webUI fails to open after update to 4.3.12

This document (000021458) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Manager 4.3

Situation

SUSE Manager server services fail to start correctly and below error related to cobbler can be observed in /var/log/rhn/rhn_taskomatic_daemon.log

ERROR com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic.task.KickstartFileSyncTask - Executing a task threw an exception: java.lang.RuntimeException
java.lang.RuntimeException: XmlRpcException calling cobbler.
	at com.redhat.rhn.manager.kickstart.cobbler.CobblerXMLRPCHelper.invokeMethod(CobblerXMLRPCHelper.java:73) ~[rhn.jar:?]
	at com.redhat.rhn.manager.kickstart.cobbler.CobblerLoginCommand.login(CobblerLoginCommand.java:52) ~[rhn.jar:?]
	at com.redhat.rhn.frontend.integration.IntegrationService.authorize(IntegrationService.java:114) ~[rhn.jar:?]
	at com.redhat.rhn.frontend.integration.IntegrationService.getAuthToken(IntegrationService.java:67) ~[rhn.jar:?]
	at com.redhat.rhn.manager.kickstart.cobbler.CobblerXMLRPCHelper.getConnection(CobblerXMLRPCHelper.java:94) ~[rhn.jar:?]
	at com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic.task.KickstartFileSyncTask.execute(KickstartFileSyncTask.java:50) ~[rhn.jar:?]
	at com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic.task.RhnJavaJob.execute(RhnJavaJob.java:56) ~[rhn.jar:?]
	at com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic.TaskoJob.doExecute(TaskoJob.java:240) ~[rhn.jar:?]
	at com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic.TaskoJob.runTemplate(TaskoJob.java:193) ~[rhn.jar:?]
	at com.redhat.rhn.taskomatic.TaskoJob.execute(TaskoJob.java:145) ~[rhn.jar:?]
	at org.quartz.core.JobRunShell.run(JobRunShell.java:202) ~[quartz-2.3.0.jar:?]
	at org.quartz.simpl.SimpleThreadPool$WorkerThread.run(SimpleThreadPool.java:573) ~[quartz-2.3.0.jar:?]
Caused by: redstone.xmlrpc.XmlRpcException: The response could not be parsed.
	at redstone.xmlrpc.XmlRpcClient.handleResponse(XmlRpcClient.java:435) ~[redstone-xmlrpc-client-1.1_20071120.jar:?]
	at redstone.xmlrpc.XmlRpcClient.endCall(XmlRpcClient.java:376) ~[redstone-xmlrpc-client-1.1_20071120.jar:?]
	at redstone.xmlrpc.XmlRpcClient.invoke(XmlRpcClient.java:165) ~[redstone-xmlrpc-client-1.1_20071120.jar:?]
	at com.redhat.rhn.manager.kickstart.cobbler.CobblerXMLRPCHelper.invokeMethod(CobblerXMLRPCHelper.java:70) ~[rhn.jar:?]
	... 11 more

Resolution

A mass-PTF is available in order to address this issue. It can be found under this URL:

https://ptf.suse.com/f2cf38b50ed714a8409693060195b235/susemanager-4.3/28140/x86_64/20240529/

The PTF should be installed on top of the latest maintenance updates of SUSE Manager 4.3.12

Install only, if affected by the issue, as the PTF will overwrite other used spacewalk-java PTF

Cause

With SUSE Manager 4.3.12 an action was added to run on server start-up, which will try to run just one time.
The action is calling the salt-master to update some data (beacons, state, modules, pillars, and grains) for all minions.

The problem with this call is that it was done on the server init part and it was synchronous. It can take some time to run since it waits for salt to get the response, or reach timeout (if the minion is down) for all minions.

The consequence of this is that the web application did not finish starting, following with cobbler not starting and taskomatic tasks failing.

Additional Information

For general instructions about how to download a PTF (including getting a user and password in case of not having one) and apply please see:

https://www.suse.com/support/kb/doc/?id=000018572

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.