# Influxdb fail to startup

**URL:** <https://community.influxdata.com/t/influxdb-fail-to-startup/16205>\
**Category:** InfluxDB 2\
**Created:** [October 4, 2020, 2:18pm UTC](https://community.influxdata.com/t/influxdb-fail-to-startup/16205 "2020-10-04T14:18:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Johan\_Scheepers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/51bf81/32.png) [@Johan\_Scheepers](https://community.influxdata.com/u/Johan_Scheepers)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2020, 2:18pm UTC](https://community.influxdata.com/t/influxdb-fail-to-startup/16205/1 "2020-10-04T14:18:19Z")

</div>

Hi,

I have installed on my Raspberry PI 4 a instance of Influxdb.

I followed [Installing on a Raspberry Pi](https://community.influxdata.com/t/installing-on-a-raspberry-pi/2159) and have checked /etc/systemd/system/influxdb.service

```
 #If you modify this, please also make sure to edit init.sh

[Unit]
Description=InfluxDB is an open-source, distributed, time series database
Documentation=https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb/
After=network-online.target

[Service]
User=influxdb
Group=influxdb
LimitNOFILE=65536
EnvironmentFile=-/etc/default/influxdb
ExecStart=/usr/bin/influxd -config /etc/influxdb/influxdb.conf ${INFLUXD_OPTS}
KillMode=control-group
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Alias=influxd.service

```

So the start up looks fine, but it fails.

When I “influxd” manually vis the CLI it starts and runs fine.

Help will be appriciated

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Anaisdg](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex023/user_avatar/community.influxdata.com/anaisdg/32/6401_2.png) [@Anaisdg](https://community.influxdata.com/u/Anaisdg)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2020, 3:52pm UTC](https://community.influxdata.com/t/influxdb-fail-to-startup/16205/2 "2020-10-09T15:52:42Z")

</div>

Hello @Johan_Scheepers,  
I’m not sure, I’m asking around and I’ll get back to you. Thank you. In the meantime, can you use `journalctl` (specific for the service, `journalctl -u influxd` ) to see what errors, if any, are being output? Thank you.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gunnar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@gunnar](https://community.influxdata.com/u/gunnar)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2020, 5:55pm UTC](https://community.influxdata.com/t/influxdb-fail-to-startup/16205/3 "2020-10-09T17:55:18Z")

</div>

If you are running `influxd` directly, it’s possible some files have been generated that are not accessible by the `influxdb` service run by systemd. I recommend taking a look at [this troubleshooting page](https://docs.influxdata.com/influxdb/v1.8/troubleshooting/systemd/).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Johan\_Scheepers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/51bf81/32.png) [@Johan\_Scheepers](https://community.influxdata.com/u/Johan_Scheepers)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2020, 9:19am UTC](https://community.influxdata.com/t/influxdb-fail-to-startup/16205/4 "2020-10-26T09:19:45Z")

</div>

– Logs begin at Mon 2020-10-26 11:15:48 SAST, end at Mon 2020-10-26 11:17:37 SAST. –  
Oct 26 11:15:52 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started InfluxDB is an open-source, distributed, time series database.  
Oct 26 11:15:52 raspberrypi systemd[473]: influxdb.service: Failed to determine user credentials: No such process  
Oct 26 11:15:52 raspberrypi systemd[473]: influxdb.service: Failed at step USER spawning /usr/bin/influxd: No such process  
Oct 26 11:15:52 raspberrypi systemd[1]: influxdb.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=217/USER  
Oct 26 11:15:52 raspberrypi systemd[1]: influxdb.service: Failed with result ‘exit-code’.  
Oct 26 11:15:52 raspberrypi systemd[1]: influxdb.service: Service RestartSec=100ms expired, scheduling restart.  
Oct 26 11:15:52 raspberrypi systemd[1]: influxdb.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 1.  
Oct 26 11:15:52 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Stopped InfluxDB is an open-source, distributed, time series database.  
Oct 26 11:15:52 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started InfluxDB is an open-source, distributed, time series database.  
Oct 26 11:15:52 raspberrypi systemd[504]: influxdb.service: Failed to determine user credentials: No such process  
Oct 26 11:15:52 raspberrypi systemd[504]: influxdb.service: Failed at step USER spawning /usr/bin/influxd: No such process  
Oct 26 11:15:52 raspberrypi systemd[1]: influxdb.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=217/USER  
Oct 26 11:15:52 raspberrypi systemd[1]: influxdb.service: Failed with result ‘exit-code’.  
Oct 26 11:15:53 raspberrypi systemd[1]: influxdb.service: Service RestartSec=100ms expired, scheduling restart.  
Oct 26 11:15:53 raspberrypi systemd[1]: influxdb.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 2.  
Oct 26 11:15:53 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Stopped InfluxDB is an open-source, distributed, time series database.  
Oct 26 11:15:53 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started InfluxDB is an open-source, distributed, time series database.  
Oct 26 11:15:53 raspberrypi systemd[521]: influxdb.service: Failed to determine user credentials: No such process  
Oct 26 11:15:53 raspberrypi systemd[521]: influxdb.service: Failed at step USER spawning /usr/bin/influxd: No such process  
Oct 26 11:15:53 raspberrypi systemd[1]: influxdb.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=217/USER  
Oct 26 11:15:53 raspberrypi systemd[1]: influxdb.service: Failed with result ‘exit-code’.  
Oct 26 11:15:53 raspberrypi systemd[1]: influxdb.service: Service RestartSec=100ms expired, scheduling restart.  
Oct 26 11:15:53 raspberrypi systemd[1]: influxdb.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 3.  
Oct 26 11:15:53 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Stopped InfluxDB is an open-source, distributed, time series database.  
Oct 26 11:15:53 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started InfluxDB is an open-source, distributed, time series database.  
Oct 26 11:15:53 raspberrypi systemd[528]: influxdb.service: Failed to determine user credentials: No such process  
Oct 26 11:15:53 raspberrypi systemd[528]: influxdb.service: Failed at step USER spawning /usr/bin/influxd: No such process  
Oct 26 11:15:53 raspberrypi systemd[1]: influxdb.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=217/USER  
Oct 26 11:15:53 raspberrypi systemd[1]: influxdb.service: Failed with result ‘exit-code’.  
Oct 26 11:15:53 raspberrypi systemd[1]: influxdb.service: Service RestartSec=100ms expired, scheduling restart.  
Oct 26 11:15:53 raspberrypi systemd[1]: influxdb.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 4.  
Oct 26 11:15:53 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Stopped InfluxDB is an open-source, distributed, time series database.  
Oct 26 11:15:53 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started InfluxDB is an open-source, distributed, time series database.  
Oct 26 11:15:53 raspberrypi systemd[545]: influxdb.service: Failed to determine user credentials: No such process  
Oct 26 11:15:53 raspberrypi systemd[545]: influxdb.service: Failed at step USER spawning /usr/bin/influxd: No such process  
Oct 26 11:15:53 raspberrypi systemd[1]: influxdb.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=217/USER  
Oct 26 11:15:53 raspberrypi systemd[1]: influxdb.service: Failed with result ‘exit-code’.  
Oct 26 11:15:54 raspberrypi systemd[1]: influxdb.service: Service RestartSec=100ms expired, scheduling restart.  
Oct 26 11:15:54 raspberrypi systemd[1]: influxdb.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Johan\_Scheepers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/51bf81/32.png) [@Johan\_Scheepers](https://community.influxdata.com/u/Johan_Scheepers)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2020, 9:21am UTC](https://community.influxdata.com/t/influxdb-fail-to-startup/16205/5 "2020-10-26T09:21:01Z")

</div>

pi@raspberrypi:~ sudo chown -R influxdb:influxdb /var/lib/influxdb/\* chown: invalid user: ‘influxdb:influxdb’ pi@raspberrypi:~

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gunnar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@gunnar](https://community.influxdata.com/u/gunnar)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2020, 6:41pm UTC](https://community.influxdata.com/t/influxdb-fail-to-startup/16205/7 "2020-10-26T18:41:54Z")

</div>

Looks like the `influxdb` user and group does not exist and will need to be created (this would normally be done automatically when installing the package).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Johan\_Scheepers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/51bf81/32.png) [@Johan\_Scheepers](https://community.influxdata.com/u/Johan_Scheepers)\
**Post date:** [October 26, 2020, 9:17pm UTC](https://community.influxdata.com/t/influxdb-fail-to-startup/16205/8 "2020-10-26T21:17:35Z")

</div>

How do you do it after the package were installed?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![gunnar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ed655f/32.png) [@gunnar](https://community.influxdata.com/u/gunnar)\
**Post date:** [October 27, 2020, 12:12am UTC](https://community.influxdata.com/t/influxdb-fail-to-startup/16205/9 "2020-10-27T00:12:42Z")

</div>

You’ll need to run this command and replace `$DATA_DIR` with the path of wherever you want to store the data (usually something like `/var/lib/influxdb`).

```auto
useradd --system -U -M influxdb -s /bin/false -d $DATA_DIR

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Johan\_Scheepers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/51bf81/32.png) [@Johan\_Scheepers](https://community.influxdata.com/u/Johan_Scheepers)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2020, 7:31pm UTC](https://community.influxdata.com/t/influxdb-fail-to-startup/16205/10 "2020-12-07T19:31:14Z")

</div>

Hi,

Thank, I have had this project shelved for a while now due to work commitments, this were the trick, working 100% now.