Unable to restart/stop auditd service using systemctl command in RHEL

Solution Verified - Updated -

Issue

  • Command systemctl restart auditd fails with below error

    # systemctl restart auditd
Failed to restart auditd.service: Operation refused, unit auditd.service may be requested by dependency only.

  • Command systemctl stop auditd fails with below error

    Failed to stop auditd.service: Operation refused, unit auditd.service may be requested by dependency only (it is configured to refuse manual start/stop).
See system logs and 'systemctl status auditd.service' for details.

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9
  • audit-2.8.5 & audit-3.0

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