LINUX: How to Enable Service On Linux Nodes Using Systemctl Command? (How To Doc)

On Linux 7 & above versions "chkconfig --list" command cannot be used for enabling the services.
We will have to use systemctl command to check and enable services on Linux 7 and above versions.

Follow below steps to enable the desired service on Linux OS using systemctl command.

1. Check the status of the service using below command.

systemctl list-unit-files | grep -i <service name>

Below is sample output which shows the status of docker as disabled.

# systemctl list-unit-files | grep -i docker

docker.service                                disabled

docker.socket                                 disabled

2. Enable the desired service using below command.

systemctl enable docker

Below is sample snippet of enabling the docker service using systemctl command.

# systemctl enable docker

Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/docker.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/docker.service.

3. Check the status of the service using below command.

systemctl list-unit-files | grep -i <service name>

You will see that the service is enabled. Below is the sample output which shows docker service as being enabled.

# systemctl list-unit-files | grep -i docker

docker.service                                enabled

docker.socket                                 disabled

Products to which Article Applies

All Host Operating Systems Using ILOM

Additional Reference

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-systemctl-to-manage-systemd-services-and-units

tarun boyella