Why Does sshd Fail to Be Started on a Linux ECS?

Symptom

The sshd service fails to be started on a Linux ECS, and /var/empty/sshd cannot be accessed.

Scenarios

The operations described in this section apply to ECSs running CentOS 7 or EulerOS. For other Linux OSs, the operations may be different.

Cause 1: Owner of /var/empty/sshd Is Not root

1. The sshd service fails to be started, and the journal log records "/var/empty/sshd must be owned by root and not group or world-writable."

   journalctl -xe

   

2. Check the owner of the /var/empty/sshd file.

   ll /var/empty/sshd

   

   As shown in the preceding figure, the owner of the /var/empty/sshd file is not root.

3. Modify the owner and permissions of the /var/empty/sshd file.

   chown -R root.root /var/empty/sshd

   chmod -R 711 /var/empty/sshd

4. Run the following command to restart the sshd service:

   systemctl restart sshd

Cause 2: /var/empty/sshd Does Not Exist

1. Run the following command to query the failure causes:

   journalctl -xe

   

2. As shown in the preceding figure, the sshd service fails to be started because the /var/empty/sshd file does not exist. Run the following command to manually create the file:

   mkdir -p /var/empty/sshd

3. Restart the sshd service.

   systemctl restart sshd