On Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and its derivatives like CentOS, the traditional way to manage services at boot is through systemd or the older System V init system. Since your kernel version (2.6.9) suggests an older RHEL version, we'll cover both methods.

For systems running systemd (RHEL 7+), use these commands:

# Enable Apache to start at boot
sudo systemctl enable httpd

# Verify the setting
sudo systemctl is-enabled httpd

For older RHEL versions using SysV init:

# Add Apache to startup sequence
sudo chkconfig --add httpd
sudo chkconfig httpd on

# Verify the configuration
sudo chkconfig --list httpd

If you installed from source and need to create an init script:

#!/bin/sh
#
# httpd        Startup script for Apache
#
# chkconfig: 345 85 15
# description: Apache is a web server
# processname: httpd

case "$1" in
    start)
        /usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl start
        ;;
    stop)
        /usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl stop
        ;;
    restart)
        /usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl restart
        ;;
    *)
        echo $"Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}"
        exit 1
esac
exit 0

Save this as /etc/init.d/httpd, then make it executable:

sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/httpd
sudo chkconfig --add httpd
sudo chkconfig httpd on

If Apache fails to start at boot:

1. Check SELinux context: ls -Z /etc/init.d/httpd
2. Verify file permissions
3. Examine system logs: journalctl -xe or /var/log/messages

For quick solutions, you can add to root's crontab:

@reboot /usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl start

When dealing with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (or CentOS) systems using the 2.6.9 kernel (like your environment), the traditional System V init system handles service startup. Since you've installed Apache from source, it won't automatically create the necessary init scripts that package managers would normally provide.

Here's how to create a proper init script for your source-installed Apache:

#!/bin/sh
#
# Apache HTTP Server init script for source installations
# chkconfig: 345 85 15
# description: Apache HTTP Server

httpd=/usr/local/apache2/bin/httpd
apachectl=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl

case "$1" in
    start)
        $apachectl -k start
        ;;
    stop)
        $apachectl -k stop
        ;;
    restart)
        $apachectl -k restart
        ;;
    status)
        $apachectl status
        ;;
    *)
        echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|status}"
        exit 1
esac
exit 0

Save this script as /etc/init.d/httpd and make it executable:

sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/httpd

Then add it to the default runlevels:

sudo chkconfig --add httpd
sudo chkconfig httpd on

If you're using a newer RHEL version with systemd, create this service file:

[Unit]
Description=Apache HTTP Server (Source Install)
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=forking
ExecStart=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl -k start
ExecStop=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl -k stop
ExecReload=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl -k graceful
PrivateTmp=true

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Save it as /etc/systemd/system/httpd.service and enable it:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable httpd

After setting this up, reboot your system and verify Apache is running:

ps aux | grep httpd
sudo netstat -tulpn | grep httpd

If Apache fails to start at boot:

1. Check SELinux context: sudo restorecon -Rv /usr/local/apache2/
2. Verify file permissions: sudo chown -R root:root /usr/local/apache2/
3. Examine error logs: tail -n 50 /usr/local/apache2/logs/error_log