Unable to delete system profile from SUSE Manager and Internal error in SUSE Manager web UI

This document (000019744) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Manager Server 4.0
SUSE Manager Server 4.1
SUSE Manager Server 4.2
SUSE Manager Server 4.3

Situation

Some actions in the SUSE Manager web UI throw an "Internal server error", such as when trying to delete a system profile from SUSE Manager.

The cobblerd service shows a similar set of log entries when the status is checked.

# systemctl status cobblerd.service
● cobblerd.service - Cobbler Helper Daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/cobblerd.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: inactive (dead) since Thu 2020-10-22 10:52:33 CST; 1s ago
  Process: 124221 ExecStartPost=/usr/bin/touch /usr/share/cobbler/web/cobbler.wsgi (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  Process: 124220 ExecStart=/usr/bin/cobblerd -F (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 124220 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

Oct 22 10:52:33 sumaadmin41 cobblerd[124220]: Traceback (most recent call last):
Oct 22 10:52:33 sumaadmin41 cobblerd[124220]:   File "/usr/bin/cobblerd", line 75, in main
Oct 22 10:52:33 sumaadmin41 cobblerd[124220]:     api = cobbler_api.CobblerAPI(is_cobblerd=True)
Oct 22 10:52:33 sumaadmin41 cobblerd[124220]:   File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/cobbler/api.py", line 109, in __init__
Oct 22 10:52:33 sumaadmin41 cobblerd[124220]:     self.deserialize()
Oct 22 10:52:33 sumaadmin41 cobblerd[124220]:   File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/cobbler/api.py", line 893, in deserialize
Oct 22 10:52:33 sumaadmin41 cobblerd[124220]:     return self._collection_mgr.deserialize()
Oct 22 10:52:33 sumaadmin41 cobblerd[124220]:   File "/usr/lib/python3.6/site-packages/cobbler/cobbler_collections/manager.py", line 187, in deserialize
Oct 22 10:52:33 sumaadmin41 cobblerd[124220]:     raise CX("serializer: error loading collection %s: %s. Check /etc/cobbler/modules.conf" % (collection.collection_type(), e))
Oct 22 10:52:33 sumaadmin41 cobblerd[124220]: cobbler.cexceptions.CX: 'serializer: error loading collection distro: "Error with distro 12sp4_test:1:SUSE - kernel \'/mnt/boot/x86_64/loader/linux\' not found". Check /etc/cobbler/modules.conf'

Sometimes the following error may also be observed :

System profile 1000010010 can not be deleted. Check cobbler service.

Resolution

Please perform the following steps to resolve the issue.

1. Identify any previously mounted installation media ISO images, and remount them to the same path that they were previously mounted to. In the example error messages above, we see an ISO was previously mounted at /mnt.
2. Restart cobblerd.service and check the status.

# systemctl restart cobblerd.serivce
# systemctl status cobblerd.service

3. Repeat the previously failing action to see if the issue is resolved.

Cause

When creating a distribution, an installation media ISO image was mounted to a filesystem path. The distribution was set up to use the ISO mount path as the "Tree Path". Due to a reboot or some other action, the ISO is no longer mounted at the same location, making Cobbler unable to locate needed installation media files.

Additional Information

The above Resolution steps will not prevent this error from coming back after another reboot. To avoid this issue in the future, there are two options.

1) If all of the distributions using the ISO mount as their "Tree Path" are not needed, you can delete them all in the web UI.
2) If you want to keep the distributions, then you will need to permanently copy the files from the ISO to the "Tree Path" location. This will require unmounting the ISO, remounting it to a different path, then copying the files to the "Tree Path" location. You may have to restart cobblerd.service again after doing this.

If the above steps do not resolve the issue, please generate a supportconfig to collect the system details and contact SUSE support.

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.