Symbolic links to packages are broken in Red Hat Satellite 6 or Capsule

Solution Verified - Updated

Environment

  • Red Hat Satellite 6.2 or Capsule
  • Red Hat Satellite 6.3 or Capsule
  • Red Hat Satellite 6.4 or Capsule
  • Red Hat Satellite 6.5 and later or Capsule

Issue

  • RPM packages from a content view are showing as broken symbolic links.
  • Broken symlinks to RPM packages under /var/lib/pulp.
  • Content view is showing broken links on the packages.

Resolution

This is not a bug or error, it is expected behavior in view of the download policy is set as the 'on_demand' policy.
When the 'on_demand' policy is set, the package will be download when a Satellite client requests the package during the install or update process.
For more details about the Lazy Sync feature (on_demand), please access here or Content from docs.pulpproject.org is not included.the Pulp project documentation.

Root Cause

The download policy on the Satellite or Capsule is set as 'on_demand'.

Diagnostic Steps

To check which is the default download policy on your Satellite, please run:

hammer settings list | grep default_download_policy

For instance:

# hammer settings list | grep default_download_policy

default_download_policy                                | on_demand                                                                        | Default download policy for repositories (either 'immediate', 'on_demand', or...

Or directly on the repository please run:

# hammer repository info --organization <YOUR_ORGANIZATION> --name '<REPOSITORY_NAME>' --product 'PRODUCT_NAME

For instance:

# hammer repository info --organization 'ACME'  --name 'Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Server RPMs x86_64 7Server' --product 'Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server'
ID:                 2
Name:               Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Server RPMs x86_64 7Server
Label:              Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux_7_Server_RPMs_x86_64_7Server
Organization:       ACME
Red Hat Repository: yes
Content Type:       yum
Mirror on Sync:     yes
URL:                https://cdn.redhat.com/content/dist/rhel/server/7/7Server/x86_64/os
Publish Via HTTP:   no
Published At:       https://temsat.acme.local/pulp/repos/ACME/Library/content/dist/rhel/server/7/7Server/x86_64/os/
Relative Path:      ACME/Library/content/dist/rhel/server/7/7Server/x86_64/os
Download Policy:    on_demand                   <============== Download policy.
Product:            
    ID:   1
    Name: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server
GPG Key:            

Sync:               
    Status:         Success
    Last Sync Date: 12 days
Created:            2018/10/27 01:37:36
Updated:            2018/11/07 14:00:56
Content Counts:     
    Packages:       23346
    Source RPMS:    1
    Package Groups: 76
    Errata:         3443
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