"apachectl start" doesn't start apache; Red Hat test page appears; "httpd -k start" processes

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Product: Aleph
Product Version: 20, 21, 22, 23
Relevant for Installation Type: Dedicated-Direct,Direct,Local,Total Care

Description

After restarting apache (for instance, as part of a reboot of the server),

* users get a Red Hat test page when they try to connect;
* the ./apache/logs/error_log and ./access_log show no activity; and
* "ps -ef |grep apache" shows "httpd -k start" processes like these:

...>ps -ef | grep apache
5 S apache 28313 28312 0 76 0 - 90677 semtim 06:51 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/httpd -k start
5 S apache 28314 28312 0 75 0 - 90677 stext 06:51 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/httpd -k start
5 S apache 28318 28312 0 75 0 - 90677 semtim 06:51 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/httpd -k start
5 S apache 28319 28312 0 76 0 - 90677 semtim 06:51 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/httpd -k start
5 S apache 28320 28312 0 77 0 - 90677 semtim 06:51 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/httpd -k start
5 S apache 28321 28312 0 75 0 - 90677 semtim 06:51 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/httpd -k start
5 S apache 28322 28312 0 77 0 - 90677 semtim 06:51 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/httpd -k start
5 S apache 28323 28312 0 76 0 - 90677 semtim 06:51 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/httpd -k start

Resolution

These symptoms indicate that the generic startup of Apache supplied with Red Hat has been invoked.

In this case, this happened because, after going to ./alephe/apache/bin/, the user did:
> apachectl start

rather than
> ./apachectl start

The latter form uses the (correct) ./alephe/apache/bin/ apachectl file, while the former does not.