Intermediate7 lessons130 minutes
Managing services with systemd
Start, stop and diagnose services on an Ubuntu server, and write a unit for your own application.
systemd is what starts, supervises and restarts everything running on an Ubuntu server. This course begins at `systemctl status` and ends with writing a service unit for an application of your own.
What you will be able to do
- Read `systemctl status` output and know what it is telling you
- Tell start, enable, reload and restart apart
- Find the real cause when a service refuses to start
- Write a systemd unit for an application, without running it as root
Outline
- 01
Controlling services
The four verbs that matter, and the difference between two that look alike.
- 02
Writing a service unit
Running your application as a service, without running it as root.
Technical content last reviewed on 2 August 2026