Unable to start init, probably incorrect template

[Saurabh]

I am unable to start the VPS, please check below output and vzctl logs from the node for more details.

```
[root@sh43 ~]# vzctl start 176
Starting container...
Container is mounted
Adding IP address(es): 107.6.xxx.xxx 107.6.xxx.xxx
Setting CPU limit: 400
Setting CPU units: 1000
Setting CPUs: 4
Unable to start init, probably incorrect template
Container start failed
Killing container ...
Container was stopped
Container is unmounted
```

Logs:
```
2018-02-10T16:54:59-0500 vzctl : CT 176 : Unable to start init, probably incorrect template
2018-02-10T16:54:59-0500 vzctl : CT 176 : Container start failed
2018-02-10T16:54:59-0500 vzctl : CT 176 : Killing container ...
2018-02-10T16:55:00-0500 vzctl : CT 176 : Locked by: pid 133254, cmdline vzctl start 176
2018-02-10T16:55:00-0500 vzctl : CT 176 : Container already locked
2018-02-10T16:55:00-0500 vzctl : CT 176 : Container was stopped
2018-02-10T16:55:00-0500 vzctl : CT 176 : Container is unmounted
```

Please check and advise.

[santosh]

This issue cause because of the init file missing under VPS. You can try the following steps to fix this “Unable to start init, probably incorrect template" error on OpenVZ nodes.

1) Find the distro is the OS Template of?

---> To identify the OS template installed on the VM, use below command on the node:

```
[root@sh43 cache]# cat /etc/vz/conf/176.conf | grep OSTEMPLATE
OSTEMPLATE="centos-6-x86_64"
```

2) Search init file

---> You can check the init file on the VM by using the below command on the node.

[root@sh43 cache]# ll /vz/private/176/sbin/init
ls: cannot access /vz/private/176/sbin/init: No such file or directory


Note : Please replace your container ID. For e.g, here the container ID is 176.

If you can see that the init file is missing or the file size is zero, your VPS will not start.

Resolution

There are two method to fix this issue.

1) You will need to copy the init file from an another VPS using the same OS template.

cp /vz/root/175/sbin/init /vz/private/176/sbin/

2) You can extract the OS template located under /vz/template/cache/ directory and copy the init file from there.

tar -xvf /vz/template/cache/centos-6-x86_64.tar.gz

cp /vz/template/cache/centos-6-x86_64/sbin/init /vz/private/176/sbin/


Now, you can start the VM using the below command without any issue.

vzctl start 176

Note : Replace the container ID with your VPS ID.

Please contact our support Team, if you have any further queries or need assistance.