packages on SUMA server's filesystem not found by client

This document (000020953) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Manager server

Situation

SUMA Client is unable to access a package or packages that should be available. Output similar to the following example output is seen when attempting to download the package:

Retrieving package supportutils-plugin-susemanager-client-4.3.2-6.24.1.noarch           (1/1),  13.5 KiB ( 21.4 KiB unpacked)
Retrieving: supportutils-plugin-susemanager-client-4.3.2-6.24.1.noarch.rpm .......................................[not found]
File './getPackage/NULL/b353d5598088939f9f043d0250de1c57d68c3e97d4736755708c0e9adeb0820e/supportutils-plugin-susemanager-client-4.3.2-6.24.1.noarch.rpm' not found on medium 'https://redactedhostname:443/rhn/manager/download/sle-manager-tools12-updates-x86_64-sp5?eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1Niz9.eyJleHAi0jE2OTUxNDg4ODQsImlhdCI6MTY2MzYxMjz4NCwibmJmIjoxNjYzNjEyNzY0LCJqdGkiOiJSmhSTlhKN2v2QkhtTE1VVRHhnIiw1b3JnIjoxLCJvbmx5Q22hhbm5lbHMiOlsic2xlLW1nbmFnZXItdG9vbHMxMi11cGRhdGVzLXg4Nl82NC1zcDUiXX0.q0LcTMBlU_YBiTERmmcGR5lQz53K0RMlbsYNB0dcO3s'
Abort, retry, ignore? [a/r/i/...? shows all options] (a): a
Problem occurred during or after installation or removal of packages:
Installation aborted by user
Please see the above error message for a hint.

While investigating the issue, the missing package is seen on the filesystem on the SUSE Manager server and is available in the expected channel according to the WebUI and spacecmd output. When inspected with 'ls -l' or 'stat', the permissions for one or more directories in /var/spacewalk/packages/NULL is different than 'drwxr-xr-x', or the permissions for one or more files in these directories is different than '-rw-r--r--'.

Resolution

The permissions for all directories under /var/spacewalk/packages/NULL must be set to 'drwxr-xr-x', or 755, and the files in these directories must have permissions set to '-rw-r--r--' or 644.

To set the permissions for all of these directories, run the following command on the SUSE Manager server's CLI:

find /var/spacewalk/packages/NULL -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

To set the permissions to the correct value for all files in these directories, use this command:

find /var/spacewalk/packages/NULL -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

Cause

The permissions for one or more files or directories in /var/spacewalk/packages/NULL was too restrictive for the client to be able to access them. These files normally have the correct permissions set, and regular use of SUSE Manager will not cause these to change, so it may be unclear what has caused the permissions to change. You may like to check that antivirus software is not responsible for adjusting the permissions.

Additional Information

To use the WebUI to check if a package is on the SUSE Manager server, search for the package in Software > Package Search, or search in the Packages tab after selecting the channel that should provide the package.

To use spacecmd to check if a package is on the server, use the 'softwarechannel_listpackages' function:

spacecmd -u <admin username> softwarechannel_listpackages <channel name> | grep "package name"

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.