Error: unit memcached.service could not be found

What's Causing This Error

The error 'unit memcached.service could not be found' occurs when the systemd init system is unable to locate the memcached service unit file. This can happen if the memcached package is not installed on the server or if the unit file has been deleted or corrupted.

Systemd uses service unit files to start and manage services on a Linux system. If the memcached service unit file is missing, systemd will not be able to start or stop the memcached service using the systemctl command. This error can prevent memcached from running properly, which can cause issues with caching and application performance.

Solution - Here's How To Resolve It

To fix this error, you need to ensure that the memcached package is installed on the server and that the memcached service unit file exists in the correct location. You can install the memcached package using the package manager for your Linux distribution. For example, on Debian-based systems, you can run the following command:

sudo apt-get install memcached

If the memcached package is already installed, you should check if the memcached service unit file exists in the /etc/systemd/system directory. If it does not exist, you can create a new file with the following contents:

[Unit]
Description=Memcached
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/memcached -u memcached -p 11211 -m 64

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Save the file as memcached.service and then run the following commands to reload the systemd daemon and start the memcached service:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl start memcached
sudo systemctl enable memcached

These commands will reload the systemd configuration, start the memcached service, and enable it to start automatically at boot time.