httpd.service is reloaded or killed

On a new CentOS7 server, I got the issue, that every night the httpd.service is getting reloaded. And sometimes, around same time, it is getting just killed.

systemctl status httpd:

● httpd.service - The Apache HTTP Server
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Sun 2017-04-09 12:54:33 CEST; 2 days ago
     Docs: man:httpd(8)
           man:apachectl(8)
 Main PID: 27968 (/usr/sbin/httpd)
   Status: "Total requests: 0; Current requests/sec: 0; Current traffic:   0 B/sec"
   CGroup: /system.slice/httpd.service
           ├─  897 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ├─  898 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ├─  900 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ├─  901 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ├─  907 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ├─  992 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ├─ 1051 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ├─ 4168 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ├─ 6680 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ├─19528 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ├─23513 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ├─24482 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           └─27968 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND

Apr 09 12:54:32 server445 systemd[1]: Starting The Apache HTTP Server...
Apr 09 12:54:33 server445 systemd[1]: Started The Apache HTTP Server.
Apr 10 03:47:49 server445 systemd[1]: Reloaded The Apache HTTP Server.
Apr 11 03:17:44 server445 systemd[1]: Reloaded The Apache HTTP Server.

journalctl _SYSTEMD_UNIT=httpd.service:

-- Logs begin at Thu 2015-05-21 16:37:24 CEST, end at Tue 2017-04-11 15:37:27 CEST. --
Mar 26 03:38:39 server445 kill[27169]: kill: cannot find process ""
Apr 03 03:41:01 server445 kill[28645]: kill: cannot find process ""
Apr 09 03:35:21 server445 kill[23157]: kill: cannot find process ""

Is there any possibility to have a deeper look into,

• what is causing the reload?
• what is causing the kill?

The reload and the kill always happens between 3:17 and 3:47 at night, so I guess it has something to do with each other. Perhaps a cron job which is sometimes working (==reload), but sometimes failing (==kill)?

Since systemctl status httpd and journalctl _SYSTEMD_UNIT=httpd.service will not show me any detailed information, what can I do?

Solution 1:

if your kernel is killing it, it will dump all the information into dmesg. do a dmesg on your system to see what is doing it.

If it's not in there, there's a good chance that another service is restarting the service for you to do something inparticular. i.e. orchestration packages, cron, etc.