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Can't create e-smith users

Abe Loveless

Can't create e-smith users
« on: August 20, 2003, 11:47:59 PM »
I've got a fresh install of SME v5.6 U4, with the following contribs:  ClamAV, e-smith-userpanel, SpamAssassin, and ezmlm.

I have added about 2000 users to the system using a batch_users script that I've used for a long time without any trouble.  I just yesterday tried to import about 130 more users.   After it processed 100, the last 30 users failed.   The usernames show up in the server-manager, but none of the home directories were created, I get an error when modifying the user or resetting the password in the server-manager.

The /var/log/messages file shows me that in /etc/e-smith/events/user-create/S15user-create-unix the group fails to be created, but doesn't give any details as to why.

When I try to run the command that fails manually ("/usr/sbin/groupadd -g GID USERNAME") I get the response "Segmentation Fault".  I can't find any more details in any of the logs.

I have tried taking out and rearranging the sticks of memory (4 - 512Mb sticks), to no avail.

Any other thoughts?

Abe Loveless

Re: Can't create e-smith users
« Reply #1 on: August 21, 2003, 12:19:35 AM »
Also, I get the same errors when trying to create a new user from the server-manager.  (I didn't know if that was clear in my previous post.)

Michiel Blotwijk

Re: Can't create e-smith users
« Reply #2 on: August 21, 2003, 12:42:06 AM »
Are you using the user-manager? There was an issue with earlier versions that would cause all kinds of nasty problems if you created too many users.

Abe Loveless

Re: Can't create e-smith users
« Reply #3 on: August 21, 2003, 12:48:53 AM »
:)

That was last week's problem.  I've got the latest version now.  This error seems to be more serious.  With the earlier user-manager, it wouldn't expand the /etc/httpd/admin-conf/httpd.conf correctly.  This current problem, I can't even add/remove users from the system.

dave

Re: Can't create e-smith users
« Reply #4 on: August 21, 2003, 01:07:28 AM »
Abe,

I seem to recall some kind of issue with creating new users.  As a new user is created, doesn't it create a group of the same name as the user?  And that group by default has the admin user as a member and a user can't be part of more than a specific number of groups - or something to that effect...

OR...  I could be wrong...

Just a thought.
Dave

Abe Loveless

Re: Can't create e-smith users
« Reply #5 on: August 21, 2003, 01:13:39 AM »
Well, that sounds good.  It seems like I have heard something along those lines... but a check in /etc/group shows each of my user groups, with only the single user ID as members.

For example:

USERNAME:x:5637:

Abe Loveless

Re: Can't create e-smith users
« Reply #6 on: August 21, 2003, 01:19:17 AM »
running userdel, useradd, groupadd, and groupdel all cause segmentation faults.


I can run other commands (tar) and perl scripts seem to work fine.  The system seems to working correctly, it's sending/receiving email, scanning virii, and spam checking just fine.  I just can't add/delete any more users.   Weird....

Michiel Blotwijk

Re: Can't create e-smith users
« Reply #7 on: August 21, 2003, 02:00:27 AM »
Quick! Send an e-mail to smebugs@mitel.com before the guys at Mitel visit their wrath upon you. It might very well be a bug... ;-)

See https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=86490 and loads of other hits on Google for segmentation fault and useradd.

Michiel

Abe Loveless

Re: Can't create e-smith users
« Reply #8 on: August 21, 2003, 02:12:49 AM »
That looks like the exact problem I'm getting, and the numbers are pretty close, too.   /home/e-smith/accounts indicates that I have 2051 users, and this thread mentions 2057.

Thanks Michiel, I believe I will send a little note to bugs.

Abe Loveless

Re: Can't create e-smith users
« Reply #9 on: August 23, 2003, 07:14:38 PM »
I got a response from the SME Bugs team.

Essentially, they told me that... yes, it looks like you've found a problem so we'll add it to the radar for the next major release.  Also stated that the bugzilla report above still shows it as a new bug, which would mean that RedHat probably hasn't patched it yet... which I'm sure would have a certain influence on SME patches.



If you know that you're going to have well over 2000 users, you may want to install multiple servers and see about sharing the load, for now.  In my case, I deleted enough users manually that I think I'm back out of harms way.... for now.