Cannot start iptables on RHEL 7

Question

I am trying to use iptables on a RHEL7. I have performed the following:

systemctl mask firewalld
systemctl stop firewalld
yum install iptables-services
systemctl enable iptables
systemctl start iptables

But the last line errors:

Job for iptables.service failed because the control process exited with error code. See "systemctl status iptables.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.

journalctl -u service-name.service
-- No entries --

and journalctl -xe

Jan 13 12:30:03 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: Unit iptables.service entered failed state.
Jan 13 12:30:03 localhost.localdomain systemd[1]: iptables.service failed.
Jan 13 12:30:03 localhost.localdomain polkitd[10240]: Unregistered Authentication Agent for unix-process:27798:561438909 (system bus name :1.22082, object path /org/freedesktop/P
lines 1222-1263/1263 (END)

Which only tells me it failed, not the cause, and I don't know what Unregistered Authentication Agent for unix-process means or if it's related. I believe it is because it always follows the iptables error lines. But I don't know what this means, or specifically how to remedy it. Nor which is cause and which is effect.

Additionally:

sudo iptables -S
-P INPUT ACCEPT
-P FORWARD ACCEPT
-P OUTPUT ACCEPT

sestatus
SELinux status:                 enabled
SELinuxfs mount:                /sys/fs/selinux
SELinux root directory:         /etc/selinux
Loaded policy name:             targeted
Current mode:                   permissive
Mode from config file:          enforcing
Policy MLS status:              enabled
Policy deny_unknown status:     allowed
Max kernel policy version:      28

and iptables-restore hangs.

This other post is no help.

Resolved:

I am not sure exactly what was the real cause, handle locks or whatever, but after a couple of reboots and running iptables-restore, I am now able to get the service started.

How to I get iptables services started?

Solution

Short answer I know, but I had a similar issue and a reboot fixed it. The service was started on boot and then I could stop and start as normal.

Comments

[Admin]

@JacobEvans - No, but I am not using IPv6 either at the moment.

[Admin]

did you try systemctl daemon-reload before systemctl start iptables

[Admin]

@JacobEvans no but I just tried with same results.

[Roy Hinkley]

Thanks for the suggestion, but same results.

[bao7uo]

Sorry it didn't work

[Roy Hinkley]

After a couple more reboots and restore attempts, everything is now working. So, I am accepting this as my answer.