Problems starting server: Server startup failed

Question:

When I attempt to start a stream, Centova Cast displays:

Server could not be started : Server startup failed

Or:

Server could not be started: Server exited immediately after startup

Answer:

This indicates that Centova Cast could not start your streaming server (SHOUTcast DNAS or IceCast).

When this error message is displayed, you should be prompted to try starting the server in diagnostic mode; please do so and see if any relevant information is displayed.

If diagnostic mode does not explain the problem, you will need to review the server logs. To do so:

  1. Login to the affected account and click the View Logs link under the Management heading.

  2. Scroll to the bottom of the log page and select click the Error Log link.

  3. Review the error log to determine the cause of the startup failure. Note that the error log is displayed from OLDEST to NEWEST so you need to select the very last page of log data to see the recent entries.

While there can be many reasons why a server would fail to start, the following are some common log entries you may see:

  • [main] error opening source socket! FATAL ERROR! Some other process is using this port!

    This indicates that another application is using the same port number that you assigned to your stream. To correct this error, you need to either stop the other application from using this port number, or change your stream settings to use an alternate port.

    Note that this error can also appear if you have configured the stream for an IP address that does not exist on your server. See "My error log says the port is in use, but it's not" below.

  • [main] failed to alloc (-715457992) bytes for clients

    This indicates that you have set your listener limit to an unrealistic value (such as 99999). Setting a reasonable listener limit will resolve this problem.

Log file does not exist / My error log is empty

If the error log is empty or does not exist, this usually indicates one of the following:

  • The pathname your SHOUTcast or IceCast server binary is incorrect.

    To check your path to SHOUTcast/IceCast, login to Centova Cast as admin, click on Server Software, then select SHOUTcast (or IceCast) and look in the Pathname field.

    To verify that the pathname is correct, login to your server via SSH.

    For SHOUTcast DNAS v1 or v2, type the pathname and press enter. If the path is correct you should see "SHOUTcast Distributed Network Audio Server" start up.

    For IceCast, type the pathname followed by a space, and then "-v". For example, /usr/bin/icecast -v. This should yield "IceCast v2.3.2" or similar.

    If you receive errors of any kind, this indicates that your pathname is incorrect.

  • There is a permissions/ownership problem on your files/directories.

    Please check that your /home/centovacast/vhosts/ directory, the subdirectory for the stream you are trying to start, and all of the files and directories within that subdirectory are owned by the "centovacast" UNIX user account and have "sane" permissions (i.e., NOT chmod 0777). If you need to correct your account permissions/ownerships, please refer to the "Manual Recovery" section of our Disaster Recovery article.

  • A configuration problem is preventing SHOUTcast/IceCast from starting up. For example, if the port number you have chosen is already in use by another program on your server, you may see this error.

I'm seeing a "No such file or directory" error

If you are seeing a message stating No such file or directory below the Server startup failed error, you are likely using a 64-bit Linux distribution without 32-bit runtime libraries installed.

This is not related to Centova Cast; all 64-bit Linux distributions require 32-bit runtime libraries in order to run 32-bit software. SHOUTcast DNAS is a 32-bit application, so it will fail to run without those libraries installed.

Please ask your systems administrator to check this for you. On Debian-based servers, installing the 32-bit runtime libraries is as simple as running:

apt-get install ia32-libs

My error log says the port or address is in use, but it's not

If you see the FATAL ERROR! Some other process is using this port! or Address already in use error, but you know the port is not in use, this usually indicates that you've configured the stream to listen on an IP address that has not been configured on your server.

Please check the IP address configured for the stream and ensure that it matches one of the IP addresses configured on your server. The IP addresses configured on the server can be listed using the ifconfig utility.

If that does not resolve the problem, login to your server via SSH as root and run netstat -tlnp to see which process is using the selected port.

I still can't get it to work

If you still experience problems after checking all of the above items, please open a ticket with the helpdesk and provide the following information. Note that we will only be able to diagnose the problem if all of the following items are provided:

Please include in your ticket:

  • The complete error messages and diagnostic mode output from when you try to start the server.
  • The last page of log text from your error log.
  • The URL and admin password for your Centova Cast installation

NOTE: This article is for Centova Cast v2 only; an alternate version exists for Centova Cast v3.