pam_env.conf error from ESXi

I wanted to post this for two reasons, 1) in hopes that a SolarWinds rep will see it and issue a fix and 2) so that others out there hopefully will not go through the frustration that I did.

If you run ESXi 4.0 and do an update to 4.1 you will notice a new error popping up in your syslog server: Hostd: pam_env(system-auth-generic:setcred): Unable to open config file: /etc/security/pam_env.conf: No such file or directory

VMware support was of little to no help and ended up telling me to do a clean install on the host after a couple of hours of trouble shooting, which after doing so produced the exact same behavior and now I have wasted all that time configuring a new host from the ground up.

Shortly after finishing the clean install and noticing the error persisting, I changed the polling interval in NPM for the host and noticed that the frequency of the error logging changed also.

With that in mind I decided under the recommendation of a colleague to just touch the files on the host to see if it would stop the error logging since all functionality seemed to be fine anyway. I ended up having to touch /etc/security/pam_env.conf and /etc/environment.

Once those two files existed, the error logging stopped and things seem to be running just fine.

Hope this helps some one at some point.

-Landon

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pacetti

harshi,

Thank you for the post. I've forwarded it to the Orion NPM Product Manager and created a knowledge base article to help other users:

When updating VMware ESXi 4.0 to ESXi 4.1, I am seeing an error: "Hostd: pam_env(system-auth-generic:setcred): Unable to open config file: /etc/security/pam_env.conf: No such file or directory". (http://knowledgebase.solarwinds.com/kb/questions/1900/)

Thanks,

FormerMember

Unfortunately, I have more to add to this. This is becoming very frustrating. VMware must have changed some stuff in 4.1 that Solarwinds is not playing nice with. It is not only looking for the item listed above, but on an ESXi Advanced licensed machine we have it is triggering the following out of the syslog alerting.

sfcb-CIMXML-Processor[12005]: --- Authentication exit /lib/libsfcBasicAuthentication.so not found

This file doesn't exist on any server and should not exist. This is only being logged from one server despite the fact that the other servers don't have the file either.

I sure hope SolarWinds can resolve this in the next SP.

FormerMember

Upon further investigation, this one is not being generated by the polling of Solarwinds like the original one was. I will follow up with VMware on why this one is logging.

angle333

When updating a monitored hypervisor running VMware ESXi version 4.0 to version 4.1, Orion may report the following error in either the Syslog view of the Orion Web Console or the Syslog Viewer: [url=http://www.inikesneakers.com/]cheap gucci shoes
Hostd: pam_env(system-auth-generic:setcred): Unable to open config file: /etc/security/pam_env.conf: No such file or directory

To correct this issue:

Log on to your ESXi host.
Confirm that the following exist on your ESXi host, and create them if they do not:
- Directory: /etc/environment
- File: /etc/security/pam_env.conf

This article applies to:
Orion Network Performance Monitor 10.0 and higher

KLH456

I followed these steps but still get the errors. This is ESXi 4.1.

~ # cd etc
/etc # cd security
/etc/security # ls
access.conf login.map pam_evn.conf
/etc/security #

9/23/2011 3:41:25 PM

s315eesxi

Error

Hostd: pam_env(system-auth-generic:setcred): Unable to open config file: /etc/security/pam_env.conf: No such file or directory

9/23/2011 3:41:25 PM

s315eesxi

Error

Hostd: pam_env(system-auth-generic:setcred): Unable to open config file: /etc/security/pam_env.conf: No such file or directory

9/23/2011 3:46:26 PM	s315eesxi	Error	Hostd: pam_env(system-auth-generic:setcred): Unable to open config file: /etc/security/pam_env.conf: No such file or directory	No
	9/23/2011 3:45:06 PM	s315eesxi	Warning	vmkernel: 7:02:15:58.836 cpu1:1862774)WARNING: UserObj: 569: Failed to crossdup fd 6, fs: def5 oid: 1500000003000000d type CHAR: Busy	No
	9/23/2011 3:41:25 PM	s315eesxi	Error	Hostd: pam_env(system-auth-generic:setcred): Unable to open config file: /etc/security/pam_env.conf: No such file or directory	No

Hostd: pam_env(system-auth-generic:setcred): Unable to open config file: /etc/security/pam_env.conf: No such file or directory

And this one:

vmkernel: 7:02:15:58.836 cpu1:1862774)WARNING: UserObj: 569: Failed to crossdup fd 6, fs: def5 oid: 1500000003000000d type CHAR: Busy

These both came through after I made the change on the ESXi host. Does it need to be rebooted after the change. Since it is only creating a directory and a file, I can't see a need for a reboot.

9/23/2011 3:46:26 PM	s315eesxi	Error	Hostd: pam_env(system-auth-generic:setcred): Unable to open config file: /etc/security/pam_env.conf: No such file or directory	No
	9/23/2011 3:45:06 PM	s315eesxi	Warning	vmkernel: 7:02:15:58.836 cpu1:1862774)WARNING: UserObj: 569: Failed to crossdup fd 6, fs: def5 oid: 1500000003000000d type CHAR: Busy	No
	9/23/2011 3:41:25 PM	s315eesxi	Error	Hostd: pam_env(system-auth-generic:setcred): Unable to open config file: /etc/security/pam_env.conf: No such file or directory	No

KLH456

Never mind. I see the typo when it appeared in the message! I'll fix it now.