Exiting: Could not start registrar: Error loading state: Error decoding states: EOF

[alexus]

My environment:

# cat /etc/redhat-release 
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7.3 (Maipo)
# rpm -q filebeat
filebeat-5.2.0-1.x86_64
# 

systemctl:

# systemctl stop filebeat
# systemctl start filebeat
# echo $?
0
# systemctl status filebeat
● filebeat.service - filebeat
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/filebeat.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: failed (Result: start-limit) since Wed 2017-02-08 15:32:17 EST; 8min ago
     Docs: https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/beats/filebeat/current/index.html
 Main PID: 5011 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Feb 08 15:32:16 X systemd[1]: filebeat.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Feb 08 15:32:16 X systemd[1]: Unit filebeat.service entered failed state.
Feb 08 15:32:16 X systemd[1]: filebeat.service failed.
Feb 08 15:32:17 X systemd[1]: filebeat.service holdoff time over, scheduling restart.
Feb 08 15:32:17 X systemd[1]: start request repeated too quickly for filebeat.service
Feb 08 15:32:17 X systemd[1]: Failed to start filebeat.
Feb 08 15:32:17 X systemd[1]: Unit filebeat.service entered failed state.
Feb 08 15:32:17 X systemd[1]: filebeat.service failed.
# 

manual start:

# /usr/share/filebeat/bin/filebeat -c /etc/filebeat/filebeat.yml -path.home /usr/share/filebeat -path.config /etc/filebeat -path.data /var/lib/filebeat -path.logs /var/log/filebeat
Exiting: Could not start registrar: Error loading state: Error decoding states: EOF
# 

I'm using default filebeat.yml (no changes after install, yet getting that error)

Please advise.

[andrewkroh]

Did you have Filebeat working properly at one point? Did you experience any kind of power failure or hard shutdown?

You should be able to remove the registry file at /var/lib/filebeat/registry and Filebeat should start.

It sounds like you might be experiencing this issue: https://github.com/elastic/beats/issues/3537 Can you please leave a comment on the Github issue saying you are also affected by it if you think it's the same issue.

[alexus]

filebeat was working prior, but not after update, however after removing /var/lib/filebeat/registry, filebeat starts and works as it should be)

Thank you!