Cannot shutdown apache2 on 16.04 LTS

Question

I'm trying to set up a small VPS. When it was provisioned for me I was given the ip address , which dispays an apache2 page. I'd prefer to set things up using nginx. I asked the host about switching to nginx and got:

Apache is included with the template used to create the server. 
All software installation, removal, updating and configuration is up to the end user. We provide pre-made server templates to you of the most commonly used software packages to help you get started.

Based on https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/ubuntu-linux-start-restart-stop-apache-web-server/ , I'm trying to shutdown the apache server using:

deploy@server:~$ sudo systemctl stop apache2.service
deploy@server:~$ sudo systemctl status apache2.service
● apache2.service - LSB: Apache2 web server
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/apache2; bad; vendor preset: enabled)
  Drop-In: /lib/systemd/system/apache2.service.d
           └─apache2-systemd.conf
   Active: inactive (dead) since Thu 2017-01-12 21:24:23 EST; 4 days ago
     Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
  Process: 28696 ExecStop=/etc/init.d/apache2 stop (code=exited, status=0/SUCCES
  Process: 28681 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/apache2 start (code=exited, status=0/SUCC

Jan 17 11:09:17 server systemd[1]: Stopped LSB: Apache2 web server.
Warning: Journal has been rotated since unit was started. Log output is incomplete

But the default page is still visible at the url. What am I doing wrong?

edit:

deploy@server:~$ journalctl -xe
Hint: You are currently not seeing messages from other users and the system.
  Users in the 'systemd-journal' group can see all messages. Pass -q to
  turn off this notice.
No journal files were opened due to insufficient permissions.


deploy@server:~$ sudo service apache2 stop
[sudo] password for deploy:
deploy@server:~$

web page is still active. Please note that deploy is a non root account that I have created.

edit 2:

deploy@server:~$ ps aux | egrep apache2
deploy   17196  0.0  0.1  11228   888 pts/0    S+   12:22   0:00 grep -E --color=auto apache2

edit 3: I found the following:

The binary is called apache2. Due to the use of environment variables, in the default configuration, apache2 needs to be started/stopped with /etc/init.d/apache2 or apache2ctl. Calling /usr/bin/apache2 directly will not work with the default configuration.

edit 4: I switched to root:

root@server:/var/www/html# /etc/init.d/apache2 stop
[ ok ] Stopping apache2 (via systemctl): apache2.service.
root@server:/var/www/html#

No change . I also edited text in the index.html file and this is being served correctly.

edit 5:

root@server:/var/www/html# sudo systemctl stop apache2.service
root@server:/var/www/html# lynx http://localhost

I still see the webpage in the lynx browser

edit 6:

root@server:/var/www/html# sudo lsof -i tcp:80 | egrep LISTEN
nginx   28487     root    6u  IPv4 603899449      0t0  TCP *:http (LISTEN)
nginx   28487     root    7u  IPv6 603899450      0t0  TCP *:http (LISTEN)
nginx   28488 www-data    6u  IPv4 603899449      0t0  TCP *:http    (LISTEN)
nginx   28488 www-data    7u  IPv6 603899450      0t0  TCP *:http (LISTEN)

edit 7:

root@server:/var/www/html# sudo update-rc.d -f  apache2 remove
root@server:/var/www/html# sudo systemctl status apache2.service
● apache2.service - LSB: Apache2 web server
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/apache2; bad; vendor preset: enabled)
  Drop-In: /lib/systemd/system/apache2.service.d
           └─apache2-systemd.conf
   Active: inactive (dead)
     Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)

Jan 17 12:59:58 server apache2[17860]: Action 'start' failed.
Jan 17 12:59:58 server apache2[17860]: The Apache error log may have more inform
Jan 17 12:59:58 server apache2[17860]:  *
Jan 17 12:59:58 server apache2[17876]:  * Stopping Apache httpd web server apach
Jan 17 12:59:58 server apache2[17876]:  *
Jan 17 12:59:58 server systemd[1]: Started LSB: Apache2 web server.
Jan 17 13:01:04 server systemd[1]: Stopped LSB: Apache2 web server.
Jan 17 14:16:05 server systemd[1]: Stopped LSB: Apache2 web server.
Jan 17 14:16:54 server systemd[1]: Stopped LSB: Apache2 web server.
Jan 17 14:20:45 server systemd[1]: Stopped LSB: Apache2 web server.

edit 8:

Jan 17 13:01:04 server systemd[1]: Stopped LSB: Apache2 web server.
Jan 17 14:16:05 server systemd[1]: Stopped LSB: Apache2 web server.
Jan 17 14:16:54 server systemd[1]: Stopped LSB: Apache2 web server.
Jan 17 14:20:45 server systemd[1]: Stopped LSB: Apache2 web server.
Jan 17 16:38:44 server systemd[1]: Stopped LSB: Apache2 web server.
Jan 17 16:41:50 server systemd[1]: Stopped LSB: Apache2 web server.
Jan 17 16:50:48 server systemd[1]: Stopped LSB: Apache2 web server.
Jan 17 16:51:20 server systemd[1]: Stopped LSB: Apache2 web server.
Jan 17 16:51:33 server systemd[1]: Stopped LSB: Apache2 web server.
Jan 17 16:51:45 server systemd[1]: Stopped LSB: Apache2 web server.
root@server:/var/www/html# sudo update-rc.d -f  apache2 remove                  
root@server:/var/www/html#

Run <?php echo phpinfo(); ?> from a file in your root dir and see the results, what do you see ? — George Udosen, Jan 17 '17 at 16:57
Also clear you browser cache too, you might be serving up an old page. — George Udosen, Jan 17 '17 at 17:00
cleared browser cache, no changes. Please see second edit above: — user1592380, Jan 17 '17 at 17:25

L. D. James · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-17T20:57:56.723

3

Thanks for the output. Your original command for stopping the service worked perfectly.

The page you are seeing is an instance of a web service running on a different machine.

You'll have to use your DNS services to point to the machine you are assigning for your web server.

You can also verify this by running a web browser on your local machine (the same one you are starting the apache2 server on) and load this address in your web browser:

http://localhost

The resolution is to setup the virtural hosts for your Apache server, then configure your Name Server to point to the IP address of your configured Virtual Host.

Running your browser on your local machine to load http://localhost will fail when you stop the service (your original command). It'll load the default page when you start the apache service on your local machine (replacing stop with start from your original command.

According to your question updates and comments, you are running two web servers... Apache2 and Nginx. Running them both on the same ipaddress/port will be a conflict because it would lack a method of determining where to send the data.

As per your preference of Nginx, you can disable Apache with:

$ sudo update-rc.d -f  apache2 remove

edited Jan 17 '17 at 20:57

answered Jan 17 '17 at 18:25

L. D. James

25,036

Hi LD, thank you for looking at this. edit is above – user1592380 Jan 17 '17 at 19:21
@user61629 Will you add the output of sudo lsof -i tcp:80 | egrep LISTEN to your question? – L. D. James Jan 17 '17 at 19:32
Please see above – user1592380 Jan 17 '17 at 19:56
1

The output indicates that you are running two Web Servers. You're running Apache2 and Nginx. Running two can cause confusion such as what you are having. Choose with one you want to run and disable the other. – L. D. James Jan 17 '17 at 20:07
By the way, you can run both web servers, but you would have to differentiate either a different IP address or different port, otherwise how would the system know where to sent the data. If you need to run both servers, I can add formatted steps to how this can be done. But my strong advice is for you to run either/or. – L. D. James Jan 17 '17 at 20:13
Hi L.D. , I want to run nginx only, but my VPS was given to me pre-configured with apache2. with the "sudo lsof -i tcp:80 | egrep LISTEN" command showing nginx only, is apache2 finally disabled? – user1592380 Jan 17 '17 at 20:30
Let us continue this discussion in chat. – L. D. James Jan 17 '17 at 20:48

Cannot shutdown apache2 on 16.04 LTS

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