Job for fail2ban.service failed because the control process exited with error code

Question

I have installed fail2ban on my server (OS: Ubuntu 16.0.4 LTS). When I try to start it, I get the following error message:

Job for fail2ban.service failed because the control process exited with error code.

Here are the outputs for various diagnostic commands:

morpheous@ZEUS:~$ sudo systemctl status fail2ban.service
● fail2ban.service - Fail2Ban Service
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/fail2ban.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: inactive (dead) (Result: exit-code) since Sat 2016-10-29 11:46:36 UTC; 18s ago
     Docs: man:fail2ban(1)
  Process: 23122 ExecStart=/usr/bin/fail2ban-client -x start (code=exited, status=255)

Oct 29 11:46:36 ZEUS systemd[1]: fail2ban.service: Unit entered failed state.
Oct 29 11:46:36 ZEUS systemd[1]: fail2ban.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Oct 29 11:46:36 ZEUS systemd[1]: fail2ban.service: Service hold-off time over, scheduling restart.
Oct 29 11:46:36 ZEUS systemd[1]: Stopped Fail2Ban Service.
Oct 29 11:46:36 ZEUS systemd[1]: fail2ban.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Oct 29 11:46:36 ZEUS systemd[1]: Failed to start Fail2Ban Service.



morpheous@ZEUS:~$ sudo journalctl -xe
Oct 29 11:46:36 ZEUS systemd[1]: fail2ban.service: Service hold-off time over, scheduling restart.
Oct 29 11:46:36 ZEUS systemd[1]: Stopped Fail2Ban Service.
-- Subject: Unit fail2ban.service has finished shutting down
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- 
-- Unit fail2ban.service has finished shutting down.
Oct 29 11:46:36 ZEUS systemd[1]: fail2ban.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Oct 29 11:46:36 ZEUS systemd[1]: Failed to start Fail2Ban Service.
-- Subject: Unit fail2ban.service has failed
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
-- 
-- Unit fail2ban.service has failed.
-- 
-- The result is failed.
Oct 29 11:46:55 ZEUS sudo[23124]: morpheous : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/home/morpheous ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/bin/systemctl status fail2ban.service
Oct 29 11:46:55 ZEUS sudo[23124]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by morpheous(uid=0)
Oct 29 11:46:55 ZEUS sudo[23124]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Oct 29 11:47:01 ZEUS kernel: iptables_INPUT_denied: IN=eth0 OUT= MAC=[mac_address] SRC=[lan_ip_address] DST=[server_ip_address]
Oct 29 11:47:09 ZEUS sudo[23128]: morpheous : TTY=pts/0 ; PWD=/home/morpheous ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/bin/journalctl -xe
Oct 29 11:47:09 ZEUS sudo[23128]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by morpheous(uid=0)
lines 1353-1374/1374 (END)

Does anyone know what's going on here, and more importantly - how to resolve this issue?

Solution 1

Per Homunculus Reticulli, Oct 29 '16 at 18:26, the following suggestion resolved my issue:

cp /etc/fail2ban/jail.conf /etc/fail2ban/jail.local

Solution 2

If I am not wrong you have not installed any MTA (sendmail/postfix) on the server. Try to restart the fail2ban after installing the sendmail/postfix.

I have fixed the issue after installing the MTA.

Comments

[You'reAGitForNotUsingGit]

Have a look here: github.com/fail2ban/fail2ban/issues/1396

[Homunculus Reticulli]

@AndroidDev, I just copied over /etc/fail2ban/jail.conf to /etc/fail2ban/jail.local, and it is working now - with all the defaults left unmodified. Perhaps you should submit this as an answer.

[You'reAGitForNotUsingGit]

Okay, let me get this right, the fix was to run cp /etc/fail2ban/jail.conf /etc/fail2ban/jail.local?

[Homunculus Reticulli]

@AndroidDev Yes, I decided to go with the default instead of making modifications to the file. It appears, some of the edits I made previously, caused the script to fail.

[Eric Darchis]

My error was that I added a file in /etc/jail.d/foo.conf with an ignoreip=... I removed that file, made a jail.local instead and all was good. It's a pity that there isn't a single clue in the logs about this.