Run metricbeat with old kernels where original init.d script fails with `kernel too old` message

_run_metricbeat_with_old_kernels.md

In old kernels (~2.6.20) beats fail to start with a message like this:

FATAL: kernel too old
/bin/bash: line 1:  5496 Segmentation fault      /usr/share/metricbeat/bin/metricbeat-god -r / -n -p /var/run/metricbeat.pid -- /usr/share/metricbeat/bin/metricbeat -c /etc/metricbeat/metricbeat.yml -path.home /usr/share/metricbeat -path.config /etc/metricbeat -path.data /var/lib/metricbeat -path.logs /var/log/metricbeat
                                                           [FAILED]

You can replace original /etc/init.d/metricbeat file with this script to run metricbeat in old Red Hat systems. After replacing the file run checkconfig --add metricbeat so metricbeat starts automatically with every system start.

This was tested in:

Distribution	Kernel	Test result
Fedora 8	2.6.23.1-42.fc8	Original metricbeat init.d script fails. This script works OK.
Fedora 8	2.6.26.8-57.fc8	Both original and this init.d scripts works OK.
CentOS 5.2	2.6.18-92.1.22.el5	Original metricbeat init.d script fails. This script works OK.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.11 (Tikanga)	2.6.18-409.el5	Original metricbeat init.d script fails. This script is no tested, but should work OK.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.11 (Tikanga)	2.6.18-412.el5	Original metricbeat init.d script fails. This script is no tested, but should work OK.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.11 (Tikanga)	2.6.18-416.el5	Original metricbeat init.d script fails. This script is no tested, but should work OK.

metricbeat

#!/bin/bash
# chkconfig: 345 99 01
# description: Metricbeat startup script for old RH systems
# processname: metricbeat

. /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions

prog="metricbeat"
prog_path="/usr/share/metricbeat/bin/"
OPTIONS="-c /etc/metricbeat/metricbeat.yml -path.home /usr/share/metricbeat -path.config /etc/metricbeat -path.data /var/lib/metricbeat -path.logs /var/log/metricbeat &"

pidfile="/var/run/$prog.pid"
lockfile="/var/lock/subsys/$prog"
RETVAL=0

start() {
    echo -n $"Starting $prog: "
    daemon $prog_path$prog $OPTIONS
    RETVAL=$?
    echo
    [ $RETVAL = 0 ] && touch ${lockfile}
    return $RETVAL    
}

stop() {
    echo -n $"Stopping $prog: "
    killproc -d 10 $prog
    RETVAL=$?
    echo
    [ $RETVAL = 0 ] && rm -f ${lockfile} ${pidfile}
}

case "$1" in
    start)
        start
        ;;
    stop)
        stop
        ;;
    status)
        status $prog
        RETVAL=$?
        ;;
    restart)
        stop
        start
        ;;
    *)
        echo $"Usage: $prog {start|stop|restart|status}"
        exit 1
esac

exit $RETVAL