fail2ban does not start: Unable to remove PID file

[Tommy10]

I am not able to start fail2ban anymore. It always crashes while it starts.

Error:

Unable to remove PID file: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/var/run/fail2ban/fail2ban.pid'

The directory /var/run/fail2ban/ exists. The PID file does not exist. If I create it it will be deleted but the error still occurs. This is crazy.

I also tried to reinstall fail2ban over the Plesk Installer - the issue still occurs.

My system: Debian 8.4, Plesk 12.5.30 Update #32


$ ls -al /var/run/fail2ban/

total 0
drwxr-x---  2 root root  40 May 23 02:59 .
drwxr-xr-x 26 root root 1080 May 23 02:25 ..

/var/log/fail2ban.log

2016-05-23 02:41:59,874 fail2ban.server  [24474]: DEBUG  Caught signal 15. Exiting
2016-05-23 02:41:59,874 fail2ban.asyncserver  [24474]: DEBUG  Removed socket file /var/run/fail2ban/fail2ban.sock
2016-05-23 02:41:59,874 fail2ban.asyncserver  [24474]: DEBUG  Socket shutdown
2016-05-23 02:41:59,874 fail2ban.server  [24474]: INFO  Stopping all jails
2016-05-23 02:41:59,875 fail2ban.server  [24474]: DEBUG  Stopping jail plesk-apache-badbot
2016-05-23 02:41:59,875 fail2ban.server  [24474]: DEBUG  Stopping jail plesk-roundcube
2016-05-23 02:41:59,875 fail2ban.server  [24474]: DEBUG  Stopping jail plesk-panel
2016-05-23 02:41:59,875 fail2ban.server  [24474]: DEBUG  Stopping jail plesk-apache
2016-05-23 02:41:59,875 fail2ban.server  [24474]: DEBUG  Stopping jail plesk-dovecot
2016-05-23 02:41:59,875 fail2ban.server  [24474]: DEBUG  Stopping jail ssh
2016-05-23 02:41:59,875 fail2ban.server  [24474]: DEBUG  Stopping jail plesk-postfix
2016-05-23 02:41:59,875 fail2ban.server  [24474]: DEBUG  Stopping jail plesk-horde
2016-05-23 02:41:59,875 fail2ban.server  [24474]: DEBUG  Stopping jail plesk-proftpd
2016-05-23 02:41:59,875 fail2ban.server  [24474]: DEBUG  Stopping jail plesk-wordpress
2016-05-23 02:41:59,876 fail2ban.datedetector  [24474]: DEBUG  Sorting the template list
2016-05-23 02:41:59,876 fail2ban.datedetector  [24474]: DEBUG  Winning template: (?:DAY )?MON Day 24hour:Minute:Second(?:\.Microseconds)?(?: Year)? with 0 hits
2016-05-23 02:41:59,876 fail2ban.server  [24474]: DEBUG  Remove PID file /var/run/fail2ban/fail2ban.pid
2016-05-23 02:41:59,876 fail2ban.server  [24474]: ERROR  Unable to remove PID file: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/var/run/fail2ban/fail2ban.pid'
2016-05-23 02:41:59,876 fail2ban.server  [24474]: INFO  Exiting Fail2ban

 

[Tommy10]

I have fixed it the hard way:
$ apt-get purge fail2ban

You need to run "purge" to fully delete all configuration files of `fail2ban`. The Plesk Installer will only remove the `fail2ban` application and not it's configuration files.

Warning: Your fail2ban configurations will be lost.

 

[Antonio_Andina_Pebavad]

I used this

https://kb.plesk.com/en/122407

with same errors as above, for me the solution was to disable all apache-badbot jails created wit the hipelink guide and got started fail2ban with no problem, later little by little, (in six times), enabled the apache-badbot jails again.

Now i can make modifications in fail2ban configuration and is working so fine apache-badbot, apache, courier-imap and postfix jails enabled