diff --git a/setup/start/mysql.cnf b/setup/start/mysql.cnf
index 6df9c9903..243b3703f 100644
--- a/setup/start/mysql.cnf
+++ b/setup/start/mysql.cnf
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 # http://bugs.mysql.com/bug.php?id=68514
 [mysqld]
 performance_schema=OFF
-max_connections=50
+max_connections=200
 # on ec2, without this we get a sporadic connection drop when doing the initial migration
 max_allowed_packet=64M
 
diff --git a/src/taskworker.js b/src/taskworker.js
index 125599b59..925be219a 100755
--- a/src/taskworker.js
+++ b/src/taskworker.js
@@ -62,7 +62,10 @@ async.series([
     database.initialize,
     settings.initCache
 ], function (error) {
-    if (error) return process.exit(50);
+    if (error) {
+        console.error(error);
+        return process.exit(50);
+    }
 
     const debug = require('debug')('box:taskworker'); // require this here so that logging handler is already setup
     const NOOP_CALLBACK = function (error) { if (error) debug(error); };
@@ -75,11 +78,14 @@ async.series([
     debug(`Starting task ${taskId}. Logs are at ${logFile}`);
 
     tasks.get(taskId, function (error, task) {
-        if (error) return process.exit(50);
+        if (error) {
+            debug(error);
+            return process.exit(50);
+        }
 
         tasks.update(taskId, { percent: 2, error: null }, function (error) {
             if (error) {
-                console.error(error);
+                debug(error);
                 return process.exit(50);
             }