[systemd-devel] Timeout for 'Activating (start)' status

[Mikhail Kasimov]

Hello!

've got an interesting trouble on timer-activated service -- 'systemctl
status' returns a log with 'Activating (start)' status:

[1]
==========
k_mikhail at linux-mk500:~> systemctl status vba32update.service
● vba32update.service - VBA32 Anti-Virus Update Service
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/vba32update.service; disabled;
vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: activating (start) since Чтв 2017-07-06 15:32:35 EEST; 35min ago
 Main PID: 6214 (vbaupdx)
    Tasks: 1 (limit: 512)
   CGroup: /system.slice/vba32update.service
           └─6214 ./vbaupdx http://anti-virus.by/beta/update

Июл 06 15:32:35 linux-mk500 systemd[1]: Starting VBA32 Anti-Virus Update
Service...
Июл 06 15:32:35 linux-mk500 vbacl[6214]: Vba32 console scanner update
process started
Июл 06 15:32:35 linux-mk500 vbacl[6214]: Reading configuration options
from ./vbacl.ini
Июл 06 15:32:35 linux-mk500 vbacl[6214]: Using direct connection for update
k_mikhail at linux-mk500:~>
==========


Simultaneously:
[2]
==========
k_mikhail at linux-mk500:~> systemctl list-units -t timer
UNIT                         LOAD   ACTIVE SUB     DESCRIPTION
vba32update.timer            loaded active running Runs VBA32 Update Hourly
==========

And that is normal. But 35 minutes for activating service is too long,
as for me.

And, by default, there is no way for user\admin to get message, that
there is a problem with activating of some service, except periodical
'systemctl list-units -t timer' command output (in current described
case). And systemd logs contain no interesting info, which can be useful
to investigate the problem and its reasons, because there are no
explicit error-messages for such case.

So, my questions are:
=================
1) What is the correct systemd's behavior in such case?
2) What is systemd's timeout by default for service activation
(timer-activated, socket-activated)? If it is documentened, please, give
me a hint.
3) If systemd's timeout from 2) is present, how can it be managed by
user\admin? E.g. after 10 minutes of 'Activating (start)', service gets
FAILED state with putting this info to systemd log, of course (something
like "systemd[1] fails to start foobar.service[PID] by timeout.
ExitCode:<number>").

Thanks for your assistance!

OS: openSUSE 42.2, systemd v.228.