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Problem

Opswsshd Jail fail to start. Could not open /dev/null
opsware-sas:sshd failed to start

The above error message is shown when attempting to start the SSHD Server Automation (SA) component from the command line.

Cause

Dependent on the fix soultion(s) taken.

Fix

 
This error message can be caused by a number of items but 4 of the more common issues are detailed here:

1) First ensure that the server(s) on which the SA components are installed are not utilizing SELinux packages ( which provide a ‘hardened’ version of the operating system).  Usage of such a configured Linux environment is not support upto SA 7.5.  Please refer to the respective SA versions planning and installation guide for further details.

In order to remove the SElinux components form an existing SA installed system, please follow KCS article:  KM634092

2)
Ensure that the root can indeed write to /dev/null  by verifying the permissions and existence of this ‘special’ device file, via:

#ls -la  /dev/null
#ls -la /var/opt/opsware/ogfs/mnt/dev/null       (The jailed /dev/null)
#ls -la /var/opt/opsware/ogfs/mnt/root/dev/null (The jailed /dev/null)

[root@em30c1 ~]#ls -la /var/opt/opsware/ogfs/mnt/dev/null
crw-rw-rw-  1 root root 1, 3 May 19 15:24 /var/opt/opsware/ogfs/mnt/dev/null

Amending the permissions to be equal to or greater than that shown above, should then be made.  Then repeat the attempt to start the sshd component via:

#/etc/init.d/opsware-sas start sshd

3) Alternatively if this file is not present or corrupted on the customers system it may be (re)created via:

ls: /var/opt/opsware/ogfs/mnt/dev/null: No such file or directory
# mknod -m 0666 /var/opt/opsware/ogfs/mnt/dev/null c 1 3
#ls -la /var/opt/opsware/ogfs/mnt/dev/null
crw-rw-rw-  1 root root 1, 3 May 19 15:24 /var/opt/opsware/ogfs/mnt/dev/null

“ 1 3” shown above are the major and minor version and may need to be changed to suit the OS on which you are attempting to create the special file.  More information on major and minor version can be seen via:

#man mknod

4) If the error:

Opswsshd Jail fail to start. Could not open /dev/null
opsware-sas:sshd failed to start

…is still seen, then ensure that the filesystem is being correctly mounted.

To do so, review the contents of /etc/fstab and ensure that “nodev” is NOT present along side the filesystems of:  /var/opt/opsware/ogfs/mnt/ogfs/*

If so, amend the /etc/fstab to remove the option “nodev”.

After which retry starting the sshd component via:
#/etc/init.d/opsware-sas start sshd