httpd fails to start on new install of ROCKS7

[mjcollin]

After installing ROCKS7 on a head node, trying to run insert-ethers produces this error:

error - unable to download kickstart.
Verify httpd is running with 'service httpd start'

Sure enough, httpd is not running, in /var/log/httpd/error_log:

[Thu Jan 11 14:15:33.463322 2018] [auth_digest:notice] [pid 29948] AH01757: generating secret for digest authentication ...
[Thu Jan 11 14:15:33.463369 2018] [auth_digest:error] [pid 29948] (2)No such file or directory: AH01762: Failed to create shared memory segment on file /run/httpd/authdigest_shm.29948
[Thu Jan 11 14:15:33.463381 2018] [auth_digest:error] [pid 29948] (2)No such file or directory: AH01760: failed to initialize shm - all nonce-count checking, one-time nonces, and MD5-sess algorithm disabled
[Thu Jan 11 14:15:33.463387 2018] [:emerg] [pid 29948] AH00020: Configuration Failed, exiting

It appears that /run/httpd is missing from the system and this is described as potentially being fixed in an update:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1215667

Workaround is to create the directory manually:

mkdir /run/httpd
chown root:apache /run/httpd
chmod 0710 /run/httpd
service httpd start

[jdkruzr]

Just wanted to chime in to say that it's July and this still appears to be an issue in ROCKS 7.

[kirbyjason]

Also noticed that after reboot, /run is there but the httpd subdir is gone. Have to recreate it manually after every reboot. Put the workaround in /etc/rc.local.

[jonesuki]

Encountered the same error with fresh ROCKS 7 installation (includes a total of 11 rolls: area51-7.0-0, base-7.0-2, CentOS-7.4-1708, core-7.0-2, fingerprint-7.0-0, ganglia-7.0-2, hpc-7.0-0, kernel-7.0-0, Updates-CentOS-7.4-1708-2017-12-01, yumfix-7.0-0, zfs-linux-0.7.3-2). Everything seems to be normal right after installation. But errors, including failed to start httpd due to missing /run/httpd directory, occurred after first reboot.
It turned out httpd is not the only victim here. libstoragemgmt, iptables, fail2ban, named also failed to start due to missing directories under /run.
These directories are supposed to be created automatically at startup with systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service, which is deleted in the startup proces:
Nov 14 17:34:19 raccoon systemd: Job systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service/start deleted to break ordering cycle starting with sysinit.target/start
Actually, another 11 systemd services/targets are deleted with the same reason:

1. plymouth-read-write.service
2. rhel-autorelabel-mark.service
3. system-machine-id-commit.service
4. rhel-autorelabel.service
5. systemd-update-done.service
6. systemd-journal-catalog-update.service
7. systemd-update-utmp.service
8. auditd.service
9. rhel-import-state.service
10. selinux-policy-migrate-local-changes@ targetd.service and
11. local-fs.target

I traced /var/log/messages and found that ip6tables.service failed to start because of a syntax error in "/etc/lib/systemd/system/ip6tables.service", which is a know bug for (RedHat 7.4):
After=syslog.target,iptables.service
the comma should be space:
After=syslog.target iptables.service

Magically, after I corrected the ip6tables.service file, all the 12 systemd services/targets started normally and therefore httpd and the other 4 services started normally.

I am still not sure why the failure in ip6tables.service causes such result. But the problem is solved for now.

[sunracesuraj]

Facing the same problem in July 2019. head Node crashes after installation as every other services fails to start. Will enabling ipv6 on the network solve the problem?

Also "/etc/lib/systemd/system/ip6tables.service" does not exists on my installation.

[EllisonYim]

You install rocks 7 sucessfull?I can not install the frondant node. Reoport mod_ssl-2.4.6-67.el7.centos.x86_64 requires httpd