Clients can not install patches displayed in SUSE Manager web-UI

This document (000019916) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Manager 4.1 Server

Situation

A client is using cloned channels. In the web-UI, multiple new patches are listed for the client. However, they can be installed neither from the web-UI nor from the command line. When the installation of a package with higher version is scheduled from web-UI, it fails with:

{
  "file_|-mgrchannels_repo_|-/etc/zypp/repos.d/susemanager:channels.repo_|-managed": {
    "comment": "File /etc/zypp/repos.d/susemanager:channels.repo is in the correct state",
    "name": "/etc/zypp/repos.d/susemanager:channels.repo",
    "start_time": "13:06:00.530087",
    "result": true,
    "duration": 169.115,
    "__run_num__": 0.0,
    "__sls__": "channels",
    "changes": {},
    "__id__": "mgrchannels_repo"
  },

  "pkg_|-pkg_installed_|-pkg_installed_|-installed": {"comment": "An error was encountered while installing package(s): Zypper command failure: Running scope as unit run-r36304d6cd6194634af404d37e5f75743.scope.\nPackage 'screen=4.0.4-23.6.1' not found.",
    "name": "pkg_installed",
    "start_time": "13:06:03.055831",
    "result": false,
    "duration": 9613.186,
    "__run_num__": 1.0,
    "__sls__": "packages.pkginstall",
    "changes": {},
    "__id__": "pkg_installed"
  }
}

On the client side, zypper shows that there are no updates.

client_system:~ # zypper lu
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...
No updates found.

Resolution

Regenerate yum cache for all channels which are used on top of affected client by running:

spacecmd -u <admin> --debug -- softwarechannel_regenerateyumcache -f name_of_affected_channel

Cause

It could happen that even when the channel was modified recently, the metadata were not regenerated correctly. You can see that by running on top of SUSE Manager:

suma_system:~ #ls -la /var/cache/rhn/repodata/name_of_affected_channel/

Disclaimer

This Support Knowledgebase provides a valuable tool for SUSE customers and parties interested in our products and solutions to acquire information, ideas and learn from one another. Materials are provided for informational, personal or non-commercial use within your organization and are presented "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.