Error running 'multipathd' daemon on OpenStack host

Issue

• Multiple OpenStack compute nodes show 'multipathd' service in 'failed' state:

  
  $ systemctl list-units --all | grep -i multipath
  multipathd.service                    loaded    failed   failed    Device-Mapper Multipath Device Controller
  tripleo_multipathd.service            loaded    active   running   multipathd container
  multipathd.socket                     loaded    inactive dead      multipathd control socket
  

  Users then tried restarting the 'multipathd' service but it failed with below errors:

  
  $ systemctl restart multipathd
  Job for multipathd.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
  See "systemctl status multipathd.service" and "journalctl -xeu multipathd.service" for details.
  
  $ systemctl status multipathd
  × multipathd.service - Device-Mapper Multipath Device Controller
       Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/multipathd.service; disabled; preset: enabled)
       Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Wed 2024-12-25 22:02:33 IST; 11s ago
  TriggeredBy: ○ multipathd.socket
      Process: 221991 ExecStartPre=/sbin/modprobe -a scsi_dh_alua scsi_dh_emc scsi_dh_rdac dm-multipath (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
      Process: 221992 ExecStartPre=/sbin/multipath -A (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
      Process: 221993 ExecStart=/sbin/multipathd -d -s (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
     Main PID: 221993 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
       Status: "shutdown"
        Error: 1 (Operation not permitted)
          CPU: 39ms
  
  systemd[1]: Starting Device-Mapper Multipath Device Controller...
  multipathd[221993]: --------start up--------
  multipathd[221993]: read /etc/multipath.conf
  multipathd[221993]: could not create uxsock: 98
  multipathd[221993]: cli listener failed to start
  multipathd[221993]: --------shut down-------
  systemd[1]: multipathd.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
  systemd[1]: multipathd.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
  systemd[1]: Failed to start Device-Mapper Multipath Device Controller.
  

• On one of the affected nodes, the 'multipathd' daemon went into 'defunct' state:

  
  $ ps auxwwwm | grep -i multipathd
  [...]
  root      971110  0.2  0.0      0     0 ?        -    Jan28  26:08 [multipathd] <defunct>