Unbound won't start on system boot

[Robert Moskowitz]

On 6/12/25 4:40 PM, Jeffrey Walton wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 12, 2025 at 4:01 PM Robert Moskowitz <rgm at htt-consult.com> wrote:
>> Still not starting on boot despite working with service settings.
>>
>> defaults:
>>
>> cat /usr/lib/systemd/system/unbound.service
>> [Unit]
>> Description=Unbound DNS server
>> Documentation=man:unbound(8)
>> After=network.target
>> Before=nss-lookup.target
>> Wants=nss-lookup.target
>>
>> [Service]
>> Type=notify
>> Restart=on-failure
>> EnvironmentFile=-/etc/default/unbound
>> ExecStartPre=-/usr/libexec/unbound-helper chroot_setup
>> ExecStartPre=-/usr/libexec/unbound-helper root_trust_anchor_update
>> ExecStart=/usr/sbin/unbound -d -p $DAEMON_OPTS
>> ExecStopPost=-/usr/libexec/unbound-helper chroot_teardown
>> ExecReload=+/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID
>>
>> [Install]
>> WantedBy=multi-user.target
>>
>> ================
>>
>> so it is already setup for After= but this is not enough.  So via
>>
>> systemctl edit unbound.service
>>
>> cat /etc/systemd/system/unbound.service.d/override.conf
>> [Unit]
>> StartLimitIntervalSec=30  # Allow restarts within a 30-second interval
>> StartLimitBurst=3         # Allow a maximum of 3 restarts within the
>> interval
>>
>> [Service]
>> RestartSec=10             # Wait 10 seconds before restarting
>>
>> ==========================
>>
>> Yet, it fails on boot and this is what status reports:
>>
>> × unbound.service - Unbound DNS server
>>        Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/unbound.service; enabled;
>> preset: enabled)
>>       Drop-In: /etc/systemd/system/unbound.service.d
>>                └─override.conf
>>        Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Thu 2025-06-12 15:46:45
>> EDT; 42s ago
>>          Docs: man:unbound(8)
>>       Process: 1055 ExecStartPre=/usr/libexec/unbound-helper chroot_setup
>> (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
>>       Process: 1057 ExecStartPre=/usr/libexec/unbound-helper
>> root_trust_anchor_update (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
>>       Process: 1060 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/unbound -d -p $DAEMON_OPTS
>> (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
>>       Process: 1063 ExecStopPost=/usr/libexec/unbound-helper
>> chroot_teardown (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
>>      Main PID: 1060 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
>>           CPU: 44ms
>>
>> Jun 12 15:46:45 onlo systemd[1]: unbound.service: Scheduled restart job,
>> restart counter is at 5.
>> Jun 12 15:46:45 onlo systemd[1]: unbound.service: Start request repeated
>> too quickly.
>> Jun 12 15:46:45 onlo systemd[1]: unbound.service: Failed with result
>> 'exit-code'.
>> Jun 12 15:46:45 onlo systemd[1]: Failed to start unbound.service -
>> Unbound DNS server.
>> Jun 12 15:46:45 onlo systemd[1]: unbound.service: Start request repeated
>> too quickly.
>> Jun 12 15:46:45 onlo systemd[1]: unbound.service: Failed with result
>> 'exit-code'.
>> Jun 12 15:46:45 onlo systemd[1]: Failed to start unbound.service -
>> Unbound DNS server.
>>
>> =============================
>>
>> restart works just fine from my login.
>>
>> So why "restart counter is at 5."  And at first I tried
>> StartLimitBurst=2.  I changed it to 3.  Note that it is only trying 2 times.
>>
>> What am I missing here?
> Did you reboot the machine or issue `systemctl daemon-reload` after the changes?

Just rebooted.  No daemon-reload.

> Finally, what does `journalctl -u unbound.service` have to say?

I had to work a little bit to find the messages from the reboot. And I 
don't think these are them, rather from when I did the restart?  Based 
on uptime and current time, I calculate the system was booted closer to 
15:00 and prior to this messages are from 14:45 and are queries.

So it looks like there are problems with the content of my override.conf?

Jun 12 15:16:12 onlo systemd[1]: 
/etc/systemd/system/unbound.service.d/override.conf:3: Failed to parse 
sec value, ignoring: 30  # Allow restarts within a 30-second interval
Jun 12 15:16:12 onlo systemd[1]: 
/etc/systemd/system/unbound.service.d/override.conf:4: Failed to parse 
unsigned value, ignoring: 2         # Allow a maximum of 2 restarts 
within the interval
Jun 12 15:16:12 onlo systemd[1]: 
/etc/systemd/system/unbound.service.d/override.conf:8: Failed to parse 
service restart specifier, ignoring: on-failure        # Restart on failure
Jun 12 15:16:12 onlo systemd[1]: 
/etc/systemd/system/unbound.service.d/override.conf:9: Failed to parse 
sec value, ignoring: 10             # Wait 10 seconds before restarting
Jun 12 15:16:12 onlo systemd[1]: unbound.service: Service has more than 
one ExecStart= setting, which is only allowed for Type=oneshot services. 
Refusing.
Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo unbound[1823]: [1823:0] info: service stopped 
(unbound 1.19.2).
Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo systemd[1]: Stopping unbound.service - unbound...
Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo unbound[1823]: [1823:0] info: server stats for 
thread 0: 16 queries, 0 answers from cache, 16 recursions, 0 prefetch, 0 
rejected by ip ratelimiting
Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo unbound[1823]: [1823:0] info: server stats for 
thread 0: requestlist max 3 avg 0.5625 exceeded 0 jostled 0
Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo unbound[1823]: [1823:0] info: mesh has 0 recursion 
states (0 with reply, 0 detached), 0 waiting replies, 16 recursion 
replies sent, 0 replies dropped, 0 states jostled out
Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo unbound[1823]: [1823:0] info: average recursion 
processing time 0.333283 sec
Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo unbound[1823]: [1823:0] info: histogram of 
recursion processing times
Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo unbound[1823]: [1823:0] info: [25%]=0.131072 
median[50%]=0.23593 [75%]=0.524288
Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo unbound[1823]: [1823:0] info: lower(secs) 
upper(secs) recursions
Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo unbound[1823]: [1823:0] info:    0.001024 0.002048 1
Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo unbound[1823]: [1823:0] info:    0.008192 0.016384 2
Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo unbound[1823]: [1823:0] info:    0.065536 0.131072 1
Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo unbound[1823]: [1823:0] info:    0.131072 0.262144 5
Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo unbound[1823]: [1823:0] info:    0.262144 0.524288 3
Jun 12 15:16:51 onlo unbound[1823]: [1823:0] info:    0.524288 1.000000 4