As RedHat 7 is rolled out, the standard method to control Apache has been changed: It seems RedHat is now favouring the original apachectl command; and this is probably a good thing as it lines up well with other distributions.
See the RHEL 7 docs: https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/html/System_Administrators_Guide/ch-Web_Servers.html
Systemctl is still used to start, stop, enable and disable the service (and more), however configuration testing, graceful restarts, have all been restituted to apachectl. NOTE: apachectl was always available under RedHat, since it is part of the Apache package, but it was not the RHEL recommended way to control it.
For example:
See the RHEL 7 docs: https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/html/System_Administrators_Guide/ch-Web_Servers.html
Systemctl is still used to start, stop, enable and disable the service (and more), however configuration testing, graceful restarts, have all been restituted to apachectl. NOTE: apachectl was always available under RedHat, since it is part of the Apache package, but it was not the RHEL recommended way to control it.
For example:
# service httpd graceful
# apachectl graceful
# service httpd configtest
# apachectl configtest
