Net-SNMP Startup Issues and package updates.

I ran into an issue the other day installing net-snmp-utils via yum on a CentOS 4.5 box and it just happened to me again. This time however, I didn’t install the net-snmp-utils, it was from the original load of net-snmp. Basically, I typically just do a:

yum -y install net-snmp

Then copy over my default snmpd.conf file and fire it up.

In these instances however, snmpd either refused to start or gave the following error in /var/log/messages:

Apr 16 18:14:35 msx-db01 kernel: audit(1208384075.250:6): avc: denied { read } for pid=27712 comm="snmpd" name="snmpd.conf" dev=sda3 ino=7241736 scontext=root:system_r:snmpd_t tcontext=root:object_r:tmp_t tclass=file
Apr 16 18:14:35 msx-db01 kernel: audit(1208384075.265:7): avc: denied { read } for pid=27712 comm="snmpd" name="snmpd.conf" dev=sda3 ino=7241736 scontext=root:system_r:snmpd_t tcontext=root:object_r:tmp_t tclass=file
Apr 16 18:14:35 msx-db01 snmpd[27712]: Warning: no access control information configured. It's unlikely this agent can serve any useful purpose in this state. Run "snmpconf -g basic_setup" to help you configure the snmpd.conf file for this agent.
Apr 16 18:14:35 msx-db01 snmpd[27712]: NET-SNMP version 5.1.2


I tried to use snmpconf as suggested even though I knew my snmpd.conf file was fine. snmpconf was not on the system so I didn’t waste any time trying to find out how to get it.

So the fix is to install the net-snmp-libs package, not sure what it updates but it works.

yum -y install net-snmp-libs

The catch after that is (at least in all 3 of my situations) the following error on the yum install:

Transaction Check Error: file /usr/share/man/man8/ext2online.8.gz from install of e2fsprogs-1.35-12.11.el4_6.1 conflicts with file from package e2fsprogs-1.35-12.4.EL4

So, back to the hack admin package manager of choice *yum* :

yum update e2fsprogs

Once it’s updated, the net-snmp-libs goes in as expected.

So what’s the deal with all this? I dunno, what the hell do utilities for ext2 have to do with my ability to run snmp monitoring? Who gives a shit and if you know, you’re probably on the wrong site. At any rate, my monitoring works and I’ll leave the rest to the server fairies.

Moral of the story: If your shit works, do you really need to understand it?

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