Satellite 5.x: Why does satellite-sync fail with "Exception type <class 'psycopg2.DataError'> ... DataError: value too long for type character varying(13)" error?

Issue

• running satellite-sync on Satellite 5.6, 5.5, 5.4, 5.3 or 5.2 server fails with a traceback like the following:

Exception type <class 'psycopg2.DataError'>
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/spacewalk/satellite_tools/satsync.py", line 229, in main
    ret = method()
    self.syncer.import_errata()
    sync_handlers.import_errata)
    prompt, nevermorethan, process_function_args)
    process_function(chunk, *process_function_args)
    importer.run()
    self.syncer.import_errata()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/spacewalk/satellite_tools/satsync.py", line 1675, in import_errata
    sync_handlers.import_errata)
  ...

  DataError: value too long for type character varying(13)