RPM package install fails

  • 7013438
  • 11-Oct-2013
  • 19-Dec-2013

Environment

Novell ZENworks Configuration Management 11.2.3 Bundles

Situation

Linux Bundle and/or Linux Dependency Bundle is assigned to Linux managed device.

Bundle or package install fails.

zmd-messages.log contains an error message like:
"...
[Debug] [10/07/2013 08:48:34.294] [] [8399] [ZenworksAgent] [288] [LPM.PackageDownloader] [***************** Exception Dump ***********************] [] []
[Debug] [10/07/2013 08:48:34.294] [] [8399] [ZenworksAgent] [288] [LPM.PackageDownloader] [An Error occurred while Downloading dbus-1-qt3] [] []
[Debug] [10/07/2013 08:48:34.294] [] [8399] [ZenworksAgent] [288] [LPM.PackageDownloader][------------------------------------------------------------------------------------] [] []
[Debug] [10/07/2013 08:48:34.294] [] [8399] [ZenworksAgent] [288] [LPM.PackageDownloader] [Exception Type: class java.lang.NullPointerException] [] []
[Debug] [10/07/2013 08:48:34.306] [] [8399] [ZenworksAgent] [288] [LPM.PackageDownloader] [Stack: java.io.File.<init>(Unknown Source)] [] []
[Debug] [10/07/2013 08:48:34.306] [] [8399] [ZenworksAgent] [288] [LPM.PackageDownloader] [------------------------------------------------------------------------------------] [] []
[Debug] [10/07/2013 08:48:34.306] [] [8399] [ZenworksAgent] [288] [LPM.PackageDownloader] [***************** End Exception Dump***********************] [] []

..."

Resolution

A fix for this issue is intended to be included in a future update to the product: however, in the interim, Novell has made a Patch available for testing, as part of a Monthly patch update: it can be obtained at https://download.novell.com/Download?buildid=Rbs5fYlojj0~ as "ZCM 11.2.4 Monthly Update 1 - see TID 7014163". This update should only be applied if the symptoms above are being experienced, and are causing problems.

Please report any problems encountered when using this Patch, by using the feedback link on this TID.

Workaround:
This issue might not occur if another ZCM agent refresh gets triggered just before bundle or package install.

Cause

The ZCM agent keeps information of available content items in memory to reduce access of ZCM agent cache. Each such content referral should have a lifetime of 60 days (60 * 24 * 3600 * 1000 ms) before getting removed from agent memory but by mistake this timeout gets set to 60 * 24 * 3600 ms which is 1 hour 26 minutes and 24 seconds. After successful packages or bundle install, the agent will trigger removal of such expired content entries.

So if rpm packages finish install 1.44 hours or later after the last successful ZCM agent refresh, all other content information gets removed from this list in agent memory and any other package install fails with above error until next agent refresh rebuilds this information in agent memory.