I'm currently replacing a number of computers in my lab with new ones, and the issue comes up in all fresh fedora 16 installations (well, with SELinux disabled).
Eli

On Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 9:45 AM, Israel Nelken <israel@cc.huji.ac.il> wrote:

2012/1/5 Rich Megginson <rmeggins@redhat.com>

On 01/05/2012 04:49 AM, Israel Nelken wrote:

tried the packages from the testing repos. Still doesn't work.
The relevant lines from the log file:
Starting admin server . . .
output: Job failed. See system logs and 'systemctl status' for details.
Could not start the admin server. Error: 256
Failed to create and configure the admin server
Exiting . . .

The /var/log/messages has now
Jan 5 13:43:06 habanera kernel: [166303.061687] httpd.worker[32098]: segfault at c ip 00149c67 sp bf9facf0 error 4 in libpthread-2.14.90.so[141000+17000]
Jan 5 13:43:06 habanera systemd[1]: dirsrv-admin.service: control process exited, code=killed status=11
Jan 5 13:43:06 habanera systemd[1]: Unit dirsrv-admin.service entered failed state.

(and no other error lines from the installation).
Otherwise everything is exactly the same.
Eli

Is this SELinux related? Do you have any AVC messages related to httpd.worker or libmodnss.so in dmesg?

SELinux is disabled. Sorry, I don't know what AVC messages are, and there is no dmesg in /var/log.
2012/1/4 Rich Megginson <rmeggins@redhat.com>
On 01/03/2012 10:52 PM, Israel Nelken wrote:

I tried to install the directory server on a machine with a clean installation of Fedora 16, fully updated. the setup script failed at the state of starting the admin server. I fully removed the installation (remove-ds-admin.pl -y -f, yum erase 389-ds-base-libs 389-adminutil idm-console-framework, rm -rf /etc/dirsrv /usr/lib*/dirsrv /var/*/dirsrv /etc/sysconfig/dirsrv*), reinstalled the packages, and had the same result. I repeated the same on another machine with a clean install of Fedora 16, exactly the same results.

Try using the Fedora 16 389 packages from the testing repos:
yum install --enablerepo=updates-testing 389-ds
Details: I ran
setup-ds-admin.pl -ddd
The seemingly relevant lines from the Log file:
[12/01/04:07:25:48] - [Setup] Info Starting admin server . . .
[12/01/04:07:25:59] - [Setup] Info output: Starting dirsrv-admin (via systemctl): Job failed. See system logs and 'systemctl status' for details.
[12/01/04:07:25:59] - [Setup] Info output: [FAILED]
[12/01/04:07:25:59] - [Setup] Fatal Failed to create and configure the admin server
[12/01/04:07:25:59] - [Setup] Fatal Exiting . . .

from /var/log/messages:
Jan 4 07:25:19 habanera ns-slapd[20694]: [04/Jan/2012:07:25:19 +0200] config - The configuration file /etc/dirsrv/slapd-admin/dse.ldif does not exist
Jan 4 07:25:19 habanera ns-slapd[20694]: [04/Jan/2012:07:25:19 +0200] config - The backup configuration file /etc/dirsrv/slapd-admin/dse.ldif.tmp does not exist, either.
Jan 4 07:25:19 habanera ns-slapd[20694]: [04/Jan/2012:07:25:19 +0200] schema - No schema files were found in the directory /etc/dirsrv/slapd-admin/schema
Jan 4 07:25:19 habanera ns-slapd[20694]: [04/Jan/2012:07:25:19 +0200] dse - Please edit the file to correct the reported problems and then restart the server.
Jan 4 07:25:19 habanera systemd[1]: dirsrv@admin.service: control process exited, code=exited status=1
Jan 4 07:25:19 habanera systemd[1]: Unit dirsrv@admin.service entered failed state.
Jan 4 07:25:48 habanera dirsrv-admin[20825]: Starting dirsrv-admin:
Jan 4 07:25:49 habanera dirsrv-admin[20825]: /usr/sbin/start-ds-admin: line 104: 20845 Segmentation fault $SELINUX_CMD $HTTPD $OMIT_DEFLATE -k start -f /etc/dirsrv/admin-serv/httpd.conf "$@"
Jan 4 07:25:49 habanera kernel: [57576.961337] httpd.worker[20845]: segfault at c ip 008e1c67 sp bfc770f0 error 4 in libpthread-2.14.90.so[8d9000+17000]
Jan 4 07:25:59 habanera dirsrv-admin[20825]: Server failed to start !!! Please check errors log for problems
Jan 4 07:25:59 habanera dirsrv-admin[20825]: [FAILED]
Jan 4 07:25:59 habanera systemd[1]: dirsrv-admin.service: control process exited, code=exited status=1
Jan 4 07:25:59 habanera systemd[1]: Unit dirsrv-admin.service entered failed state.

slapd-habanera seems to run (I see it with ps -ef, and /var/log/dirsrv/slapd-habanera/access and error are getting filled up, nothing to comment about).
/var/log/dirsrv/admin-serv/error:
[Wed Jan 04 07:25:49 2012] [notice] Access Host filter is: *.ls.huji.ac.il
[Wed Jan 04 07:25:49 2012] [notice] Access Address filter is: *

--
Prof. Israel Nelken
Dept. of Neurobiology
The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences
Edmond Safra Campus, Givat Ram
Jerusalem 91904, ISRAEL
Tel: ++972-2-6584229
Fax: ++972-2-6586077
israel@cc.huji.ac.il
--
389 users mailing list
389-users@lists.fedoraproject.org
https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/389-users
--
389 users mailing list
389-users@lists.fedoraproject.org
https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/389-users
--
Prof. Israel Nelken
Dept. of Neurobiology
The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences
Edmond Safra Campus, Givat Ram
Jerusalem 91904, ISRAEL
Tel: ++972-2-6584229
Fax: ++972-2-6586077
israel@cc.huji.ac.il
--
389 users mailing list
389-users@lists.fedoraproject.org
https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/389-users
--
389 users mailing list
389-users@lists.fedoraproject.org
https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/389-users
--
Prof. Israel Nelken
Dept. of Neurobiology
The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences
Edmond Safra Campus, Givat Ram
Jerusalem 91904, ISRAEL
Tel: ++972-2-6584229
Fax: ++972-2-6586077
israel@cc.huji.ac.il

--
Prof. Israel Nelken
Dept. of Neurobiology
The Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences
Edmond Safra Campus, Givat Ram
Jerusalem 91904, ISRAEL
Tel: ++972-2-6584229
Fax: ++972-2-6586077
israel@cc.huji.ac.il