Series Description

This tutorial series explains how to troubleshoot and fix some of the most common errors that you may encounter when using the Apache web server.

Each tutorial in this series includes descriptions of common Apache configuration, network, filesystem, or permission errors. The series begins with an overview of the commands and log files that you can use to troubleshoot Apache. Subsequent tutorials examine specific errors in detail.

How To Troubleshoot Common Apache Errors

Introduction

There are three main commands, and a set of common log locations that you can use to get started troubleshooting Apache errors. Generally when you are troubleshooting Apache, you will use these commands in the order indicated here, and then examine log files for specific diagnostic data.

The commands that you will commonly use to troubleshoot Apache across most Linux distributions are:

• systemctl - Used to control and interact with Linux services via the systemd service manager.
• journalctl - Used to query and view the logs that are generated by systemd.
• apachectl - When troubleshooting, this command is used to check Apache’s configuration.

These commands, how to use them, and Apache’s log locations where you can find additional information about errors are described in further detail in the following sections.

Note : On Debian and Ubuntu systems, the Apache service and process name is apache2 , whereas on CentOS, Fedora, and other RedHat-derived systems, Apache’s service and process name is httpd . Apart from the differences between the service and running process names, starting, stopping, and checking Apache’s status, as well as logs with journalctl  should work the same on any Linux system that uses systemd  to manage the Apache service. Be sure to use the correct name for your Linux distribution.

systermctl Commands for Apache

To troubleshoot common Apache errors using the systemd service manager, the first step is to inspect the state of the Apache processes on your system. The following systemctl commands will query systemd for the state of Apache’s processes.

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