OES2 Linux Activation Fails or OES2 Linux says there are no updates available

Another issue related to the cloning of virtual servers from a VMWare template. Don't get me wrong, I love VMWare, but the human element involved in cloning servers (especially after some time has passed) always shoots me in the foot.

I stumbled upon this when I was doing updates for a customer. A few servers updated just as they should, while others were saying there were no updates available.  Then when re-activating them via Novell Customer Center I realized I'd used the wrong server name. Doh! SMH - again. One of those steps I overlooked after cloning the server. Part of this depends on your particular template process, but if you're not controlling the process this "fix" is a good thing to have in your toolbelt.

This comes from a Novell TID that was not easy to find. Hopefully this post will make generic searches outside of the Novell KB a bit easier.

These are the error messages you may encounter:

• ERROR: Could not add'https://update.novell.com': Failed to download XML metadata: Download failed: (https://update.novell.com/repo/repoindex.xml) serializationStream supports seeking, but its length is 0
  
  ERROR: Could not add 'nu.novell.com': Failed to parse XML metadata: Can't add repository at https://nu.novell.com/repo/$RCE/SLED10-Updates/sled-10-i586: Unknown Error: Downloading metadata failed (is YUM source?) or user did not accept remote source. Aborting refresh.
  
  ERROR: Could not add 'nu.novell.com': Failed to parse XML metadata: Can't add repository at https://nu.novell.com/repo/$RCE/SLES10-Updates/sles-10-i586: Unknown Error: Downloading metadata failed (is YUM source?) or user did not accept remote source. Aborting refresh.

My trigger was that the servers were saying no updates were available and it had been 6 months since I'd touched them and they weren't setup for automatic updates.  This is apparently due to a corrupt cache.

Here's how to fix it:

1. Close the Novell Customer Center Configuration tool if it's running
2. Open a terminal window and su if you're not already logged in as root
3. Run the following commands
• rczmd stop
• rm -rf /var/cache/zmd/*
• rczmd start
4. Launch Yast2  and select Software | Novell Customer Center Configuration
5. Correct the server name if it's wrong and finish the activation process

This is all laid out in Novell TID #3818394 with the title of "Activation fails with an error downloading XML data" if you want to see the official resolution.