embedder: startup and run if db empty

[jordanh]

Issue - Bug

@rafaelromcar-parabol reported that the embedder does not start successfully when the database is empty (i.e. a new instance of Parabol):

embedder: tick                                                                                                                                                                                                     
embedder: acquired index queue lock                                                                                                                                                                                
embedder: index queue lock released                                                                                                                                                                                
embedder: an error occurred  RethinkDBError [ReqlLogicError]: `max` found no entries in the specified index in:                                                                                                    
r.db("actionProduction").table("NewMeeting").max({                                                                                                                                                                 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                                                                                                                                                                 
    index: "createdAt"                                                                                                                                                                                             
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                                                                                                                                                                                             
})                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
^^                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
    at Cursor.handleErrors (/home/node/parabol/dist/embedder.js:251753:23)                                                                                                                                         
    at Cursor.resolve (/home/node/parabol/dist/embedder.js:251669:18)                                                                                                                                              
    at process.processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:95:5)                                                                                                                                  
    at async Function.run (/home/node/parabol/dist/embedder.js:251196:29)                                                                                                                                          
    at async refreshRetroDiscussionTopicsMeta (/home/node/parabol/dist/embedder.js:35549:43)                                                                                                                       
    at async refreshMetadata (/home/node/parabol/dist/embedder.js:34967:3)                                                                                                                                         
    at async /home/node/parabol/dist/embedder.js:35128:7                                                                                                                                                           
    at async Redlock.using (/home/node/parabol/dist/embedder.js:286439:20)                                                                                                                                         
    at async tick (/home/node/parabol/dist/embedder.js:35122:3) {                                                                                                                                                  
  msg: '`max` found no entries in the specified index.',                                                                                                                                                           
  type: 15,                                                                                                                                                                                                        
  cause: undefined,                                                                                                                                                                                                
  term: [ 148, [ [Array] ], { index: 'createdAt' } ]                                                                                                                                                               
}

Acceptance Criteria (optional)

The service can:

• Start and run even when the database is empty

Triage is performed to find the root cause of the bug, timeboxed to ~1 hour.

Estimated effort: 1 hour to triage. More if root cause is already identified.

[rafaelromcar-parabol]

It does start, but it throws that to the logs non-stop. The app does not break though, it just continues working with those messages on the logs

[jordanh]

Thank you for the detail!

[Dschoordsch]

We don't have the failing line in our code anymore.