Gitlab-monitor down, browser gives a 500 error after upgrading to 13.0.0

I updated GitLab from version 11.10.8 to 13.0.0 by following a recommended upgrade path given at https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/policy/maintenance.html#patch-releases. The system runs Ubuntu 20.04 and the update was done using apt commands of form “apt install gitlab-ee=xx.yy.z-ee.0”, where the version xx.yy.z went through the chain 11.10.8 -> 11.11.8 -> 12.0.12 -> 12.10.6 -> 13.0.0 during the upgrade path.

Now the GitLab repositories still seem to work from the command line, but I can no longer access the GitLab web interface. The result is just 500 with the message “Whoops, something went wrong on our end.” gitlab-ctl status gives:
run: alertmanager: (pid 218337) 1456s; run: log: (pid 187061) 3946s
run: gitaly: (pid 218355) 1455s; run: log: (pid 187072) 3946s
run: gitlab-exporter: (pid 218383) 1455s; run: log: (pid 187060) 3946s
down: gitlab-monitor: 0s, normally up, want up; run: log: (pid 187066) 3946s
run: gitlab-workhorse: (pid 218535) 1424s; run: log: (pid 187062) 3946s
run: grafana: (pid 218548) 1423s; run: log: (pid 187067) 3946s
run: logrotate: (pid 218564) 1423s; run: log: (pid 187064) 3946s
run: nginx: (pid 218570) 1423s; run: log: (pid 187069) 3946s
run: node-exporter: (pid 218583) 1422s; run: log: (pid 187059) 3946s
run: postgres-exporter: (pid 218589) 1422s; run: log: (pid 187065) 3946s
run: postgresql: (pid 218596) 1421s; run: log: (pid 187070) 3946s
run: prometheus: (pid 218599) 1421s; run: log: (pid 187068) 3946s
run: redis: (pid 218615) 1421s; run: log: (pid 187058) 3946s
run: redis-exporter: (pid 218630) 1420s; run: log: (pid 187071) 3946s
run: sidekiq: (pid 218637) 1420s; run: log: (pid 187063) 3946s
run: unicorn: (pid 218644) 1419s; run: log: (pid 187073) 3946s

So everything else is running except gitlab-monitor. gitlab-ctl tail contains the following reason:
2020-06-04_20:15:57.12026 chpst: fatal: unable to run: /opt/gitlab/embedded/bin/gitlab-mon: file does not exist

It seems that 13.0.0 no longer has gitlab-monitor: it has been renamed to gitlab-exporter: https://dev.gitlab.org/gitlab-org/gitlab-exporter/commit/c071e828c275db41fe77b5338c31bffd84b0a178

So why would gitlab-ctl status still show an entry for it? Trying gitlab-ctl reconfigure ends in an error that provides zero useful information about what actually goes wrong:
There was an error running gitlab-ctl reconfigure:

undefined method `’ for nil:NilClass

How could I try to resolve this issue? I e.g. cannot downgrade GitLab back to a lower version: the attempt fails with en error about incompatible postgresql version. Trying to upgrade fails due to having a corrupt configuration (the upgrade tells to first run gitlab-ctl reconfigure).

UPDATE: I now did also “gitlab-rake gitlab:env:info”:
System information
System: Ubuntu 20.04
Proxy: no
Current User: git
Using RVM: no
Ruby Version: 2.6.6p146
Gem Version: 2.7.10
Bundler Version:1.17.3
Rake Version: 12.3.3
Redis Version: 5.0.9
Git Version: 2.26.2
Sidekiq Version:5.2.7
Go Version: unknown

GitLab information
Version: 13.0.5-ee
Revision: 260c6231ed0
Directory: /opt/gitlab/embedded/service/gitlab-rails
DB Adapter: PostgreSQL
DB Version: 11.7
URL: https://a.b.c.d
HTTP Clone URL: https://a.b.c.d/some-group/some-project.git
SSH Clone URL: git@a.b.c.d:some-group/some-project.git
Elasticsearch: no
Geo: no
Using LDAP: no
Using Omniauth: yes
Omniauth Providers:

GitLab Shell
Version: 13.2.0
Repository storage paths:

  • default: /var/opt/gitlab/git-data/repositories
    GitLab Shell path: /opt/gitlab/embedded/service/gitlab-shell
    Git: /opt/gitlab/embedded/bin/git

Above the real IP-addresses were replaced by “a.b.c.d”.

UPDATE: gitlab-monitor did not seem to be an issue. I did a comprehensive backup, reinstalled GitLab 13.0.5 from scratch, and restored the data. Now gitlab-monitor was gone and all gitlab services were running ok, but the 500 error was again there. A look into production.log showed an error related to processing Appearance. An identical problem was described by another user in the post Error 500 after upgrade to gitlab 13.0.3 from 12.10.

I eventually gave up and reinstalled GitLab from scratch again, this time without restoring the previous data. The repository was ok, as I could push it back from a local copy, but GitLab metadata was lost. The system is working now, so at least that is good. Now we just need to sign up the users again and repopulate the issue board. Luckily we have only a handful of users and not more than around 200 issues.