systemctl status shows vendor preset: disabled

Question

Could someone please clarify what "vendor preset : disable" means? This option is visible after enabling a package in RHEL7.

Answer 1

If you see a Vendor preset: Disabled, it means when the service first installs it will be disabled on start up and will have to be manually started. If you want the service to start up automatically with boot up, all it takes is to change it's start up setting with systemctl enable <service>, example: systemctl enable httpd.

A detailed explanation can be found at RHEL systemctl documentation or systemctl man page itself

● httpd.service - The Apache HTTP Server
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Mon 2018-09-10 09:29:16 MDT; 1h 3min ago
     Docs: man:httpd(8)
           man:apachectl(8)
  Process: 6917 ExecReload=/usr/sbin/httpd $OPTIONS -k graceful (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 1261 (httpd)
   Status: "Total requests: 0; Current requests/sec: 0; Current traffic:   0 B/sec"
   CGroup: /system.slice/httpd.service
           ├─1261 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ├─6936 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ├─6937 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ├─6938 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           ├─6939 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
           └─6940 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND

Sep 10 09:28:51 localhost systemd[1]: Starting The Apache HTTP Server...
Sep 10 09:29:16 localhost systemd[1]: Started The Apache HTTP Server.
Sep 10 10:21:02 localhost systemd[1]: Reloaded The Apache HTTP Server.

Answer 2

Taken from the systemd man page:

(...) if a unit file has no vendor-supplied version (i.e. is only defined below /etc/systemd/system or /run/systemd/system, but not in a unit file stored below /usr), then it is not removed. Also, if a unit is masked, it is unmasked.

If the vendor uses SystemD it is recommended for the Vendor to configure the installation of the SystemD files in /usr so it will act as default in case the user wants modify the file.

An example of a vendor enabled systemd file:

● sshd.service - OpenSSH server daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/sshd.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Thu YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss TZ; 1h 0min ago
     Docs: man:sshd(8)
           man:sshd_config(5)
 Main PID: 12345 (sshd)
   CGroup: /system.slice/sshd.service
           └─12345 /usr/sbin/sshd -D

MMM DD HH:mm:ss XXXXXX systemd[1]: Starting OpenSSH server daemon...
MMM DD HH:mm:ss XXXXXX systemd[1]: Started OpenSSH server daemon.