group apache does not exist - using root

Question

I am trying to install apache webserver in my system, but I am getting this below warning and also not able to start werserver.

$ yum install httpd
warning: group apache does not exist - using root
warning: user apache does not exist - using root
warning: group apache does not exist - using root
warning: group apache does not exist - using root
warning: user apache does not exist - using root
warning: group apache does not exist - using root
warning: user apache does not exist - using root
warning: group apache does not exist - using root
warning: user apache does not exist - using root
warning: group apache does not exist - using root
  Verifying  : httpd-2.4.6-80.el7.x86_64                                           1/1
useradd apache
useradd: existing lock file /etc/gshadow.lock without a PID
user apache does not exist - using root
useradd: cannot lock /etc/gshadow; try again later
$ systemctl start httpd
Job for httpd.service failed because the control process exited with error code. See "systemctl status httpd.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details

Answer 1

Hi@akhtar,

When we install apache wevserver in our system, it will create one user and group named apache. But in your system apache webserver is not able to create user apache because one PID file is already exist. So remove the file and then try to start service.

$ rm -rf /etc/gshadow
$ useradd apache

Hope this will help.