Apache2 service fails to start on Acess Gateway after fresh install of NAM 4.2.2 or 4.2.3 on SLES 12 SP1 with latest Security patches

  • 7018554
  • 31-Jan-2017
  • 31-Jan-2017

Environment

NetIQ Access Manager 4.2

Situation

After installing NAM 4.2.2 Admin Console (AC), Identity Server (IDP) and Access Gateway Service (AG) on separate machines running SLES 12 SP1 patched with latest security and OS updates, the expected services on the AC and IDP were running without issues. However on the AG, the apache2 service failed to start and no TCP listener was active.

Command "/etc/init.d/novell-apache2 status" shows the following:

checking status ...
process already running ..running
novell-mag.service - LSB: Start/stop Access Gateway

Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/novell-mag)
Active: active (exited) since Fri 2016-12-16 13:01:54 MST; 19min ago
Process: 4723 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/novell-mag start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

Log file /var/log/novell-apache2/rcnovell-apache2.out shows the following:

"/opt/novell/apache2/sbin/httpd: error while loading shared libraries: libpcre.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory"

Resolution

Execute the following commands to get the Apache2 running correctly:

1. cd /usr/lib64/
2. rm libpcre.so.0
3. ln -s /usr/lib64/libpcre.so.1.2.7 /usr/lib64/libpcre.so.0
4. /etc/init.d/novell-apache2 start

Cause

After upgrading the new SLES 12 SP1 security fixes, the libpcre.so version needed by the AG is getting changed. So the softlink for the pcre library being used by AG was broken, and httpd process fails to start.