Systemd service automatic restart after StartLimitInterval

systemd

I want my systemd service to be automatically restarted on failure. Additionally I want to rate limit the restarts. I want to allow maximum of 3 restarts within 90 seconds duration. Hence I have done the following configuration.

[Service]  
Restart=always  
StartLimitInterval=90  
StartLimitBurst=3

Now the service is restarted on failure. After 3 Quick failures/restarts it is not restarting anymore as expected. Now I expected the systemd to start the service after the timeout (StartLimitInterval). But the systemd is not automatically starting the service after the timeout(90sec), if I manually restart the service after the timeout it is working. But I want the systemd to automatically start the service after the StartLimitInterval. Please let me know on how to achieve this feature.

Best Answer

To have a service restart 3 times at 90 second intervals include the following lines in your systemd service file:

[Unit]
StartLimitIntervalSec=400
StartLimitBurst=3
[Service]
Restart=always
RestartSec=90

Before systemd-230 it was called just StartLimitInterval:

[Unit]
StartLimitInterval=400
StartLimitBurst=3
[Service]
Restart=always
RestartSec=90

This worked worked for me for a service that runs a script using Type=idle. Note that StartLimitIntervalSec must be greater than RestartSec * StartLimitBurst otherwise the service will be restarted indefinitely.

It took me some time with a lot of trial and error to work out how systemd uses these options, which suggests that systemd isn't as well documented as one would hope. These options effectively provide the retry cycle time and maximum retries that I was looking for.

References: https://manpages.debian.org/testing/systemd/systemd.unit.5.en.html for Unit section https://manpages.debian.org/testing/systemd/systemd.exec.5.en.html for Service section

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