Not able to start Kafka service

Question

I am trying to start Kafka server using:

$ ​sudo systemctl start kafka

but I am getting the following error:

Failed to start kafka.service: Unit kafka.service not found.

Answer 1

You might not have created the systemd service for kafka. To do this, open the kafka.service file:

$ sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/kafka.service

And add the following entries:

[Unit]

Requires=zookeeper.service

After=zookeeper.service


[Service]

Type=simple

User=kafka

ExecStart=/bin/sh -c '/home/kafka/kafka/bin/kafka-server-start.sh /home/kafka/kafka/config/server.properties > /home/kafka/kafka/kafka.log 2>&1'

ExecStop=/home/kafka/kafka/bin/kafka-server-stop.sh

Restart=on-abnormal


[Install]

WantedBy=multi-user.target

And then run:

$ ​sudo systemctl start kafka

Hope this will help.

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Thank You

Answer 2

If your service, in this case kafka, doesn't have a .service at the end of its name the system will not recognize the file as a service file. Simple fix if you have the service created. "sudo cd /etc/systemd/system" then "mv <servicename> <servicename>.service". Should be able to launch from there.