An administrator notices that a web service that was running properly until recently has suddenly become unreachable from the network. The server is up and running with no recent changes to the firewall. Running systemctl status shows that the service is active (running). What should be the administrator's NEXT step in troubleshooting this issue?
Use netstat or ss to check if the server is listening on the correct port.
Check the /etc/hosts file for any incorrect entries that might be causing name resolution issues for the service.
Check the systemd journal for the service (journalctl -u <service_name>) for error messages.
Restart the entire server to ensure that all services are loaded properly.
Checking the server's listening ports using netstat or ss is the correct next step because it directly verifies if the web service is bound to the correct network port and is listening for connections. This quickly confirms or denies if the networking component of the service is active. While checking the systemd journal for errors is a crucial step for diagnosing the root cause, it is typically performed after confirming the immediate state of the network socket. Checking the /etc/hosts file is less relevant as the issue is reachability, not necessarily name resolution. Restarting the entire server is a disruptive action that avoids diagnosis and is not a methodical troubleshooting step.
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What do tools like netstat or ss do in troubleshooting?
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What does it mean for a service to 'listen on a port'?
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Why isn't checking the /etc/hosts file helpful in this case?