Getting a While executing gem … (Gem::RemoteFetcher::FetchError) 503 error when attempting to install rails

Question

This is the error I get when I try to do a "gem install rails -v 4.1.0" using Ruby 2.1.1 and RVM.

ERROR: While executing gem ... (Gem::RemoteFetcher::FetchError) bad response Service Unavailable 503 ( http://api.rubygems.org/api/v1/dependencies?gems=activerecord )

Not sure what is causing this, anybody have any ideas?

Answer 1

It would be a ssl problem.

Change your gem sources and try again.

gem sources --remove https://rubygems.org/
gem sources -a http://rubygems.org/

Answer 2

Make sure your rvm ssl certificates are up to date.

Check their status

$ rvm osx-ssl-certs status all

Update them!

$ rvm osx-ssl-certs update all

Also try

gem install rails --include-dependencies

Answer 3

Sometimes it is just a server problem.

I waited a few minutes and tried again and it worked.