zabbix-agent fails to start

[Mark Thornton]

The log file /var/log/upstart/zabbix-agent.log contains

mkdir: cannot create directory '/var/run/zabbix': File exists

I think the problem is line in the upstart .conf files of both zabbix-agent and zabbix-server

  [ -d "$DIR" ] || mkdir "$DIR"

If both are started at the same time, then they may both find the directory to be absent and thus both attempt to create it. Obviously one of them will fail. I have arbitrarily filed this bug against zabbix-agent, because it was the one that failed on this occasion.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: zabbix-agent 1:2.2.2+dfsg-1ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-46.77-generic 3.13.11-ckt15
Uname: Linux 3.13.0-46-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.6
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sat Mar 7 17:47:00 2015
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: zabbix
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2014-12-06 (91 days ago)