Running webserver (ASP.net core 2.0) on Raspberry Pi as service not working

Question

I'm running a ASP.net Core 2.0 on my raspberry Pi, called IoTServer, for homeautomation.

It runs fine, on port 5003, when I start it manually.

> pi@raspberrypi:~/Programs/iotserver $ ./IoTServer Hosting environment:
> Production Content root path: /home/pi/Programs/iotserver Now
> listening on: http://[::]:5003 Application started. Press Ctrl+C to
> shut down.

However, once I move it to a service, it still seems to start up fine, without any errors, but it can no longer be reached on 127.0.0.1:5003 or via LAN.

How can I debug this? I've tried different user pi and root, but no difference.

I use the systemmd style of running it.

[Unit]
Description=IoTServer
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=root
WorkingDirectory=/home/pi/Programs/iotserver
ExecStart=/home/pi/Programs/iotserver/IoTServer
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

When I check the status of the service it shows:

   pi@raspberrypi:~ $ service iotserver status
● iotserver.service - IoTserver
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/iotserver.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Thu 2018-08-16 19:09:18 CEST; 4min 40s ago
 Main PID: 445 (IoTServer)
   CGroup: /system.slice/iotserver.service
           └─445 /home/pi/Programs/iotserver/IoTServer

Aug 16 19:10:11 raspberrypi IoTServer[445]: info: Microsoft.AspNetCore.DataProtection.KeyManagement.XmlKeyManager[0]
Aug 16 19:10:11 raspberrypi IoTServer[445]:       User profile is available. Using '/root/.local/share/ASP.NET/DataProtection-Keys' as key repository; keys wil
Aug 16 19:10:17 raspberrypi IoTServer[445]: Hosting environment: Production
Aug 16 19:10:17 raspberrypi IoTServer[445]: Content root path: /
Aug 16 19:10:17 raspberrypi IoTServer[445]: Now listening on: http://[::]:5003
Aug 16 19:10:17 raspberrypi IoTServer[445]: Application started. Press Ctrl+C to shut down.
Aug 16 19:13:38 raspberrypi IoTServer[445]: info: Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting.Internal.WebHost[1]
Aug 16 19:13:38 raspberrypi IoTServer[445]:       Request starting HTTP/1.1 GET http://192.168.1.100:5003/
Aug 16 19:13:40 raspberrypi IoTServer[445]: info: Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting.Internal.WebHost[2]
Aug 16 19:13:40 raspberrypi IoTServer[445]:       Request finished in 1975.3237ms 404

Edit: It does seem to receive and process the request, but it is not fed back to the requestor.

Answer 1

You should add the statement to the [Unit] section:

Wants=network.target

If it does not help instead you can try to use:

Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target

But this should only be used if really needed because it may slow down bootup.

I have just answered a question why you should use Wants=: Service failing to wait for internet connection.

When using systemd you should also use its native commands, e.g. for the status:

rpi ~$ systemctl status iotserver.service
rpi ~$ journalctl --unit=iotserver.service

or just everything with:

rpi ~$ journalctl -e -x   # you may omit -x

Because the server is running but without connection I suppose it initializes its interfaces on startup and doesn't care if they are working later.