Error: "HTTP error 500 occurred during the following request"

When mirroring SLES 10 Updates with zlmmirror from the location https://update.novell.com/data the following error could come up:

Error: HTTP error 500 occurred during the following request: "https://update.novell.com/data/channels.php".
The most likely cause of this error is an authentication failure. Please check the and fields in the section of the configuration file or check the"/etc/opt/novell/zenworks/zmd/deviceid" and"/etc/opt/novell/zenworks/zmd/secret" files and try again.

com.novell.zenworks.zlmmirror.server.MirrorServerException: HTTP error 500 occurred during the following request: "https://update.novell.com/data/channels.php".
The most likely cause of this error is an authentication failure. Please check the and fields in the section of the configuration file or check the"/etc/opt/novell/zenworks/zmd/deviceid" and"/etc/opt/novell/zenworks/zmd/secret" files and try again.
at
com.novell.zenworks.zlmmirror.server.RCEServer.loadCatalogs(RCEServer.java:378)
at
com.novell.zenworks.zlmmirror.server.RemoteServer.retrieveCatalogs(RemoteServer.java:2578)
at
com.novell.zenworks.zlmmirror.server.RemoteServer.retrieveServerBundles(RemoteServer.java:2293)
at
com.novell.zenworks.zlmmirror.server.RCEServer.retrieveServerBundles(RCEServer.java:318)
at
com.novell.zenworks.zlmmirror.MirrorSession.listServerBundles(MirrorSession.java:589)
at
com.novell.zenworks.zlmmirror.MirrorSession.executeCommand(MirrorSession.java:444)
at
com.novell.zenworks.zlmmirror.MirrorSession.execute(MirrorSession.java:261)
at
com.novell.zenworks.zlmmirror.ZLMMirror.executeMirrorSession(ZLMMirror.java:261)
at
com.novell.zenworks.zlmmirror.ZLMMirror.main(ZLMMirror.java:144)

To obtain access to a hot patch with the fix for this problem, follow the instructions in KB 3469853 "Updates to Novell ZENworks 7.2 Linux Management" which can be found at https://www.novell.com/support

Workaround:

Note : In this document, SLE 10 refers to both SLED 10 as well a SLES 10. Also * should be replaced by S/D or s/d as appropriate.

Please follow the steps in sequence.

Step 1 : Getting credentials for SLE10-SP1-Online channel

- In a SLE10 GA system enter the command "rug set require-verified-certs false”.
- Register the system to the Novell update site using YaST/Novel Customer Center Configuration.
- Enter the command "rug in -y -t patch switch-update-server”
- Enter the command "switch-update-server”
- Enter the command "rug ref”
- Ensure that the system has been successfully registered to nu.novell.com by entering the "rug sl” command.
- Enter the command "rug sub SLE*10-Updates”
- Enter the command "rug in -y -t patch move-to-sle*10-sp1”
- Run "rug ref”
- Ensure that the "SLE*10-SP1-Online” is visible by entering "rug ca” command.

Note down the outputs of "cat /etc/zmd/deviceid” and "cat /etc/zmd/secret”, which are to be used as the username and password respectively in Step 3.

Rest all of the steps are needed to be done on a ZLM 7.2 server.

Step 2 : Installing the YUP Tool on the ZENworks Server

- Download the yup rpm from http://software.opensuse.org/download/home:/mge1512 .The rpm can be found in SLE_10/noarch directory of the above url location.
- Install the rpm on a ZENworks 7.2 Linux Management Server using"rpm -Uvh ”
- Edit the file /usr/sbin/yup to modify
SUBCHANNELS="-Updates -Online" (Line # 309) to
SUBCHANNELS="-Online"
- Save the file

Step 3 : Configuring YUP sysconfig

- In Yast2, click ->System, then navigate to->/etc/sysconfig Editor
- In the sysconfig tree open System tree and within System tree open YUP tree.
- Copy the contents of /etc/zmd/deviceid (Collected in Step 1) to YUP_ID
- Copy the contents of /etc/zmd/secret (Collected in Step 1) in YUP_PASS
- Modify YUP_ARCH value to appropriate architecture. This should be same as the architecture of the system used in step 1. If no values is provided for YUP_ARCH then by default i586 will be used.
- Modify the YUP_PRODUCTS value to SLED10, if you want to mirror SLED10-Online. Default is SLES10
- Modify YUP_SUBVERSIONS to SP1
- Click 'Finish'

Step 4 : Downloading the SLE10-SP1-Online packages

- Enter the command "yup” to download the SLE10-SP1-Online packages.
- It will download all the SLE10 SP1 packages from SLE10-SP1-Online to /var/cache/yup directory.


Step 5 : Creating Bundle

- At the console prompt of the ZENworks Linux Management Server, enter the following command to create a bundle
zlman -U administrator -P
- Goto directory /var/cache/yup/SLE*10-SP1-Online
- Add the packages to the bundle by entering the following command

or i in `find . -not -name *patch.rpm -and -not -name *delta.rpm` ; do
zlman -U administrator -P bap --freshen $i ; done


Now you can see the bundle in ZCC , deploy the bundle to SLE10 GA device to upgrade it to SP1.

The packages to update SLE10 GA to SLE10 SP1 are available on nu.novell.com not update.novell.com. SLED10 SP1 packages are available in channel/catalog SLED10-SP1-Online and SLES10 SP1 packages in SLES10-SP1-Online channel.

The usual method of mirroring an update site using zlmmirror tool does not work for nu.novell.com till ZLM 7.2 Hot Patch3 release because of the zlmmirror unsupported structure of the site.