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Linux service restart

Stop and restart systemd services on a target Linux machine for a configurable duration so you can test how the workload behaves when a service flaps.

Linux service restart is a chaos fault that stops the systemd services in SERVICES on the target Linux machine and then starts them again after INTERVAL, repeating the stop-start cycle for DURATION. Multiple services run in parallel or serial based on SEQUENCE. When SELF_HEALING_SERVICES is true, the fault relies on systemd auto-restart instead of explicitly starting the services. The fault runs through the Linux Chaos Infrastructure (LCI) systemd service installed on the target VM.

Use this fault to test how a workload behaves when a critical service flaps: whether dependents reconnect cleanly, whether work-in-progress is recovered, whether monitoring detects the down/up transitions, and whether systemd auto-restart kicks in within the alerting SLA.

RUN YOUR FIRST EXPERIMENT

If you have not installed the Linux Chaos Infrastructure yet, go to Linux Chaos Infrastructure to install the agent and connect the VM to the control plane.

Use cases

Run this fault when you want to answer concrete questions like:

  • Restart resilience: Does the service come back cleanly after a stop, or does it leave stale state behind?

  • Dependent behavior: Do clients reconnect cleanly when the service flaps, or do connections pile up?

  • Self-healing: With SELF_HEALING_SERVICES=true, does systemd auto-restart trigger within the expected window?

  • Monitoring fidelity: Do alerts on node_systemd_unit_state and end-to-end availability fire within the alerting SLA?

Prerequisites

  • Linux Chaos Infrastructure installed: The linux-chaos-infrastructure systemd service is active on the target VM and the infrastructure is in CONNECTED state. Go to Linux Chaos Infrastructure to install it.

  • Target services exist: Each entry in SERVICES is a systemd unit visible to systemctl status <name> on the target VM.

  • systemd present: The fault uses systemctl to stop and start services.

Supported environments

The fault has been tested on the following Linux distributions. Go to Linux fault requirements to see the full compatibility matrix.

Platform
Support status

Ubuntu 16+, Debian 10+

Supported

CentOS 7+, RHEL 7+, Fedora 30+

Supported

openSUSE LEAP 15.4+ / SUSE Linux Enterprise 15+

Supported

Permissions required

This fault is classified as an Advanced Linux fault. It requires the Linux Chaos Infrastructure systemd service to run with the root user and root user group on the target VM so it can manage systemd units. No cloud credentials are needed.

Fault tunables

Configure the following fault parameters when you add Linux service restart to an experiment in Chaos Studio. Defaults are shown for reference.

Required parameters

Tunable
Description
Default

SERVICES

Comma-separated list of systemd services to restart (for example, nginx.service,postgresql.service).

(required)

Chaos parameters

Tunable
Description
Default

DURATION

Total duration of the fault. Accepts [hours]h[minutes]m[seconds]s format.

30s

SEQUENCE

Execution order for multiple services. Accepts parallel (stop all then start all) or serial (one at a time).

parallel

SELF_HEALING_SERVICES

When true, the fault stops services and relies on systemd auto-restart instead of explicitly starting them. Useful for testing systemd Restart=on-failure.

false

INTERVAL

Time between stop and start cycles for each service. Accepts [hours]h[minutes]m[seconds]s.

30s

RAMP_TIME

Wait period in seconds before and after the fault. Go to ramp time to read how it is applied.

0

Tunables that apply to every fault are documented in common tunables for all faults.

Fault execution in brief

Stops each service in SERVICES (in parallel or serial), waits INTERVAL, then starts the service. Repeats until DURATION ends. With SELF_HEALING_SERVICES=true, the fault stops the services and lets systemd auto-restart handle the recovery.

Expected behavior during fault execution

  • Each target service transitions to inactive (or failed) after the stop, then back to active after the start.

  • systemctl status <service> reports the down/up cycles.

  • Application clients connected to the service see connection resets during the stop window; reconnects succeed after start.

  • After the duration ends, the services are left in their started state.

WHEN THE FAULT ENDS

The chaos pod stops the start-stop loop when DURATION elapses. Services are left in their started state. If SELF_HEALING_SERVICES=true, the fault relies on systemd to bring them back; verify with systemctl status <service>.

Signals to watch

Attach resilience probes to assert each layer:

  • Service state: Use a Prometheus probe on node_systemd_unit_state{name="<service>"} and assert the active/inactive flips happened.

  • Restart count: Use a command probe running systemctl show <service> -p NRestarts and assert it incremented.

  • End-to-end availability: Use an HTTP probe on a user-visible endpoint served by the service.

Verify the fault execution effect

  1. Inspect the service state during chaos.

    The active/inactive transitions and the NRestarts counter should reflect the chaos cycles.

  2. Tail the service journal.

    Look for stop and start markers for each cycle.

  3. Inspect Linux Chaos Infrastructure logs.

Recovery and cleanup

  • End of duration: The chaos pod stops the cycle loop when DURATION elapses. The last action is a start, so services are left running (unless SELF_HEALING_SERVICES=true).

  • Abort the experiment: Stopping the experiment from Chaos Studio also stops the cycle loop and attempts a final start.

  • Manual recovery: If a service is left in inactive or failed after the fault, start it manually with sudo systemctl start <service> and investigate the journal.

  • Workload recovery: Clients reconnect on the next attempt; any work-in-progress lost during the stop window must be reconciled by the application.

Limitations

  • systemd only: The fault uses systemctl. SysV-init or other process supervisors are not directly supported.

  • Single VM scope: Each fault run targets one VM.

  • Service typo: A non-existent service in SERVICES causes the fault to fail without affecting valid entries.

  • Self-kill safeguard: Targeting linux-chaos-infrastructure.service will sever the fault's connection to the control plane and is not allowed in practice.

  • Parallel sequence: With SEQUENCE=parallel, all services are stopped at the same time, which can cascade failures across dependents.

Troubleshooting

Linux service restart fault failed with unit not found in Harness Chaos Engineering

One of the SERVICES entries does not exist on the target VM. Verify with sudo systemctl list-units --all | grep . Use the full unit name including the .service suffix (for example, nginx.service).

Service did not restart with SELF_HEALING_SERVICES=true

systemd auto-restart only triggers when the unit has Restart=on-failure (or always) configured. Verify with sudo systemctl show -p Restart. If unset, set SELF_HEALING_SERVICES=false to let the fault start the service explicitly.

Service left in failed state after the experiment

The service may have failed to start cleanly. Inspect with sudo systemctl status and sudo journalctl -u --since '5 minutes ago'. Reset and restart with sudo systemctl reset-failed && sudo systemctl start .

Related faults

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