SOLVED! Why doesn't Maradns start at boot time?

[Greg Platt - Platt Consultants]

The answer to this turned out to be just as simple as the solutions to my
earlier mara problems. And yes, I WAS the unwitting cause of this issue too.

As mara works on a Debian system when it is installed, a default mararc file
is created in the /etc/maradns directory. However according to the mara docs
the NORMAL location of this file is in the /etc directory. So when I worked
on building my local mararc file, that's where I put it (in /etc/mararc).
Nothing I saw anywhere ever mentioned that a mararc config file should exist
in /etc/maradns let alone that it would actually be USED for ANYTHING. 

However, it turns out that on a Debian system /etc/maradns/mararc actually
IS used AND the resident version of mara will NOT start on a Debian system
unless that file already exists IN the /etc/maradns directory. In fact, the
/etc/init.d/maradns script that starts mara on a Debian system sets an
environment variable named DEFAULT that points to that file at the very
beginning of the init script. Then it uses that environment later to
reference that /etc/maradns/mararc file when it tries to start mara in
resident mode. In short, the Debian boot time startup for mara expects the
mararc file to be in a non-standard location.

As part of my mara installation and setup work on our server, I spotted this
undocumented file and wrongly concluded this "un-needed" file was merely an
example and renamed it to mararc-sample. The fact that Debian's "default"
mara configuration script was missing was causing the boot time startup
script to fail. Once I realized what was happening and copied my /etc/mararc
script into the /etc/maradns directory, the problem with failing to start at
boot time immediately vanished. 

That also explains why mara started fine for me when I typed maradns at the
command prompt. In that case, it was operating in its normal startup mode
and looking for mararc in /etc (which was where I had placed it)

Credit for helping me find the solution to this problem goes to Andraž
"ruskie" Levstik who mentioned the /etc/init.d/maradns script file and thus
lead me to the customized version of the Debian startup script for mara.
Once I was there, it took less than 5 minutes to spot and solve the cause of
the problem.

Thanks, "Ruskie"! And very much thanks to Remco and Ken Lyons who also
responded as well!

Good GRIEF what a saga THIS has been!

Best Professional Regards,
Greg Platt
a.k.a. WebSissy


-----Original Message-----
From: list-bounces at maradns.org [mailto:list-bounces at maradns.org] On Behalf
Of Greg Platt - Platt Consultants
Sent: Monday, August 25, 2008 6:11 AM
To: list at maradns.org
Subject: Still Looking for Help: Why doesn't Maradns start at boot time?

In my reinstall of maradns on my Debian 4.0r3 etch system, I had several
issues related to errors I'd made during setup. I've gradually worked
through and solved all but one of those. But I need help on the issue that's
left.

 

The one remaining issue (which is plainly critical in my ultimate ability to
use mara) is that for some reason maradns fails to load chroot'ed in
resident mode at boot time. If I start maradns manually after boot as the
root user, it starts and runs fine. But when I reboot the server, I find
maradns did NOT restart during the boot process and I can't figure out why. 

 

For the record, if I run the process manually as the root user after startup
and leave it running, it does seem to STAY running; but having the DNS
server not start at boot time is definitely a BIG problem!

 

A check of rcconf shows maradns is listed and configured to start and a grep
of dmesg after boot shows no errors are being produced by maradns at boot
time. Yet, after the server has BOOTED, maradns is definitely not running
from what I can tell. I'm looking for it using "ps aux | grep mara". And
from what I see, it is definitely NOT in the active task list after startup.


 

When maradns is set to start at boot time, but it does NOT do so, I'm at a
loss as to how to troubleshoot the boot process. 

 

Can SOMEONE here please advise me on how to fix this problem?

 

Thanks!