Cacti service failed to start.

[bogdan]

Hello team,

I am a new in Cacti. I tried to install Cacti following this article https://docs.cacti.net/Installing-Under ... units-file but when I try to start service using command "systemctl start cactid" I getting below error:

Job for cactid.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See "systemctl status cactid.service" and "journalctl -xeu cactid.service" for details.

In output of systemctl status cactid.service I see below:

Job for cactid.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See "systemctl status cactid.service" and "journalctl -xeu cactid.service" for details.
bogdan@cacti:/var/www/html/cacti$ systemctl status cactid.service
● cactid.service - Cacti Daemon Main Poller Service
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/cactid.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: activating (auto-restart) (Result: exit-code) since Sun 2024-12-01 10:03:29 UTC; 2s ago
Process: 4546 ExecStart=/var/www/html/cacti/cactid.php (code=exited, status=217/USER)
CPU: 3ms

Dec 01 10:03:29 cacti systemd[1]: cactid.service: Control process exited, code=exited, status=217/USER
Dec 01 10:03:29 cacti systemd[1]: cactid.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Dec 01 10:03:29 cacti systemd[1]: Failed to start Cacti Daemon Main Poller Service.


In output of journalctl -xeu cactid.service I see this:

Dec 01 10:03:50 cacti systemd[4552]: cactid.service: Failed to determine user credentials: No such process
Dec 01 10:03:50 cacti systemd[4552]: cactid.service: Failed at step USER spawning /var/www/html/cacti/cactid.php: No such>
░░ Subject: Process /var/www/html/cacti/cactid.php could not be executed
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
░░
░░ The process /var/www/html/cacti/cactid.php could not be executed and failed.
░░
░░ The error number returned by this process is ERRNO.
Dec 01 10:03:50 cacti systemd[1]: cactid.service: Control process exited, code=exited, status=217/USER
░░ Subject: Unit process exited
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
░░
░░ An ExecStart= process belonging to unit cactid.service has exited.
░░
░░ The process' exit code is 'exited' and its exit status is 217.
Dec 01 10:03:50 cacti systemd[1]: cactid.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
░░ Subject: Unit failed
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
░░
░░ The unit cactid.service has entered the 'failed' state with result 'exit-code'.
Dec 01 10:03:50 cacti systemd[1]: Failed to start Cacti Daemon Main Poller Service.
░░ Subject: A start job for unit cactid.service has failed
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
░░
░░ A start job for unit cactid.service has finished with a failure.
░░
░░ The job identifier is 119152 and the job result is failed.


I tried to follow this artticle https://github.com/Cacti/cacti/commit/9 ... e6b2eb7077 but used username "www-data" instead of username from artcile becasue I do not have such user in system. By the way I found this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggpwvd2GV1E where username "www-data" is used. Unfortunately steps in article or video did not help me.

Please advice how to troubleshoot this?

Thanks.

[TheWitness]

Edit the cactid.service file in /etc/system/systemd and change the user to the correct user, I think www-data, then perform a systemctl daemon-reload followed by systemctl start cactid. Make sure that the entire Cacti website is owned by www-data.

[bogdan]

Edit the cactid.service file in /etc/system/systemd and change the user to the correct user, I think www-data, then perform a systemctl daemon-reload followed by systemctl start cactid. Make sure that the entire Cacti website is owned by www-data.

Hello,

Thanks for the reply.

I do not have such folder /etc/system/systemd, but I have service in this folder /var/www/html/cacti/service/cactid.service.

cactid.service file already have correct user. Below what I have in the file:

[Unit]
Description=Cacti Daemon Main Poller Service
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=forking
User=www-data
Group=www-data
EnvironmentFile=/etc/cactid
ExecStart=/var/www/html/cacti/cactid.php
Restart=always
RestartSec=5s

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target


Could you please advice what you mean about "Make sure that the entire Cacti website is owned by www-data"? Where I can check it?

Thanks in advance.

[macan]

ls -al /var/www/html/cacti
You check second and third columns. It is user and group (it should be www-data in your case)

[bogdan]

ls -al /var/www/html/cacti
You check second and third columns. It is user and group (it should be www-data in your case)

Thanks for the quick reply.

I see that all files owned by another user. Please see below part of the output:

total 2868
drwxrwxr-x 22 bogdan bogdan 4096 Dec 1 07:41 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Dec 1 07:41 ..
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bogdan bogdan 5669 Dec 1 07:41 about.php
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bogdan bogdan 60883 Dec 1 07:41 aggregate_graphs.php
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bogdan bogdan 25710 Dec 1 07:41 aggregate_templates.php
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bogdan bogdan 16829 Dec 1 07:41 auth_changepassword.php
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bogdan bogdan 15290 Dec 1 07:41 auth_login.php
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bogdan bogdan 19161 Dec 1 07:41 auth_profile.php
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bogdan bogdan 24203 Dec 1 07:41 automation_devices.php
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bogdan bogdan 36742 Dec 1 07:41 automation_graph_rules.php
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bogdan bogdan 42639 Dec 1 07:41 automation_networks.php
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bogdan bogdan 31747 Dec 1 07:41 automation_snmp.php
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bogdan bogdan 18785 Dec 1 07:41 automation_templates.php
-rw-rw-r-- 1 bogdan bogdan 38723 Dec 1 07:41 automation_tree_rules.php
drwxrwxr-x 6 bogdan bogdan 4096 Dec 1 07:41 cache
-rwxrwxr-x 1 bogdan bogdan 7218 Dec 1 07:41 cactid.php


So in this case I have to change ownership for /var/www/html/cacti to www-data right?

[macan]

if www-data is your webserver user, then yes

[bogdan]

if www-data is your webserver user, then yes

I tried to do that. Now I have changed ownership:

bogdan@cacti:/var/www/html/cacti$ ls -al /var/www/html/cacti
total 2868
drwxrwxr-x 22 www-data www-data 4096 Dec 1 07:41 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Dec 1 07:41 ..
-rw-rw-r-- 1 www-data www-data 5669 Dec 1 07:41 about.php
-rw-rw-r-- 1 www-data www-data 60883 Dec 1 07:41 aggregate_graphs.php
-rw-rw-r-- 1 www-data www-data 25710 Dec 1 07:41 aggregate_templates.php
-rw-rw-r-- 1 www-data www-data 16829 Dec 1 07:41 auth_changepassword.php
-rw-rw-r-- 1 www-data www-data 15290 Dec 1 07:41 auth_login.php
-rw-rw-r-- 1 www-data www-data 19161 Dec 1 07:41 auth_profile.php
-rw-rw-r-- 1 www-data www-data 24203 Dec 1 07:41 automation_devices.php
-rw-rw-r-- 1 www-data www-data 36742 Dec 1 07:41 automation_graph_rules.php


I ran commands systemctl daemon-reload and systemctl start cactid but still service failed to start.

Output from systemctl status cactid.service


bogdan@cacti:/var/www/html/cacti$ systemctl status cactid.service
● cactid.service - Cacti Daemon Main Poller Service
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/cactid.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: activating (auto-restart) (Result: exit-code) since Mon 2024-12-02 09:56:01 UTC; 1s ago
Process: 11982 ExecStart=/var/www/html/cacti/cactid.php (code=exited, status=217/USER)
CPU: 5ms

Dec 02 09:56:01 cacti systemd[1]: cactid.service: Control process exited, code=exited, status=217/USER
Dec 02 09:56:01 cacti systemd[1]: cactid.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Dec 02 09:56:01 cacti systemd[1]: Failed to start Cacti Daemon Main Poller Service.

Output from journalctl -xeu cactid.service:

A start job for unit cactid.service has finished with a failure.
░░
░░ The job identifier is 625609 and the job result is failed.
Dec 02 09:56:12 cacti systemd[1]: cactid.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 7209.
░░ Subject: Automatic restarting of a unit has been scheduled
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
░░
░░ Automatic restarting of the unit cactid.service has been scheduled, as the result for
░░ the configured Restart= setting for the unit.
Dec 02 09:56:12 cacti systemd[1]: Stopped Cacti Daemon Main Poller Service.
░░ Subject: A stop job for unit cactid.service has finished
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
░░
░░ A stop job for unit cactid.service has finished.
░░
░░ The job identifier is 625695 and the job result is done.
Dec 02 09:56:12 cacti systemd[1]: Starting Cacti Daemon Main Poller Service...
░░ Subject: A start job for unit cactid.service has begun execution
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
░░
░░ A start job for unit cactid.service has begun execution.
░░
░░ The job identifier is 625695.
Dec 02 09:56:12 cacti systemd[1]: cactid.service: Control process exited, code=exited, status=217/USER
░░ Subject: Unit process exited
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
░░
░░ An ExecStart= process belonging to unit cactid.service has exited.
░░
░░ The process' exit code is 'exited' and its exit status is 217.
Dec 02 09:56:12 cacti systemd[1]: cactid.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
░░ Subject: Unit failed
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
░░
░░ The unit cactid.service has entered the 'failed' state with result 'exit-code'.
Dec 02 09:56:12 cacti systemd[1]: Failed to start Cacti Daemon Main Poller Service.
░░ Subject: A start job for unit cactid.service has failed
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: http://www.ubuntu.com/support
░░
░░ A start job for unit cactid.service has finished with a failure.
░░
░░ The job identifier is 625695 and the job result is failed.


Could you please advice what else I can check here?

Thanks in advance.

[TheWitness]

As the web site user start it by hand this way

Code: Select all

php -q -d display_errors=on ./cactid.php

[bogdan]

As the web site user start it by hand this way

Code: Select all

php -q -d display_errors=on ./cactid.php

When I run php -q -d display_errors=on ./cactid.php I getting below error:


FATAL: Connection to Cacti database failed. Please ensure:

- the PHP MySQL module is installed and enabled.
- the database is running.
- the credentials in config.php are valid.


I tried to check PHP and looks loke it is running:

bogdan@cacti:/var/www/html/cacti$ php -v
PHP 8.3.14 (cli) (built: Nov 25 2024 18:07:16) (NTS)
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v4.3.14, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
with Zend OPcache v8.3.14, Copyright (c), by Zend Technologies
bogdan@cacti:/var/www/html/cacti$ ps -aux | grep php
bogdan 21853 0.0 0.1 6480 2304 pts/0 S+ 18:25 0:00 grep --color=auto php


The Database is running. I can logging to DB:

bogdan@cacti:/var/www/html/cacti$ sudo mysql -u root -p
[sudo] password for bogdan:
Sorry, try again.
[sudo] password for bogdan:
Enter password:
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 50
Server version: 10.6.18-MariaDB-0ubuntu0.22.04.1 Ubuntu 22.04

Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

MariaDB [(none)]>


I found config.php in this folder /var/www/html/cacti/include/

Here is part of the config.php file where there is credentials:


$database_type = 'mysql';
$database_default = 'cacti';
$database_hostname = 'localhost';
$database_username = 'cactiuser';
$database_password = 'cactiuser';
$database_port = '3306';
$database_retries = 5;
$database_ssl = false;
$database_ssl_key = '';
$database_ssl_cert = '';
$database_ssl_ca = '';
$database_persist = false;


I found that I can open DB with command sudo mysql -u root -p -h localhost cacti

But I cannot if use cactiuser from config.php file

Also I tried change username and password to root username and password - this did not help me.

Could you please advice what I am doing wrong?

Thanks.

[TheWitness]

Follow the installation instructions on Cacti.net.