Why my geth system daemon not sync?

Question

I've a machine with Ubuntu Server 16.04.4 LTS, the purpose of this machine is run a Geth process reachable by a web services.

This is my "unit service":

[Unit]
Description=Ethereum go client
[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/bin/geth --testnet --fast --bootnodes "enode://20c9ad97c081d63397d7b685a412227a40e23c8bdc6688c6f37e97cfbc22d2b4d1db1510d8f61e6a8866ad7f0e17c02b14182d37ea7c3c8b9c2683aeb6b733a1@52.169.14.227:30303,enode://6ce05930c72abc632c58e2e4324f7c7ea478cec0ed4fa2528982cf34483094e9cbc9216e7aa349691242576d552a2a56aaeae426c5303ded677ce455ba1acd9d@13.84.180.240:30303" --rpc --rpcapi="db,eth,net,web3,personal,web3" --rpcaddr "0.0.0.0" --rpcport "8545" --rpccorsdomain "*"

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

I created this file (geth.ropsten.service) inside /etc/systemd/system and I executed this commands:

sudo systemctl enable geth.ropsten.service
sudo systemctl start geth.ropsten.service

If I reboot my machine I can view running process but it's not downloading the blockchain.

If I execute this command:

sudo systemctl status geth.ropsten.service

I can see this log but executions seems blocked:

● geth.ropsten.service - Ethereum go client                                                                                                                         
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/geth.ropsten.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)                                                                       
   Active: active (running) since Tue 2018-03-13 09:45:56 UTC; 44min ago                                                                                            
 Main PID: 2128 (geth)                                                                                                                                              
    Tasks: 9                                                                                                                                                        
   Memory: 52.7M                                                                                                                                                    
      CPU: 1min 18.495s                                                                                                                                             
   CGroup: /system.slice/geth.ropsten.service                                                                                                                       
           └─2128 /usr/bin/geth --testnet --fast --bootnodes enode://20c9ad97c081d63397d7b685a412227a40e23c8bdc6688c6f37e97cfbc22d2b4d1db1510d8f61e6a8866ad7f0e17c02

Mar 13 09:45:57 xdev-avgbc-node geth[2128]: INFO [03-13|09:45:57] Loaded most recent local header          number=0 hash=419410…ca4a2d td=1048576                   
Mar 13 09:45:57 xdev-avgbc-node geth[2128]: INFO [03-13|09:45:57] Loaded most recent local full block      number=0 hash=419410…ca4a2d td=1048576                   
Mar 13 09:45:57 xdev-avgbc-node geth[2128]: INFO [03-13|09:45:57] Loaded most recent local fast block      number=0 hash=419410…ca4a2d td=1048576                   
Mar 13 09:45:57 xdev-avgbc-node geth[2128]: INFO [03-13|09:45:57] Loaded local transaction journal         transactions=0 dropped=0                                 
Mar 13 09:45:57 xdev-avgbc-node geth[2128]: INFO [03-13|09:45:57] Regenerated local transaction journal    transactions=0 accounts=0                                
Mar 13 09:45:57 xdev-avgbc-node geth[2128]: INFO [03-13|09:45:57] Starting P2P networking                                                                           
Mar 13 09:45:59 xdev-avgbc-node geth[2128]: INFO [03-13|09:45:59] UDP listener up                          self=enode://073464f568d4166becc005bd1cdf8ebdfb6e74c6ca83
Mar 13 09:45:59 xdev-avgbc-node geth[2128]: INFO [03-13|09:45:59] RLPx listener up                         self=enode://073464f568d4166becc005bd1cdf8ebdfb6e74c6ca83
Mar 13 09:45:59 xdev-avgbc-node geth[2128]: INFO [03-13|09:45:59] HTTP endpoint opened                     url=http://0.0.0.0:8545 cors=* vhosts=localhost          
Mar 13 09:45:59 xdev-avgbc-node geth[2128]: INFO [03-13|09:45:59] IPC endpoint opened                      url=/root/.ethereum/testnet/geth.ipc

If I execute following command inside terminal I can see downloading the blockchain:

/usr/bin/geth --testnet --fast --bootnodes "enode://20c9ad97c081d63397d7b685a412227a40e23c8bdc6688c6f37e97cfbc22d2b4d1db1510d8f61e6a8866ad7f0e17c02b14182d37ea7c3c8b9c2683aeb6b733a1@52.169.14.227:30303,enode://6ce05930c72abc632c58e2e4324f7c7ea478cec0ed4fa2528982cf34483094e9cbc9216e7aa349691242576d552a2a56aaeae426c5303ded677ce455ba1acd9d@13.84.180.240:30303" --rpc --rpcapi="db,eth,net,web3,personal,web3" --rpcaddr "0.0.0.0" --rpcport "8545" --rpccorsdomain "*"

Why my process not download the blockchain?

EDIT

I changed daemon file adding two lines of code but without success:

[Unit]                                                                                                                                                              
Description=Ethereum go client                                                                                                                                      
After=network-online.target                                                                                                                           
Wants=network-online.target  
...

If I configure the daemon as user-service (adding the geth.ropsten.service on /etc/systemd/user) and I run this command:

sudo systemctl --user start geth.ropsten.service

Geth process start download the blockchain. Why?

Thanks

Answer 1

Hope this helps.

Create geth.service file (/etc/systemd/system/geth.service):

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/geth.service

Paste the below (Change config in ExecStart to TestNet):

[Unit]
Description=Geth

[Service]
Type=simple
User={$USER}
Restart=always
RestartSec=12
ExecStart=/bin/geth --syncmode "full" --rpc --rpcaddr "0.0.0.0"

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

Replace {$USER} with username above. Use useradd to create a newUser if required.

sudo useradd -d /home/newUser -m --uid 10000 newUser

Enable and start the service:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable geth.service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

service geth status
sudo service geth start

Check the status:

service geth status

Attaching to geth instance:

geth attach

Stop and disable the service:

sudo service geth stop
sudo systemctl disable geth.service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload