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7.4. Connection Errors

A common connection problem, indicated by SSL_CONNECT errors, is the result of a Satellite being installed on a machine whose time had been improperly set. During the Satellite installation process, SSL certificates are created with inaccurate times. If the Satellite's time is then corrected, the certificate start date and time may be set in the future, making it invalid.
To troubleshoot this, check the date and time on the clients and the Satellite with the following command: 
date
The results should be nearly identical for all machines and within the "notBefore" and "notAfter" validity windows of the certificates. Check the client certificate dates and times with the following command: 
openssl x509 -dates -noout -in /usr/share/rhn/RHN-ORG-TRUSTED-SSL-CERT
Check the Satellite server certificate dates and times with the following command: 
openssl x509 -dates -noout -in /etc/httpd/conf/ssl.crt/server.crt
By default, the server certificate has a one-year life while client certificates are good for 10 years. If you find the certificates are incorrect, you can either wait for the valid start time, if possible, or create new certificates, preferably with all system times set to GMT.
The following measures can be used to troubleshoot general connection errors:
  • Attempt to connect to the RHN Satellite Server's database at the command line using the correct connection string as found in /etc/rhn/rhn.conf: 
    sqlplus username/password@sid
  • Ensure the RHN Satellite Server is using Network Time Protocol (NTP) and set to the appropriate time zone. This also applies to all client systems and the separate database machine in RHN Satellite Server with Stand-Alone Database.
  • Confirm the correct package: 
    7 rhn-org-httpd-ssl-key-pair-MACHINE_NAME-VER-REL.noarch.rpm
    is installed on the RHN Satellite Server and the corresponding rhn-org-trusted-ssl-cert-*.noarch.rpm or raw CA SSL public (client) certificate is installed on all client systems.
  • Verify the client systems are configured to use the appropriate certificate.
  • If also using one or more RHN Proxy Servers, ensure each Proxy's SSL certificates are prepared correctly. The Proxy should have both its own server SSL key-pair and CA SSL public (client) certificate installed, since it will serve in both capacities. Refer to the SSL Certificates chapter of the RHN Client Configuration Guide for specific instructions.
  • Make sure client systems are not using firewalls of their own, blocking required ports as identified in Section 2.4, “Additional Requirements”.