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Language:
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Language:
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Red Hat Training
A Red Hat training course is available for Red Hat Satellite
Chapter 5. Troubleshooting
- 5.1. Web Interface
- 5.2. Anaconda
- 5.3. Cobbler and Koan
- 5.4. Tracebacks
- 5.5. Registration
- 5.6. Kickstarts and Snippets
5.1. Web Interface
Q:
I'm having problems with the RHN Satellite user interface. Which log files should I check?
A:
If you experience errors viewing, scheduling, or working with kickstarts in the RHN Satellite user interface, check the
/var/log/tomcat5/catalina.out
log file.
For all other user interface errors, check the
/var/log/httpd/error_log
log file.
5.2. Anaconda
Q:
I'm getting an error that says
Error downloading kickstart file
. What is the problem and how do I fix it?
A:
This error is usually the result of a network issue. To locate the problem, run the
cobbler check
command, and read the output, which should look something like this:
# cobbler check The following potential problems were detected: #0: reposync is not installed, need for cobbler reposync, install/upgrade yum-utils? #1: yumdownloader is not installed, needed for cobbler repo add with --rpm-list parameter, install/upgrade yum-utils? #2: The default password used by the sample templates for newly installed machines (default_password_crypted in /etc/cobbler/settings) is still set to 'cobbler' and should be changed #3: fencing tools were not found, and are required to use the (optional) power management features. install cman to use them
If
cobbler check
does not provide any answers, check the following:
- Verify
httpd
is running - Verify
cobblerd
is running - Verify you can fetch the kickstart file using
wget
from a different host:wget http://satellite.example.com/cblr/svc/op/ks/profile/rhel5-i386-u3:1:Example-Org
Q:
I'm getting a package installation error that says
The file chkconfig-1.3.30.1-2.i386.rpm cannot be opened.
. What is the problem and how do I fix it?
A:
Clients will fetch content from RHN Satellite based on the
--url
parameter in the kickstart. For example:
url --url http://satellite.example.com/ks/dist/ks-rhel-i386-server-5-u3
If you receive errors from Anaconda stating it can't find images or packages, check that the URL in the kickstart will generate a
200 OK
response. You can do this by attempting to wget
the file located at that URL:
wget http://satellite.example.com/ks/dist/ks-rhel-i386-server-5-u3 --2011-08-19 15:06:55-- http://satellite.example.com/ks/dist/ks-rhel-i386-server-5-u3 Resolving satellite.example.com... 10.10.77.131 Connecting to satellite.example.com|10.10.77.131|:80... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Length: 0 [text/plain] Saving to: `ks-rhel-i386-server-5-u3.1' 2011-08-19 15:06:55 (0.00 B/s) - `ks-rhel-i386-server-5-u3.1' saved [0/0]
If you get a response other than
200 OK
, check the error logs to find out what the problem is. You can also check the actual file Anaconda tried to download by searching the access_log
file:
# grep chkconfig /var/log/httpd/access_log 10.10.77.131 - - [19/Aug/2011:15:12:36 -0400] "GET /rhn/common/DownloadFile.do?url=/ks/dist/ks-rhel-i386-server- 5-u3/Server /chkconfig-1.3.30.1-2.i386.rpm HTTP/1.1" 206 24744 "-" "urlgrabber/3.1.0 yum/3.2.19" 10.10.76.143 - - [19/Aug/2011:15:12:36 -0400] "GET /ks/dist/ks-rhel-i386-server-5-u3/Server/chkconfig- 1.3.30.1-2.i386.rpm HTTP/1.1" 206 24744 "-" "urlgrabber/3.1.0 yum/3.2.19" 10.10.76.143 - - [19/Aug/2011:15:14:20 -0400] "GET /ks/dist/ks-rhel-i386-server-5-u3/Server/chkconfig- 1.3.30.1-2.i386.rpm HTTP/1.1" 200 162580 "-" "urlgrabber/3.1.0 yum/3.2.19" 10.10.77.131 - - [19/Aug/2011:15:14:20 -0400] "GET /rhn/common/DownloadFile.do?url=/ks/dist/ks-rhel-i386-server- 5-u3/Server/chkconfig-1.3.30.1-2.i386.rpm HTTP/1.1" 200 162580 "-" "urlgrabber/3.1.0 yum/3.2.19"
If the requests are not appearing in the
access_log
file, the system might be having trouble with the networking setup. If the requests are appearing but are generating errors, check the error logs.
You can also try manually downloading the files to see if the package is available:
wget http://satellite.example.com/ks/dist/ks-rhel-i386-server-5-u3/Server/chkconfig-1.3.30.1-2.i386.rpm
5.3. Cobbler and Koan
Q:
Where are the Cobbler and Koan log files?
A:
Cobbler logs data to the RHN Satellite logs, but also to
/var/log/cobbler/
.
Koan logs data to
/var/log/koan
.
5.4. Tracebacks
Q:
I'm getting emails with "WEB TRACEBACK" in the subject. What should I do about them?
A:
A typical traceback email might look something like this:
Subject: WEB TRACEBACK from satellite.example.com Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2011 20:28:01 -0400 From: RHN Satellite <dev-null@redhat.com> To: admin@example.com java.lang.RuntimeException: XmlRpcException calling cobbler. at com.redhat.rhn.manager.kickstart.cobbler.CobblerXMLRPCHelper.invokeMethod(CobblerXMLRPCHelper.java:72) at com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic.task.CobblerSyncTask.execute(CobblerSyncTask.java:76) at com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic.task.SingleThreadedTestableTask.execute(SingleThreadedTestableTask.java:54) at org.quartz.core.JobRunShell.run(JobRunShell.java:203) at org.quartz.simpl.SimpleThreadPool$WorkerThread.run(SimpleThreadPool.java:520) Caused by: redstone.xmlrpc.XmlRpcException: The response could not be parsed. at redstone.xmlrpc.XmlRpcClient.handleResponse(XmlRpcClient.java:434) at redstone.xmlrpc.XmlRpcClient.endCall(XmlRpcClient.java:376) at redstone.xmlrpc.XmlRpcClient.invoke(XmlRpcClient.java:165) at com.redhat.rhn.manager.kickstart.cobbler.CobblerXMLRPCHelper.invokeMethod(CobblerXMLRPCHelper.java:69) ... 4 more Caused by: java.io.IOException: Server returned HTTP response code: 503 for URL: http://someserver.example.com:80/cobbler_api at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getInputStream(HttpURLConnection.java:1236) at redstone.xmlrpc.XmlRpcClient.handleResponse(XmlRpcClient.java:420) ... 7 more
This indicates that there has been a problem with Cobbler communicating with the
taskomatic
service. Try checking the following:
- Verify
httpd
is running - Verify
cobblerd
is running - Verify that there are no firewall rules that would prevent
localhost
connections
5.5. Registration
Q:
The
rhnreg_ks
command is failing when I run it, saying ERROR: unable to read system id
. What is the problem?
A:
At the end of the kickstart file, there is a
%post
section that registers the machine to the RHN Satellite:
# begin Red Hat management server registration mkdir -p /usr/share/rhn/ wget http://satellite.example.com/pub/RHN-ORG-TRUSTED-SSL-CERT -O /usr/share/rhn/RHN-ORG-TRUSTED-SSL-CERT perl -npe 's/RHNS-CA-CERT/RHN-ORG-TRUSTED-SSL-CERT/g' -i /etc/sysconfig/rhn/* rhnreg_ks --serverUrl=https://satellite.example.com/XMLRPC --sslCACert=/usr/share/rhn/RHN-ORG-TRUSTED-SSL-CERT --activationkey=1-c8d01e2f23c6bbaedd0f6507e9ac079d # end Red Hat management server registration
In order, this will create a directory to house the custom SSL cert used by the RHN Satellite, fetch the SSL certificate to use during registration, search and replace the SSL certificate strings from the
rhn-register
configuration files, and then register to the RHN Satellite using the SSL certificate and an activation key. Every kickstart profile includes an activation key that assures that the system is assigned the correct base and child channels, and gets the correct system entitlements. If it is a reprovisioning of an existing system, the activation key will also ensure it is associated with the previous system profile.
If the
rhnreg_ks
command fails you might see errors like this in the ks-post.log
log file:
ERROR: unable to read system id.
These errors will also occur if you attempt to perform an
rhn_check
and the system has not registered to the RHN Satellite.
The best way to troubleshoot this is to view the kickstart file and copy and paste the four steps directly at the command prompt after the kickstart has completed. This will produce error messages that are more detailed to help you locate the problem.
5.6. Kickstarts and Snippets
Q:
What is the directory structure for kickstarts?
A:
The base path where the kickstart files are stored is
/var/lib/rhn/kickstarts/
. Within this directory, raw kickstarts are in the upload
subdirectory, and wizard-generated kickstarts are in the wizard
subdirectory:
Raw Kickstarts: /var/lib/rhn/kickstarts/upload/$profile_name--$org_id.cfg Wizard Kickstarts: /var/lib/rhn/kickstarts/wizard/$profile_name--$org_id.cfg
Q:
What is the directory structure for Cobbler snippets?
A:
Cobbler snippets are stored in
/var/lib/rhn/kickstarts/snippets
. Cobbler accesses snippets using the symbolic link /var/lib/cobbler/snippets/spacewalk
.
Snippets: /var/lib/rhn/kickstarts/snippets/$org_id/$snippet_name
Important
RHN Satellite RPMs expect the Cobbler kickstart and snippet directories to be in their default locations, do not change them.