zypper fails to refresh update source, marking repository as invalid

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 2
Subscription Management Tool

Situation

When running zypper ref -s on a ext3 formatted filesystem the refresh of the repository data fails with:

linux:~ # zypper ref -s
Refreshing service 'SMT-http_smtserver.local.site'.
All services have been refreshed.
Retrieving repository 'NTS_Tools_SLE_11_SP2' metadata [error]
Repository 'NTS_Tools_SLE_11_SP2' is invalid.
[|] Valid metadata not found at specified URL(s)
Please check if the URIs defined for this repository are pointing to a valid repository.
Skipping repository 'NTS_Tools_SLE_11_SP2' because of the above error.
Retrieving repository 'SLES11-SP1-Pool' metadata [error]
Repository 'SLES11-SP1-Pool' is invalid.
[|] Valid metadata not found at specified URL(s)
Please check if the URIs defined for this repository are pointing to a valid repository.
Skipping repository 'SLES11-SP1-Pool' because of the above error.
[...]

In /var/log/zypper.log the following error is found:

2013-06-27 11:17:21 <3> linux(27847) [zypp] TmpPath.cc(TmpDir):280 Cant create '/var/tmp/TmpDir.XXXXXX' Too many links

Resolution

Please clean up temporary directories in /tmp or /var/tmp. Do have the system clean up these directories on boot please edit /etc/sysconfig/cron and change the values for:

TMP_DIRS_TO_CLEAR=
MAX_DAYS_IN_TMP=
CLEAR_TMP_DIRS_AT_BOOTUP=

Please keep in mind, /var/tmp and /tmp are not supposed to store static data for long time.

Cause

This issue is encountered if there are more than 31998 sub directories on the affected file system.

Disclaimer

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