'systemd-journald.service' fails to start with error 'Failed to get machine id: No such file or directory'

Solution Verified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 7
  • systemd

Issue

  • The systemd-journald.service does not start with the following errors in journal logs.
Jun 19 00:50:31 rhel7.example.com systemd-journald[32696]: Failed to get machine id: No such file or directory
Jun 19 00:50:31 rhel7.example.com systemd-journald[32744]: Failed to get machine id: No such file or directory
Jun 19 00:50:31 rhel7.example.com systemd-journald[32745]: Failed to get machine id: No such file or directory
Jun 19 00:50:31 rhel7.example.com systemd-journald[32746]: Failed to get machine id: No such file or directory
Jun 19 00:50:31 rhel7.example.com systemd-journald[32747]: Failed to get machine id: No such file or directory

Resolution

  • Initialize the machine ID.
# systemd-machine-id-setup
  • Restart the systemd-journald.service.
# systemctl restart systemd-journald.service

Root Cause

  • The /etc/machine-id was not being initialized. So, It was preventing to start the systemd-journald.service
systemd-journald[32696]: Failed to get machine id: No such file or directory
systemd-journald[32744]: Failed to get machine id: No such file or directory
systemd-journald[32745]: Failed to get machine id: No such file or directory
systemd-journald[32746]: Failed to get machine id: No such file or directory
systemd-journald[32747]: Failed to get machine id: No such file or directory

Diagnostic Steps

  • Check the /etc/machine-id
[root@rhel7  ~]# cat /etc/machine-id 
[root@rhel7  ~]#

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