Zzabbix agent fails to start - folder /var/run/zabbix/ missing after reboot

[ilia]

i have lots of zabbix clients, but i have this annoying issue on few of them

after reboot the agent fails to start:

service zabbix-agent status
● zabbix-agent.service - Zabbix Agent
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/zabbix-agent.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Sun 2020-09-13 11:49:48 IDT; 3s ago
Docs: man:zabbix_agentd
Process: 26552 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/zabbix_agentd --foreground (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
Main PID: 26552 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Sep 13 11:49:48 dev5 systemd[1]: Started Zabbix Agent.
Sep 13 11:49:48 dev5 zabbix_agentd[26552]: zabbix_agentd [26552]: cannot create PID file [/var/run/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.pid]: [2] N
Sep 13 11:49:48 dev5 systemd[1]: zabbix-agent.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Sep 13 11:49:48 dev5 systemd[1]: zabbix-agent.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.


if i create the folder under zabbix:zabbix
and start service again it works (until next reboot)

[Atsushi]

Please tell me the distribution and version of the OS you are using. What version of Zabbix agent and how did you install it?
If you are using Zabbix official package, it should be set according to each OS. For example, if you installed from source, you need to add a setting to create a directory when the OS starts.

[ilia]

the error occurs on ubuntu 18.04 (3 out of around 30 machines )
we install using ansible script:


tasks/main.yml

---
- name: Create group zabbix
group:
name: zabbix
system: yes
state: present

- name: Install Zabbix repo on CentOS
yum:
name: https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/{{ zabbix_agent_version }}/rhel/{{ ansible_distribution_major_version }}/x86_64/zabbix-release-{{ zabbix_agent_version }}-1.el{{ ansible_distribution_major_version }}.noarch.rpm
state: present
when: ansible_pkg_mgr == "yum"

- name: Install zabbix-agent
package:
state: present
pkg:
- zabbix-agent

- name: update /etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.conf
copy: src=root/etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.conf dest=/etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.conf owner=root group="{{ zabbix_agentd_conf_group }}"

- name: Check if firewalld service is installed
command: systemctl status firewalld
register: firewalld_exists
changed_when: False
failed_when: firewalld_exists.rc > 4

- name: Configure firewall to enable access to Zabbix agent
block:
- name: Check if 'zabbix' is recognizsed as a service
shell: "firewall-cmd --get-service | fgrep -q zabbix"
changed_when: False

- name: Allow incoming connection from Zabbix server
firewalld:
rich_rule: rule service name="zabbix-agent" accept
zone: public
permanent: yes
immediate: yes
state: enabled
notify:
- restart firewalld
when: firewalld_exists.rc == 0

- stat: path=/var/log/zabbix-agent/
register: zabbix_path_fix

- name: fix zabbix log path
file:
src: /var/log/zabbix-agent
dest: /var/log/zabbix
state: link
when: zabbix_path_fix.stat.isdir is defined and zabbix_path_fix.stat.isdir

- name: Restart service zabbix-agent
service:
name: zabbix-agent
state: restarted

defaults/main.yml

---
zabbix_agentd_conf_group: zabbix
zabbix_agent_version: 5.0

and the config itself have noting special - just zabbix server ip is set)