iPrint and Apache Crashing Daily after May 2017 Patches Installed

  • Document ID:7021043
  • Creation Date:29-Jun-2017
  • Modified Date:06-Jul-2017
    • Micro Focus Products:
      iPrint
      Open Enterprise Server

Environment

Novell Open Enterprise Server 2015 (OES 2015) Linux Support Pack 1
Novell iPrint for Linux
iFolder

Situation

After applying the May 2017 Maintenance patch to OES2015SP1, the Apache web server crashes daily, causing iPrint to be inaccessible to printing and administration.  A restart of Apache usually restores the iPrint service.

Different Apache error log scenarios have been presented to Micro Focus support.  Below are two examples:

Example 1:
[DATE] [notice] caught SIGTERM, shutting down
[DATE] [warn] RSA server certificate CommonName (CN) `<servername>' does NOT match server name!?
[DATE] [warn] module rewrite_module is already loaded, skipping
[DATE] [warn] module rewrite_module is already loaded, skipping
[DATE] [warn] RSA server certificate CommonName (CN) `<servername>' does NOT match server name!?
[DATE] [notice] Apache/2.2.12 (Linux/SUSE) mod_ssl/2.2.12 OpenSSL/0.9.8j-fips PHP/5.3.17 mod_mono/2.6.3 ipp_module/$Revision $ configured
 -- resuming normal operations
ALL Simias Threads are stopped,  Exiting from Simias process

Example 2:


[DATE] [warn] IPP Operation error=CLNT_ERR_NOT_FOUND, operation=Get Job Attributes
[DATE] [warn] IPP Operation error=CLNT_ERR_NOT_FOUND, operation=Get Job Attributes
[DATE] [notice] Graceful restart requested, doing restart
[DATE] [error] (9)Bad file descriptor: apr_socket_accept: (client socket)
[DATE] [notice] seg fault or similar nasty error detected in the parent process


Resolution

This has been reported to engineering.  Below are a list of possible workarounds:
  1. Remove iFolder
    • This option is viable if iFolder is not being used.  Paste the following string of commands into the iPrint Server's terminal session:
      • mkdir /tmp/mono-backup;mv /etc/apache2/conf.d/ifolder_admin.conf /tmp/mono-backup;mv /etc/apache2/conf.d/ifolder_web.conf /tmp/mono-backup;mv /etc/apache2/conf.d/mod_mono.conf /tmp/mono-backup;mv /etc/apache2/conf.d/simias.conf /tmp/mono-backup;rcapache2 restart
  2. Run Script to auto restart Apache
    • Create a file named apacheCrashRestart.sh.  Paste the following contents into that script file.  Save it to the iPrint server's /tmp directory.
      • #!/bin/bash
      • if tail -20 /var/log/apache2/error_log |grep "SIGTERM"; then
      • echo "iPrint and Apache were restarted $(date '+%m/%d/%y %H:%M:%S')" >> /tmp/iPrintRestart.log
      • killall -9 httpd
      • rcapache2 start
      • wait
      • rcnovell-ipsmd restart
      • fi
    • Change the file permissions on the script file.
      • chmod +x /tmp/apacheCrashRestart.sh
    • Add the following 2 lines to the server's /etc/crontab file:
      • #If Apache has crashed, restart services
      • * * * * *   root  /tmp/apacheCrashRestart.sh
    • Restart cron
      • rccron restart
    • If the string SIGTERM shows up within the Apache error log within the last 20 lines on any given minute, then Apache will be auto restarted.
  3. Duplicate iPrint Environment
    • Call Micro Focus support.  An iPrint support engineer can help you duplicate the iPrint configuration to a temporary server.  This will be seamless to end users.
  4. Wait for the fix
    • The Micro Focus development is working on a fix.  Wait until the fix is available.