Logstash not starting on Ubuntu

Elastic Stack Logstash
1

Hi,

Have installed Logstash from deb http://packages.elastic.co/logstash/2.1/debian stable main.

I have also created a very simple config file :
input { file { path => "/tmp/test" start_position => beginning } } output { stdout {} }

If I launch logstash manually from the command line, it runs fine and the config operates as expected.

However if I try service start logstash, it doesn't run, no errors (or anything else) is logged, no process running. Only a pid file is created, but again, no process matching it.

Even if I delete the config file and try to start logstash through init with no config, again, nothing logged, no process running.

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=14.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=trusty
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS"

2

Nothing in /var/log/logstash either? Which JVM?

3

Not a thing.

Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_66-b17)

However, after resorting to a strace session, I eventually fixed it by tweaking the init file a bit. Can't remember what I did exactly, but if I get a chance, I'll go back and check.

4

I'm having the same issue - service logstash start creates a PID file but nothing ends up running.

@Devnull if you can remember what tweaks you made to what file, then that would be really useful.

5

Quick follow up - my issue was that the /var/log/logstash directory was owned by a non-logstash user (due to a previous install of other software) and so the service was failing when it couldn't open the log file. Changing the owner of all of the files fixed the issue.

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