Zabbix Server, (HA) "..cannot change mode to HA while standalone node is active"

[john275]

Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS
Zabbix 7.0.13

I have set in /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf

HANodeName=zabbix-l02

NodeAddress=zabbix-l02.example.com

systemctl status zabbix-server.service
○ zabbix-server.service - Zabbix Server
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/zabbix-server.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: inactive (dead) since Thu 2025-05-22 07:32:50 UTC; 7s ago
Docs: man:zabbix_server
Process: 119471 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/zabbix_server --foreground -c /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 119471 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
CPU: 29ms

May 22 07:32:50 zabbix-l02.example.com zabbix_server[119471]: using configuration file: /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf
May 22 07:32:50 zabbix-l02.example.com zabbix_server[119471]: current database version (mandatory/optional): 07000000/07000019
May 22 07:32:50 zabbix-l02.example.com zabbix_server[119471]: required mandatory version: 07000000
May 22 07:32:50 zabbix-l02.example.com zabbix_server[119471]: Starting Zabbix Server. Zabbix 7.0.13 (revision 42673dd61ca).
May 22 07:32:50 zabbix-l02.example.com zabbix_server[119471]: Press Ctrl+C to exit.
May 22 07:32:50 zabbix-l02.example.com zabbix_server[119472]: starting HA manager
May 22 07:32:50 zabbix-l02.example.com zabbix_server[119471]: cannot start server: cannot change mode to HA while standalone node is active
May 22 07:32:50 zabbix-l02.example.com zabbix_server[119472]: HA manager has been stopped
May 22 07:32:50 zabbix-l02.example.com zabbix_server[119471]: Zabbix Server stopped. Zabbix 7.0.13 (revision 42673dd61ca).
May 22 07:32:50 zabbix-l02.example.com systemd[1]: zabbix-server.service: Deactivated successfully.

I'm not able to find any knowledge as to what I may have done wrong, my /etc/zabbix/zabbix.conf.php does not contain $ZBX_SERVER or $ZBX_SERVER_PORT as per Kaspars Mednis blog https://blog.zabbix.com/build-zabbix...ne-2021/18155/ not that I'd expect that to stop zabbix_server from starting up OK.

I note that DB version is not at same release level, but I'm unsure if relevant.

On checking DB table ha_node the address and port are set as

localhost

and port

10051

I suspect that is why HA reports server is in standalone mode.

So I wonder why server starts but does not register as a HA node, when the HANodeName & NodeAddress items are populated in server config file?

[john275]

If I make changes to add the HANodeName=jb-test & NodeAddress=jb-test.example.com:10051 to zabbix_server.conf and comment out $ZBX_SERVER_NAME in zabbix.conf.php on a test 6.0.18 test system, the restart of the service is fine with the FrontEnd reporting:

So wondering f this is a 7.0.13 bug [edit] I installed a vanilla 22.04 and mariadb local and can get HA working happily, so is a local issue, nothing to see here.

[john275]

To follow up, pretty sure the reason of this issue is down to our DBA team not only installing zabbix scripts on DB server cluster but also installing zabbix server and frontend, which quite rightly my HA instance trying to connect to the DB was advised to go away as there is a standalone instance already running ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[fafa194]

To follow up, pretty sure the reason of this issue is down to our DBA team not only installing zabbix scripts on DB server cluster but also installing zabbix server and frontend, which quite rightly my HA instance trying to connect to the DB was advised to go away as there is a standalone instance already running ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Hello, have you found the solution? I'm struggling with the same issue.