diff --git a/nonfree/controller/CentralDB.cpp b/nonfree/controller/CentralDB.cpp
index 77f96c6e7..8df064c8c 100644
--- a/nonfree/controller/CentralDB.cpp
+++ b/nonfree/controller/CentralDB.cpp
@@ -1071,6 +1071,7 @@ void CentralDB::heartbeat()
 			}
 			catch (std::exception& e) {
 				fprintf(stderr, "%s: Heartbeat update failed: %s\n", controllerId, e.what());
+				_pool->unborrow(c);
 				span->End();
 				std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::milliseconds(1000));
 				continue;
@@ -1532,6 +1533,7 @@ void CentralDB::onlineNotificationThread()
 			auto span = tracer->StartSpan("CentralDB::onlineNotificationThread");
 			auto scope = tracer->WithActiveSpan(span);
 
+			std::shared_ptr<PostgresConnection> c;
 			try {
 				std::unordered_map<std::pair<uint64_t, uint64_t>, NodeOnlineRecord, _PairHasher> lastOnline;
 				{
@@ -1540,7 +1542,7 @@ void CentralDB::onlineNotificationThread()
 				}
 
 				uint64_t writtenCount = 0;
-				auto c = _pool->borrow();
+				c = _pool->borrow();
 				pqxx::work w(*c->c);
 				for (auto i = lastOnline.begin(); i != lastOnline.end(); ++i) {
 					uint64_t nwid_i = i->first.first;
@@ -1610,11 +1612,13 @@ void CentralDB::onlineNotificationThread()
 						(unsigned long long)lastOnline.size(), (unsigned long long)writtenCount);
 				_statusWriter->writePending();
 				w.commit();
-				_pool->unborrow(c);
 			}
 			catch (std::exception& e) {
 				fprintf(stderr, "%s: error in onlinenotification thread: %s\n", _myAddressStr.c_str(), e.what());
 			}
+			if (c) {
+				_pool->unborrow(c);
+			}
 		}
 
 		std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::seconds(10));
diff --git a/nonfree/controller/EmbeddedNetworkController.cpp b/nonfree/controller/EmbeddedNetworkController.cpp
index 48134c036..f0213d27a 100644
--- a/nonfree/controller/EmbeddedNetworkController.cpp
+++ b/nonfree/controller/EmbeddedNetworkController.cpp
@@ -2462,19 +2462,24 @@ void EmbeddedNetworkController::_startThreads()
 	}
 	const long hwc = std::max((long)std::thread::hardware_concurrency(), (long)1);
 	for (long t = 0; t < hwc; ++t) {
-		_threads.emplace_back([this]() {
+		_threads.emplace_back([this, t]() {
 			Metrics::network_config_request_threads++;
+			uint64_t processedCount = 0;
+			uint64_t idleIterations = 0;
 			for (;;) {
 				_RQEntry* qe = (_RQEntry*)0;
-				Metrics::network_config_request_queue_size = _queue.size();
+				auto queueSize = _queue.size();
+				Metrics::network_config_request_queue_size = queueSize;
 				auto timedWaitResult = _queue.get(qe, 1000);
 				if (timedWaitResult == BlockingQueue<_RQEntry*>::STOP) {
 					break;
 				}
 				else if (timedWaitResult == BlockingQueue<_RQEntry*>::OK) {
+					idleIterations = 0;
 					if (qe) {
 						try {
 							_request(qe->nwid, qe->fromAddr, qe->requestPacketId, qe->identity, qe->metaData);
+							processedCount++;
 						}
 						catch (std::exception& e) {
 							fprintf(
@@ -2490,6 +2495,13 @@ void EmbeddedNetworkController::_startThreads()
 						qe = nullptr;
 					}
 				}
+				else {
+					// Periodic liveness log every ~30s (30 timeout iterations of 1000ms)
+					if (++idleIterations % 30 == 0) {
+						fprintf(stderr, "request worker %ld: alive, queue_size=%lu, total_processed=%llu\n",
+								t, (unsigned long)queueSize, (unsigned long long)processedCount);
+					}
+				}
 			}
 			Metrics::network_config_request_threads--;
 		});