Restarting the httpd service in RHEL returns “Stopping httpd: [FAILED]” - How do I fix this?

Question

This is my first indication of an issue:

$ sudo /sbin/service httpd restart
Stopping httpd:                                            [FAILED]
Starting httpd: no listening sockets available, shutting down
Unable to open logs
                                                           [FAILED]     

I know httpd is running

$ ps -ef | grep httpd | grep -v grep
apache    9619 20181  0 07:08 ?        00:00:03 /usr/sbin/httpd
apache   10092 20181  0 Jan24 ?        00:00:07 /usr/sbin/httpd
apache   13086 20181  0 06:09 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/httpd
apache   13717 20181  0 Jan25 ?        00:00:01 /usr/sbin/httpd
apache   14730 20181  0 07:13 ?        00:00:01 /usr/sbin/httpd
apache   16359 20181  0 09:54 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/httpd
root     20181     1  0  2011 ?        00:00:01 /usr/sbin/httpd
apache   21450 20181  0 09:55 ?        00:00:00 /usr/sbin/httpd

and it is using ports 80 and 443

$ sudo netstat -lnp | grep :80
tcp        0      0 :::80                       :::*                        LISTEN      9619/httpd
$ sudo netstat -lnp | grep :443
tcp        0      0 :::443                      :::*                        LISTEN      9619/httpd 

so I assume that I get the message "no listening sockets available" because httpd cannot stop to release ports 80 and 443.

I am using RHEL version 5.7:

$ cat /etc/redhat-release
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.7 (Tikanga)

I can see a bunch of processes running for httpd:

$ pgrep httpd
9619
10092
13086
13717
14730
16359
20181
21450

What could prevent httpd from stopping? If I kill the processes for httpd, will I be able to start httpd without a problem?

Answer 1

The stop function in /etc/init.d/httpd uses the pidfile:

killproc -p ${pidfile} -d ${STOP_TIMEOUT} $httpd

Possibly, the pidfile /var/run/httpd.pid is out of date or missing (could you have started httpd in the past without using the /etc/init.d script or service?). You can check that file (and its contents) with your ps -ef |grep http.

Meh, just sudo kill 20181. Then start the service up as you normally would. Then try the restart after that.

If it happens again, you probably should investigate why the pid file is getting out of whack with the process table.

Answer 2

You should be able to kill the HTTP processes - current connections will be disrupted, of course, and if anyone is currently sending you data (say, submitting a form) that might get lost. But generally, yeah, this will be ok. The same thing would happen with service httpd restart. You will probably have to clean up the lock file at /var/lock/subsys/httpd (delete that file).

I would then run service httpd configtest to make sure your apache config is at least loadable. Then try to start it with service httpd start

You're right that the errors about ports being in use are due to the fact that httpd is still running, and so are using those ports. Likewise, the log error too.

One other thing - there's no need to run sudo to use ps or netstat. Get into the habit of only using sudo for things that require it. It will save you trouble later, when you avoid running some destructive command with root privileges when you don't mean to.