Ubuntu – Apache2 fails to start on boot with Ubuntu 16.04

16.04Apache2serversystemd

I have just created a new Ubuntu 16.04 server (on digital ocean, if it matters). I have set up Apache2, and it runs correctly, but on every restart it fails to boot.

I get the following from systemctl status:

root@twl-ubuntu-2gb-sgp1-01:~# systemctl status apache2.service 
● apache2.service - LSB: Apache2 web server
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/apache2; static; vendor preset: enabled)
  Drop-In: /lib/systemd/system/apache2.service.d
           └─apache2-systemd.conf
   Active: inactive (dead)
     Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)

If I run systemctl is-enabled I get "static":

root@twl-ubuntu-2gb-sgp1-01:~# systemctl is-enabled apache2.service 
static

Even after running systemctl enable it doesn't change:

root@twl-ubuntu-2gb-sgp1-01:~# systemctl enable apache2.service 
Synchronizing state of apache2.service with SysV init with /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install...
Executing /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install enable apache2
root@twl-ubuntu-2gb-sgp1-01:~# systemctl is-enabled apache2.service 
static

But apache has no problems starting. When I run systemctl start manually it works just fine:

root@twl-ubuntu-2gb-sgp1-01:~# systemctl start apache2.service 
root@twl-ubuntu-2gb-sgp1-01:~# systemctl status apache2.service 
● apache2.service - LSB: Apache2 web server
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/apache2; static; vendor preset: enabled)
  Drop-In: /lib/systemd/system/apache2.service.d
           └─apache2-systemd.conf
   Active: active (running) since Sat 2016-07-09 07:33:30 EDT; 8s ago
     Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
  Process: 1847 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/apache2 start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
    Tasks: 7
   Memory: 22.5M
      CPU: 455ms
   CGroup: /system.slice/apache2.service
           ├─1871 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
           ├─1875 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
           ├─1876 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
           ├─1877 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
           ├─1878 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
           └─1879 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start

Jul 09 07:33:28 twl-ubuntu-2gb-sgp1-01 systemd[1]: Starting LSB: Apache2 web server...
Jul 09 07:33:28 twl-ubuntu-2gb-sgp1-01 apache2[1847]:  * Starting Apache httpd web server apache2
Jul 09 07:33:29 twl-ubuntu-2gb-sgp1-01 apache2[1847]: AH00558: apache2: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1. Set t
Jul 09 07:33:30 twl-ubuntu-2gb-sgp1-01 apache2[1847]:  *
Jul 09 07:33:30 twl-ubuntu-2gb-sgp1-01 systemd[1]: Started LSB: Apache2 web server.

I'm new to systemd, only recently upgraded to 16.04 from 14.04. Where am I going wrong, or perhaps, what can I do to debug why apache2 is refusing to start?

Update 1 (2016-07-14)

It turns out Apache is being loaded, but is receiving a SIGTERM as soon as it launches. The only line in the log file is:

[Wed Jul 13 21:37:15.730331 2016] [mpm_prefork:notice] [pid 1871] AH00169: caught SIGTERM, shutting down

Any ideas how to get a better error message? As I mentioned running systemctl start apache2 immediately after boot starts everything just fine.

Update 2 (2016-07-15)

It turns out that Sigterm was from it being killed when I ran sudo reboot. There were no log messages in /var/log/apache2/error.log. If I run journalctl I get these lines during the bootup process, so it seems to work correctly, or at least, no errors are logged:

Jul 13 21:38:04 twl-ubuntu-2gb-sgp1-01 systemd[1]: Starting LSB: Apache2 web server...
Jul 13 21:38:04 twl-ubuntu-2gb-sgp1-01 apache2[1800]:  * Starting Apache httpd web server apache2
Jul 13 21:38:04 twl-ubuntu-2gb-sgp1-01 apache2[1800]: AH00558: apache2: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1. Set t
Jul 13 21:38:05 twl-ubuntu-2gb-sgp1-01 apache2[1800]:  *
Jul 13 21:38:05 twl-ubuntu-2gb-sgp1-01 systemd[1]: Started LSB: Apache2 web server.

But then the service is never accessible, and systemctl status apache2.service still reports it as "inactive (dead)"

Best Answer

I looked up what the the static state of is-enabled means, and found that:

In this context, static means that the unit file does not contain an "install" section, which is used to enable a unit. As such, these units cannot be enabled.

Also, I found that the Apache2 package contains only a systemd include file, not a complete file:

 # /lib/systemd/system/apache2.service.d/apache2-systemd.conf
 [Service]
 Type=forking
 RemainAfterExit=no

It appears that the remainder of the logic for managing the Apache2 process comes from using a shim that allows systemd to run SysVinit scripts. So try enabling Apache2 to run at boot using a symlink in a SysVinit directory:

ln -s /etc/init.d/apache2 /etc/rc5.d/S02apache2

It seems like a bug or at least a missing feature that Apache2 isn't shipping with a full systemd 'service' file on Ubuntu 16.04.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – MySQL not working after upgrade from 14.04 to 16.04

we were also facing same issue after Upgarde from 14.04 to 16.04 Solved the problem by removing

myisam-recover = BACKUP

and

key_buffer = 16M

from my.cnf.

Then use

sudo service mysql start

to start the MySQL daemon again and

sudo apt-get -f install

to recover your system packaging state.

I found this advicehere: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mysql-5.7/+bug/1570673, you can check also

Ubuntu – Apache, problem Failed to start LSB: Apache2 web server

There are two errors:

1. For some reason your /etc/apache2/envvars is missing:

from journalctl -xe:

Jan 11 02:30:46 aleksandr-VirtualBox apache2[8177]: /etc/init.d/apache2: 1: /etc/apache2/envvars: envvars: not found
Jan 11 02:30:46 aleksandr-VirtualBox apache2[8177]: /etc/init.d/apache2: 49: /etc/apache2/envvars: envvars: not found
Jan 11 02:30:46 aleksandr-VirtualBox apache2[8177]: /etc/init.d/apache2: 1: /etc/apache2/envvars: envvars: not found
Jan 11 02:30:46 aleksandr-VirtualBox apache2[8177]: /etc/init.d/apache2: 49: /etc/apache2/envvars: envvars: not found
...        
Jan 11 02:30:46 aleksandr-VirtualBox apache2[8177]: /usr/sbin/apache2ctl: 1: /etc/apache2/envvars: envvars: not found
Jan 11 02:30:46 aleksandr-VirtualBox apache2[8177]: /usr/sbin/apache2ctl: 49: /etc/apache2/envvars: envvars: not found

from systemctl status apache2.service:

Jan 11 02:30:46 aleksandr-VirtualBox apache2[8177]: /usr/sbin/apache2ctl: 1: /etc/apache2/envvars: envvars: not found
Jan 11 02:30:46 aleksandr-VirtualBox apache2[8177]: /usr/sbin/apache2ctl: 49: /etc/apache2/envvars: envvars: not found

In my system this file has next permissions:

$ ls -l /etc/apache2/envvars

-rw-r--r--   1 root root  1782 мар 19  2016 envvars

And its content ($ cat /etc/apache2/envvars) is:

# envvars - default environment variables for apache2ctl

# this won't be correct after changing uid
unset HOME

# for supporting multiple apache2 instances
if [ "${APACHE_CONFDIR##/etc/apache2-}" != "${APACHE_CONFDIR}" ] ; then
        SUFFIX="-${APACHE_CONFDIR##/etc/apache2-}"
else
        SUFFIX=
fi

# Since there is no sane way to get the parsed apache2 config in scripts, some
# settings are defined via environment variables and then used in apache2ctl,
# /etc/init.d/apache2, /etc/logrotate.d/apache2, etc.
export APACHE_RUN_USER=www-data
export APACHE_RUN_GROUP=www-data
# temporary state file location. This might be changed to /run in Wheezy+1
export APACHE_PID_FILE=/var/run/apache2/apache2$SUFFIX.pid
export APACHE_RUN_DIR=/var/run/apache2$SUFFIX
export APACHE_LOCK_DIR=/var/lock/apache2$SUFFIX
# Only /var/log/apache2 is handled by /etc/logrotate.d/apache2.
export APACHE_LOG_DIR=/var/log/apache2$SUFFIX

## The locale used by some modules like mod_dav
export LANG=C
## Uncomment the following line to use the system default locale instead:
#. /etc/default/locale

export LANG

## The command to get the status for 'apache2ctl status'.
## Some packages providing 'www-browser' need '--dump' instead of '-dump'.
#export APACHE_LYNX='www-browser -dump'

## If you need a higher file descriptor limit, uncomment and adjust the
## following line (default is 8192):
#APACHE_ULIMIT_MAX_FILES='ulimit -n 65536'

## If you would like to pass arguments to the web server, add them below
## to the APACHE_ARGUMENTS environment.
#export APACHE_ARGUMENTS=''

## Enable the debug mode for maintainer scripts.
## This will produce a verbose output on package installations of web server mod                                               ules and web application
## installations which interact with Apache
#export APACHE2_MAINTSCRIPT_DEBUG=1

You can create it manually: sudo nano /etc/apache2/envvars, paste above content inside, save ctrl+o and exit ctrl+x.

2. In your system, the folder /etc/apache2/logs also missing: