Problem :
I made my own init script for starting a Mono web application within mod-mono-server2 container (I didn’t use AutoHosting, I’m aware of it).
When I had openSUSE 11.4 with init I was able to read on console exactly what went wrong. Now I had to migrate my app to a server running openSUSE 12.1 that uses systemctl, and it’s a mess to figure out why it fails to start.
The startup command is just a typical sudo -u mono-user mod-mono-server2 [params] that writes the PID to a file in /var/run/spambusters/ (to kill it when I want to stop).
When I try to do /etc/init.d/spambusters start I just get a generic Job failed. See system logs and 'systemctl status' for details..
But I can’t get more information………
spambusters@dom:~/source> sudo systemctl status spambusters.service
spambusters.service - LSB: Spambusters instance (as spambusters)
Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/spambusters)
Active: failed since Fri, 07 Sep 2012 20:37:56 +0200; 1min 37s ago
Process: 29731 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/spambusters start (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
CGroup: name=systemd:/system/spambusters.service
â”” 29744 sudo -u spambusters /usr/bin/mod-mono-server2 --nonstop --port 8089 --address 127.0.0.1 --applicat...
spambusters@dom:~/so
System log /var/log/messages only contains
Sep 7 20:37:56 dom sudo: root : TTY=console ; PWD=/ ; USER=spambusters ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/mod-mono-server2 --nonstop --port 8089 --address 127.0.0.1 --applications /:/home/spambusters/srv/www/domains/www.burnthespam.info/htdocs
While I understand that this question could also be suitable for serverfault.com because deals with server administration, my straight question is
How do I find more information about failure in an init script when root process is systemctl instead of init?
Solution :
If the OS uses systemd-journald,
journalctl -a _SYSTEMD_UNIT=spambusters.service
(Latest systemd version shows the same in systemctl status, but OpenSuSE has an older one.)
Also, do not use sudo if you only want it to run as a different user. Use User=spambusters instead.