the service 'sshd' is currently down on 'da-server'

[xtreamsolutions]

Operating System: Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie)
Kernel: Linux 6.12.57+deb13-cloud-amd64
Architecture: x86-64
Hardware Vendor: QEMU
Hardware Model: Standard PC _i440FX + PIIX, 1996_
Firmware Version: rel-1.17.0-0-gb52ca86e094d-prebuilt.qemu.org
Firmware Date: Tue 2014-04-01
Firmware Age: 11y 9month 1w 3d
DirectAdmin 1.691


Persistent "sshd is down" Alerts Despite Custom Service

DirectAdmin sends hourly alerts that "the service 'sshd' on server is currently down" for the past 30 days. This started after changing SSH to a custom systemd service (sshd-tailscale.service) on port 2xxx.

Current Configuration​

# /usr/local/directadmin/conf/directadmin.conf
sshd_port=2xxx
sshd=sshd-tailscale

# /usr/local/directadmin/data/admin/services.statussshd=ON

Custom Service Script Created

# /usr/local/directadmin/scripts/custom/service_sshd.sh
#!/bin/bash
case "$1" in
    start|stop|restart|reload) systemctl "$1" sshd-tailscale ;;
    status) systemctl is-active --quiet sshd-tailscale && echo "sshd-tailscale is running" || { echo "sshd-tailscale is not running"; exit 1; } ;;
esac

$ systemctl status sshd-tailscale.service
● sshd-tailscale.service - OpenSSH server daemon (Tailscale-aware)
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/sshd-tailscale.service; enabled)
     Active: active (running)

$ ss -tlnp | grep 2xxx
LISTEN 0  128  0.0.0.0:2xxx  0.0.0.0:*  users:(("sshd",pid=2385,fd=6))

Questions​

1. Is the custom script location and naming correct for DirectAdmin 1.691?
2. Is there an additional step required for DirectAdmin to use the custom service script?
3. How can I clear the existing cached alerts?
4. Is there a log file where I can verify DirectAdmin is using my custom script?

 

[DrWizzle]

if you're running Ubuntu/Debian on your server, it seems to be a bug. If I run:

systemctl enable ssh
systemctl restart ssh

then it seems to show as active in the panel and doesn't report that sshd is down.

If this is on another distro, maybe another member has another solution?

 

[zEitEr]

# /usr/local/directadmin/conf/directadmin.conf
sshd_port=2xxx
sshd=sshd-tailscale

DirectAdmin does not have such settings as far as I know. I would suggest using official docs instead of trying AI to work out a solution:

- https://docs.directadmin.com/

The command da config lists all supported variables, and there neither sshd_port nor sshd can be seen there:

[root@server ~]# da config | grep ssh
sshdconfig=/etc/ssh/sshd_config
[root@server ~]#

I've never seen anything like /usr/local/directadmin/scripts/custom/service_sshd.sh either.

DirectAdmin does not have a systemd file for SSHd service. So you should stick with the one from the OS, and use its standard way to customize it.

DirectAdmin manages only those ones which are to be installed by DirectAdmin (SSHd is not among them):

[root@server ~]# ls /usr/local/directadmin/custombuild/configure/systemd -1
clamd.service.debian
dovecot.service
exim.service
freshclam.service
httpd.service
litespeed.service
mariadb.service
mariadb.service.binary
mysqld57.service.binary
mysqld.service
mysqld.service.binary
nginx.service
openlitespeed.service
php-fpm56.service
php-fpm70.service
php-fpm71.service
php-fpm72.service
php-fpm73.service
php-fpm74.service
php-fpm80.service
php-fpm81.service
php-fpm82.service
php-fpm83.service
php-fpm84.service
php-fpm85.service
proftpd.service
pure-certd.service
pure-ftpd.service
pure-uploadscript.service
[email protected]
redis-rspamd.service
[email protected]
rspamd.service
spamassassin.service
unit.service
[root@server ~]#

 

[Ohm J]

change the service name inside "/usr/local/directadmin/data/admin/services.status" to your custom ssh service and restart the directadmin.