topic Re: Error: Unable to stop splunk helpers. in Splunk Enterprise

Error: Unable to stop splunk helpers.

jlaigo2 — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:42:23 GMT

I have an indexer that froze and the server was rebooted. When I try to start, stop or even status splunk I get the following error. Has anyone run into this problem and has an answer?

[root@eulpol06 local]# /opt/splunk/bin/splunk stop
splunkd 25332 was not running.
Stopping splunk helpers...
still shutting down helpers...Timed out waiting for splunk helpers to stop. [FAILED]
Error: Unable to stop splunk helpers.
[root@eulpol06 local]#

Thanks,
Jaime

Re: Error: Unable to stop splunk helpers.

Wiggy — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 20:02:36 GMT

When splunk is shut down improperly, sometimes it will leave behind a corrupted PID file in $SPLUNK_HOME/var/run/splunk directory and this error will show up when ./splunk start, restart or status is run.

The following steps should help resolve the issue:

run ps -ef and make sure that Splunkd and Splunkweb are not running.
Then move splunkd.pid and splunkweb.pid from $SPLUNK_HOME/var/run/splunk directory to a temporary directory.
Then try running the command "./splunk status"

The error should no longer show up. After that try restarting and splunk should start up without the warning.

Re: Error: Unable to stop splunk helpers.

_gkollias — Mon, 11 Aug 2014 13:59:03 GMT

Works like a charm. Thanks!

Re: Error: Unable to stop splunk helpers.

sk314 — Thu, 19 May 2016 00:31:15 GMT

works like a charm! (for time travelers, splunk version 6.3.3)

Re: Error: Unable to stop splunk helpers.

princemagaisa — Mon, 03 Oct 2016 09:45:17 GMT

this works

Re: Error: Unable to stop splunk helpers.

jlaigo2 — Mon, 03 Oct 2016 15:48:22 GMT

Int the last 4yrs since posting this I figured it out.

Re: Error: Unable to stop splunk helpers.

season88481 — Thu, 12 Jan 2017 21:21:16 GMT

Thanks. I am in splunk 6.5 and I have the same problem.
There is no splunkweb.pid in my directory, so I just mv splunk.pid splunk.pid.bad. Then restart splunk, issue resolved!.

Thanks.

Re: Error: Unable to stop splunk helpers.

srisplunk12 — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 21:28:36 GMT

@wiggy :thanks a lot. . it did resolve the isssue..

Re: Error: Unable to stop splunk helpers.

YerlanTastambek — Wed, 31 Jan 2018 09:03:01 GMT

Thank you so much. really helped.

Re: Error: Unable to stop splunk helpers.

nawazns5038 — Fri, 16 Nov 2018 20:59:33 GMT

-bash-4.2$ /opt/splunk/bin/splunk restart
splunkd is not running. [FAILED]

But, I am getting the following error :

Splunk> Another one.

Checking prerequisites...
Checking http port [8443]: open
Checking mgmt port [8089]: already bound ERROR: The mgmt port
[8089] is already bound. Splunk needs
to use this port. Would you like to
change ports? [y/n]: n Exiting....

Please help !

Re: Error: Unable to stop splunk helpers.

Trisha_Bayan30 — Mon, 10 Jun 2019 02:11:08 GMT

Do we need to move again the splunkd.pid after we successfully restart?

Re: Error: Unable to stop splunk helpers.

sivakumarb — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 12:40:41 GMT

not required. After restart it will create new file with new PID

Re: Error: Unable to stop splunk helpers.

Padma12345 — Tue, 25 Feb 2020 23:17:58 GMT

It worked

Re: Error: Unable to stop splunk helpers.

golla — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 14:30:54 GMT

it worked . Thanks.

Re: Error: Unable to stop splunk helpers.

Lorenzo1 — Thu, 14 Jul 2022 15:24:29 GMT

hey bro,

i've done no.1

how do i process no. pls?

am using a mac. Thanxx for ur urgenbt assistance.

Re: Error: Unable to stop splunk helpers.

Lorenzo1 — Thu, 14 Jul 2022 17:23:00 GMT

so i found only splunkd.pib in my mac splunk folder but i couldn't move it to a temp directory so i moved it to trash. and even though the ./splunk status command couldn't run bcos it says "no such directory found"; it still worked. i was able to restart my Splunk Enterprise. Thanks guys.