buffers 4 256k;
fastcgi_busy_buffers_size 256k;

to a hand made php block gives me nginx: [emerg] unknown directive "location" in /etc/nginx/nginx.conf:6

Answer 1

For the upstream sent too big header while reading response header from upstream error:

1. You need to identify where the request producing the original error was processed. 'Upstream' might be a lot of different things (proxy, fastcgi, uwsgi)
2. You need to tweak the proper upstream *_buffers and *_buffer_size to make the proper buffer(s) bigger

As for the unknown directive "location", that is a totally unrelated error simply indicating your configuration is not valid (thus won't be loaded/applied). You made a syntaxic/lexicographic error while modifying your configuration. Check your changes.