Service down due to root partition mounted as read-only

Symptoms

Services are down and cannot be restarted. Attempting to create new files or folders on the root filesystem (/) fail with a message similar to the following.

[root@server ~]cPs# touch /test
touch: cannot touch ‘/test’: Read-only file system

Cause 

The root filesystem (/) needs to be read-write for services to start.

Resolution

In most cases, the / is mounted as read-only due to filesystem errors. Repairing the filesystem usually involves booting the server into a rescue environment and running fsck or xfs-repair. You should work with your system administrator to correct the filesystem errors. 

How can I determine a problem is due to File System Errors?

In some cases, / can be remounted read-write without rebooting the server. The following article explains how to remount a filesystem as read-write.

How to remount a filesystem as Read-Write