Repeating “systemctl restart xxx” over 6 times in 10 seconds will cause error. This article will describe the workaround.
Table of Contents
1 start request repeated too quickly for xxx.service
This error is for preventing many repetition of service restart in system error.
If the service restart exceeds the value of StartLimitBurst within the time specified by the value of StartLimitInterval, the service startup will fail. StartLimitInterval is 10 seconds by default and StartLimitBurst is 5 by default.
For example, dhcpd is as below. The service startup will fail with the 6th “systemctl restart dhcpd”.
$ i=1 $ while : ; do echo ${i} i=$(expr ${i} + 1); sudo systemctl restart dhcpd || break done 1 2 3 4 5 6 Job for dhcpd.service failed because start of the service was attempted too often. See "systemctl status dhcpd.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details. To force a start use "systemctl reset-failed dhcpd.service" followed by "systemctl start dhcpd.service" again.
“start request repeated too quickly for dhcpd.service” is in journal.
$ sudo journalctl -xeu dhcpd <snip> systemd[1]: start request repeated too quickly for dhcpd.service <snip>
2 Use systemctl reload
Use “systemctl reload” if the service can reload.
$ systemctl show -p CanReload named CanReload=yes
Running “systemctl reload” more than 6 times within 10 seconds will not fail.
$ sudo systemctl start named $ i=1 $ while : ; do echo ${i} i=$(expr ${i} + 1); sudo systemctl restart named || break done 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 <snip>
3 Use StartLimitBurst=0 if the service cannot reload
There is a service which cannot reload. The dhcpd community seems not to have the resource for implementation and maintenance of reload.
$ systemctl show -p CanReload dhcpd CanReload=no
For a service which cannot reload, disable checker of service start with making StartLimitBurst be 0.
Check systemd’s file with the following command.
$ systemctl show -p FragmentPath dhcpd FragmentPath=/usr/lib/systemd/system/dhcpd.service
Write StartLimitBurst=0 in [Service] section.
$ diff -uprN /usr/lib/systemd/system/dhcpd.service{.org,} --- /usr/lib/systemd/system/dhcpd.service.org 2017-02-17 10:57:45.657561554 -0500 +++ /usr/lib/systemd/system/dhcpd.service 2017-02-17 12:25:15.733977821 -0500 @@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ After=time-sync.target [Service] Type=notify ExecStart=/usr/sbin/dhcpd -f -cf /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf -user dhcpd -group dhcpd --no-pid +StartLimitBurst=0 [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target
Load changed systemd’s file.
$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload
Running “systemctl restart” more than 6 times within 10 seconds will not fail.
$ i=1 $ while : ; do echo ${i} i=$(expr ${i} + 1); sudo systemctl restart dhcpd || break done 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 <snip>