start nodebb.service failed with error Service hold-off time over, scheduling restart

[leonrennz]

I follow the instruction below to setup my environment
NodeBB setup

And when I try to start it as a service, below message shows

service nodebb status
● nodebb.service - NodeBB forum Documentation=http://nodebb.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/nodebb.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: inactive (dead) since Sun 2017-10-15 23:11:50 UTC; 1min 26s ago
  Process: 11592 ExecStart=/usr/bin/node loader.js –no-daemon –no-silent (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 11592 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Oct 15 23:11:50 instance-ubuntu1604 systemd[1]: nodebb.service: Service hold-off time over, scheduling restart.
Oct 15 23:11:50 instance-ubuntu1604 systemd[1]: Stopped NodeBB forum Documentation=http://nodebb.readthedocs.io/en/latest/.
Oct 15 23:11:50 instance-ubuntu1604 systemd[1]: nodebb.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Oct 15 23:11:50 instance-ubuntu1604 systemd[1]: Failed to start NodeBB forum Documentation=http://nodebb.readthedocs.io/en/latest/.

Below is my nodebb.service file

[Unit]
Description=NodeBB forum Documentation=http://nodebb.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
After=system.slice multi-user.target
[Service]
Type=simple
User=liangren64
StandardOutput=syslog
StandardError=syslog
SyslogIdentifier=nodebb
Environment=NODE_ENV=production
WorkingDirectory=/home/liangren64/nodebb
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node loader.js –no-daemon –no-silent
Restart=always
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Please note that when I start nodebb manually, it is all good

[email protected]:~/nodebb$ ./nodebb start
Starting NodeBB
  "./nodebb stop" to stop the NodeBB server
  "./nodebb log" to view server output
  "./nodebb restart" to restart NodeBB

so I do not think it is the nodebb's issue, I think maybe something wrong with my nodebb.service but I am not the profssional with systmd, so if anyone with knowledge please help me

[teh_g]

@leonrennz I think your ExecStart command is off a little. The documentation (https://docs.nodebb.org/configuring/running/) says to use /usr/bin/env node loader.js --no-silent --no-daemon

[leonrennz]

@teh_g Sorry, I do not have this directory.

[PitaJ]

/usr/bin/env is an executable program that will launch the following command with the user's environment.

[julian]

@leonrennz What happens when you run /usr/bin/node loader.js –no-daemon –no-silent as the liangren64 user?

[PJ Legendre]

Hello, I currently have the same issue. Did this ever get resolved?

[julian]

@pj-legendre Have you tried the updated systemd config here?

Running NodeBB - NodeBB Documentation

[PJ Legendre]

@julian I found another portion of the docs that had a nodebb.service file that worked. That being said, the Ubuntu installation tutorial needs to get updated to include the working configuration.

Ubuntu tutorial - near the bottom has nodebb.service file that does not work and formatting issues.

Running NodeBB - nodebb.readthedocs.io does not include setup with systemd.

Running NodeBB - docs.nodebb.org works.

How come the main site does not link to either of these docs pages and how come there are two? Which one should I refer to in the future?

[julian]

The readthedocs portal is an archive and is outdated. You can always rely on docs.nodebb.org