[surferboy]

I had been successfully running web services with Leopard Server for quite while. When I moved my Server installation to another machine, I am now unable to start Web Services in Leopard server. I get the following error: A service has encountered an error. Try to refresh the view (myserver.local/Web). Report the problem to the administrator if it persists. (Could not start web service - details in error log.) 1000002

I am stabbing in the dark, but I see something in the logs that say: could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.0.1 for ServerName.

Not sure where that came from.

Any hints are appreciated.

[besson3c]

What do you get when you enter "apachectl configtest"? What are you seeing in your Apache error log when you try to start up Apache? The warning about missing the ServerName Apache variable (i.e. what you wrote above) is harmless, no problem there.

[surferboy]

I know it can be difficult to try to help someone who has no clue (me), but I assume I am typing this in the terminal?

[besson3c]

yes

[surferboy]

This is what I get:

Last login: Sun Dec 7 17:39:49 on console
mpserver:~ sadmin$ apachectl configtest
httpd: apr_sockaddr_info_get() failed for mpserver.private
httpd: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.0.1 for ServerName
Syntax OK
mpserver:~ sadmin$

[besson3c]

what do you get when you type in "hostname"?

[surferboy]

Last login: Sun Dec 7 22:40:33 on ttys000
mpserver:~ sadmin$ hostname
mpserver.private
mpserver:~ sadmin$

[besson3c]

how about "ping mpserver.private"

[Art Vandelay]

It looks to me that your server was originally called mpserver.local but it is now mpserver.private on the new hardware. Change the name to what it was before.

[surferboy]

Last login: Sun Dec 7 23:30:02 on ttys000
mpserver:~ sadmin$ ping mpserver.private
ping: cannot resolve mpserver.private: Unknown host
mpserver:~ sadmin$

[besson3c]

What Vandelay said... The fact that mpserver.private doesn't exist according to your ping test is the problem.

I'm not sure where the hostname.private convention came into play, I've only seen hostname.local before, but the bottom line is that your machine's hostname needs to be reachable by this name so that Apache can bind to it. Either that, or you specifically write in an alternative reachable name into the ServerName Apache directive in httpd.conf. Normally the error message about using the localhost address (127.0.0.1) is harmless, but in this case Apache is confused.

If you want a really quick fix, I'd enter:

127.0.0.1 mpserver.private

into your /etc/hosts

[surferboy]

You guys are right- I think it's a naming issue. Sorry for the dumb question- how do I find /etc/hosts?

[besson3c]

It's in /etc/hosts. You can edit it with:

sudo nano /etc/hosts

[besson3c]

Or, actually, easier:

sudo echo "127.0.0.1 mpserver.private" >> /etc/hosts

[surferboy]

Get this craziness: I was able to edit the file (I think), but prior to that I was jacking with my server admin settings, and somehow, I changed the name of my server to mpserver-local.local and now I cannot open it. It is greyed out in the Available Servers list and I cannot open it or remove it. So, now I cannot try to turn on Web Services.

I appreciate your help, and cannot believe I just made my life so difficult.

[besson3c]

The OS X GUI is outside of my realm of knowledge, but I would suggest outlining exactly what you did there.

[surferboy]

I figured out a workaround, and I can get back into admin. I still get the error message. In Terminal, I have:

#
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting. Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1 localhost
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1 localhost
fe80::1%lo0 localhost
127.0.0.1 mpserver.private

[Art Vandelay]

If you changed it to mpserver.local, you then need to set Server Admin to connect to that new name. It will still be trying to connect to the old .private name.

.private is now the default Bonjour domain when you setup a server in Leopard.