docs: add troubleshooting section to readme (!111)

* Update README with a troubleshooting section
* Describe how to solve the "no such file or directory" error

https://gitlab.com/hectorjsmith/fail2ban-prometheus-exporter/-/merge_requests/111
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Hector 2023-09-09 06:39:58 +00:00
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@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ Collect metrics from a running fail2ban instance.
3. Configuration 3. Configuration
4. Building from source 4. Building from source
5. Textfile metrics 5. Textfile metrics
6. Troubleshooting
## 1. Quick Start ## 1. Quick Start
@ -204,3 +205,35 @@ docker run -d \
-p "9191:9191" \ -p "9191:9191" \
registry.gitlab.com/hectorjsmith/fail2ban-prometheus-exporter:latest registry.gitlab.com/hectorjsmith/fail2ban-prometheus-exporter:latest
``` ```
## 6. Troubleshooting
### 6.1. "no such file or directory"
```
error opening socket: dial unix /var/run/fail2ban/fail2ban.sock: connect: no such file or directory
```
There are a couple of potential causes for the error above.
**File not found**
The first is that the file does not exist, so first check that the file path shown in the error actually exists on the system running the exporter.
The fail2ban server may be storing the socket file in another location on your machine.
If you are using docker, make sure the correct host folder was mounted to the correct location.
If the file is not in the expected location, you can run the exporter with the corresponding CLI flag or environment variable to use a different file path.
**Permissions**
If the file does exist, the likely cause are file permissions.
By default, the fail2ban server runs as the `root` user and the socket file can only be accessed by the same user.
If you are running the exporter as a non-root user, it will not be able to open the socket file to read/write commands to the server, leading to the error above.
In this case there are a few solutions:
1. Run the exporter as the same user as fail2ban (usually `root`)
2. Update the fail2ban server config to run as a non-root user, then run the exporter as the same user
3. Update the socket file permissions to be less restrictive
I would recommend option `1.` since it is the simplest. Option `2.` is a bit more complex, check the [fail2ban server documentation](https://coderwall.com/p/haj28a/running-rootless-fail2ban-on-debian) for more details. And option `3.` is just a temporary fix. The socket file gets re-created each time the fail2ban server is restarted and the original permissions will be restored, so you will need to update the permissions every time the server restarts.