After upgrade from 12.x to 13.1 apache doesn't start

Greetings,
After upgrading from OpenSuse 12.2 to 13.1, and getting all the updates, apache will not start with systemctl. It will, however, start if I issue the following command manually:

/usr/sbin/start_apache2 -D SYSTEMD -k start

According to the systemctl service file, this is the proper startup command.

What is worse is that systemctl sees it as a successful startup but status shows it as “dead”.sidewinder:/etc/apache2 # systemctl start apache2


 sidewinder:/etc/apache2 # systemctl status apache2
apache2.service - The Apache Webserver
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/apache2.service; enabled)
   Active: inactive (dead) since Tue 2014-09-23 10:20:23 EDT; 3s ago
  Process: 22033 ExecStop=/usr/sbin/start_apache2 -D SYSTEMD -k graceful-stop (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  Process: 22014 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/start_apache2 -D SYSTEMD -k start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 22014 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

Sep 23 10:20:23 sidewinder start_apache2[22033]: httpd (no pid file) not running
Sep 23 10:20:23 sidewinder systemd[1]: Started The Apache Webserver.

The “ps aux” command shows no running apache processes.

Once I issue the the “/usr/sbin/start_apache2 -D SYSTEMD -k start” command then “ps aux” shows running apache processes.

the /var/log/apache2/error.log shows:

[Tue Sep 23 10:20:23.000321 2014] :notice] [pid 22014] ModSecurity for Apache/2.8.0 (http://www.modsecurity.org/) configured.
[Tue Sep 23 10:20:23.000480 2014] :notice] [pid 22014] ModSecurity: APR compiled version="1.4.8"; loaded version="1.4.8"
[Tue Sep 23 10:20:23.000490 2014] :notice] [pid 22014] ModSecurity: PCRE compiled version="8.33 "; loaded version="8.33 2013-05-28"
[Tue Sep 23 10:20:23.000500 2014] :notice] [pid 22014] ModSecurity: LUA compiled version="Lua 5.2"
[Tue Sep 23 10:20:23.000506 2014] :notice] [pid 22014] ModSecurity: LIBXML compiled version="2.9.1"
[Tue Sep 23 10:20:23.000511 2014] :notice] [pid 22014] Status engine is currently disabled, enable it by set SecStatusEngine to On.

once the manual start command is given the log shows:


[Tue Sep 23 10:31:58.000430 2014] :notice] [pid 22895] ModSecurity for Apache/2.8.0 (http://www.modsecurity.org/) configured.
[Tue Sep 23 10:31:58.000595 2014] :notice] [pid 22895] ModSecurity: APR compiled version="1.4.8"; loaded version="1.4.8"
[Tue Sep 23 10:31:58.000605 2014] :notice] [pid 22895] ModSecurity: PCRE compiled version="8.33 "; loaded version="8.33 2013-05-28"
[Tue Sep 23 10:31:58.000615 2014] :notice] [pid 22895] ModSecurity: LUA compiled version="Lua 5.2"
[Tue Sep 23 10:31:58.000620 2014] :notice] [pid 22895] ModSecurity: LIBXML compiled version="2.9.1"
[Tue Sep 23 10:31:58.000644 2014] :notice] [pid 22895] Status engine is currently disabled, enable it by set SecStatusEngine to On.
[Tue Sep 23 10:31:59.063675 2014] [mpm_prefork:notice] [pid 22913] AH00163: Apache/2.4.6 (Linux/SUSE) OpenSSL/1.0.1i PHP/5.4.20 mod_fcgid/2.3.9 configured -- resuming normal operations
[Tue Sep 23 10:31:59.063759 2014] [core:notice] [pid 22913] AH00094: Command line: '/usr/sbin/httpd2-prefork -f /etc/apache2/httpd.conf -D SSL -D STATUS -D MAILMAN -D SYSTEMD'

No error messages that I can see.

Any suggestions on how to fix this?

You didn’t describe what reference you used and steps to do your upgrade, but my guess is whatever you did would probably be resolved by a “zypper dup” (full distro re-install).

As always, although in most cases you won’t lose data, be sure you make a complete copy or backup of your /home partition and anything else that’s important (eg. likely your website) before this kind of major re-install.

TSU

For the upgrade I used “zypper dup”. This has now happened across several servers, including one that was not upgraded, but installed via network install.

Do I need to re-run the zupper dup again?

Tried it:

# zypper dup
Warning: You are about to do a distribution upgrade with all enabled repositories. Make sure these repositories are compatible before you continue. See 'man zypper' for more information about this command.
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
Computing distribution upgrade...

Nothing to do.

Doesn’t seem to have helped.

I can manually start apache by executing the “/usr/sbin/start_apache2 -D SYSTEMD -k start” command, yet when I trigger ti from systemd it says success but does not load.

Where else can I look?

This is happening on all my servers that were upgraded using “zypper dup” at 1 that was a fresh “network install”. I have tried it on several VM’s to test, and things are hit and miss. Some from fresh install work, others give this exact same issue. Tried a 12.1->12.2->13.1 upgrade (matches the upgrade of my live server) and one worked, 3 generate similar issues. I think systemd + apache_start are not ready for use yet!

Some help would be apprecieated. I feel like I’ve been forgotten.