"n4u_send_command failed..." upgrading to eDirectory 8.8.2

  • 3484188
  • 11-Oct-2007
  • 26-Apr-2012

Environment

Novell eDirectory 8.7.3.9 for Linux
Novell eDirectory 8.8.2 for Linux
Novell Identity Manager 3.0.1
Novell Identity Manager 3.5
Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9
Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10

Situation

Symptoms: Upgrade from 8.7.3.9 to 8.8.2 on SLES 9.3 fails
Details: When running "ndsconfig upgrade --config-file" the upgrade gets to the point of"Starting the server 'ndsd'...." and then the following error is seen

Checking if server is ready to service requests... Command socket error: No such file or directory. ErrorCode=2

Sep 27 17:07:21 n4u_send_command failed with error code=-1

Command socket error: No such file or directory. ErrorCode=2

Sep 27 17:07:41 n4u_send_command failed with error code=-1

Command socket error: No such file or directory. ErrorCode=2

Sep 27 17:08:01 n4u_send_command failed with error code=-1

Command socket error: No such file or directory. ErrorCode=2

Sep 27 17:08:21 n4u_send_command failed with error code=-1

Command socket error: No such file or directory. ErrorCode=2

Sep 27 17:08:41 n4u_send_command failed with error code=-1

Server down. Please check /var/opt/novell/eDirectory/log/ndsd.log for details.

NOTE: ndsconfig upgrade does not not create the /etc/opt/novell/eDirectory/conf/.edir/instances.0 and ndsd won't start.

Resolution

Before running the ndsconfig upgrade process (ie "ndsconfig upgrade --config-file /etc/nds.conf")...

  • Re-install Novell Identity Manager version 3.0 or above using the "-DCLUSTER_INSTALL="true" switch" [./dirxml_linux.bin -DCLUSTER_INSTALL="true"]NOTE: The /etc/opt/novell/eDirectory/conf/.edir/instances.0 file should be created and contain the path to new nds.conf
    • >>>>>>>> instances.0 contents<<<<<<<<<<
    • /etc/opt/novell/eDirectory/conf/nds.conf
    • >>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

  • Set the path using the /opt/novell/eDirectory/bin/ndspath utility.
    • One example is to create a .bashrc file in the /root directory and have the following in the file:     . /opt/novell/eDirectory/bin/ndspath

The problem occurs because the IDM packages are still installed in the older locations like /usr/lib and /usr/lib/nds-modules whereas the newer eDirectory packages are Linux Standards Base (LSB) compliant and are installed in the newer paths that are set by the ndspath command. Therefore, attempts to load IDM from the older paths crash eDirectory process and leads to the command socket errors. Therefore, installing IDM again with the new paths is the solution for this issue.

See the online eDirectory documentation on how to migrate to eDirectory 8.8.2: https://www.novell.com/documentation/edir88/edirin88/index.html?page=/documentation/edir88/edirin88/data/b2jbgs5.html