I need some help tracking down the reason why Apache won’t start on a new server install. I set it up the same way I have all other AlmaLinux 8-9 servers in the past but I can’t find a reason for the failure.
Here’s what I get when I try to start Apache:
[root@ncd ~]# systemctl restart httpd
Job for httpd.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See "systemctl status httpd.service" and "journalctl -xeu httpd.service" for details.
[root@ncd ~]# systemctl status httpd.service
× httpd.service - The Apache HTTP Server
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
Drop-In: /etc/systemd/system/httpd.service.d
└─php-fpm.conf
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Sun 2025-08-24 21:54:26 EDT; 30s ago
Invocation: 442fe177ec1b486395e56d1c932a227e
Docs: man:httpd.service(8)
Process: 4066 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/httpd $OPTIONS -DFOREGROUND (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
Main PID: 4066 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
Status: "Reading configuration..."
Mem peak: 3.1M
CPU: 144ms
Aug 24 21:54:25 ncdot.cc systemd[1]: Starting httpd.service - The Apache HTTP Server...
Aug 24 21:54:26 ncdot.cc (httpd)[4066]: httpd.service: Referenced but unset environment variable evaluates to an empty string: OPTIONS
Aug 24 21:54:26 ncdot.cc systemd[1]: httpd.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Aug 24 21:54:26 ncdot.cc systemd[1]: httpd.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Aug 24 21:54:26 ncdot.cc systemd[1]: Failed to start httpd.service - The Apache HTTP Server.
[root@ncd ~]#
[root@ncd ~]# apachectl configtest
Syntax OK
[root@ncd ~]#
I did find this in /var/log/httpd/error_log but the log file listed in the error log and all directories have the same user:group and permissions as all of the other working servers:
(30)Read-only file system: AH00091: httpd: could not open error log file /home/ncdot/logs/error.log.
AH00015: Unable to open logs
I’ve spent hours trying to figure this out. I’m stumped.