Content View Publish Fails to Publish or is Stuck

Solution Verified - Updated 10 Mar 2026

Environment

Red Hat Satellite 6.8

Issue

Publishing a new content view version errors before completing (e.g. errors at 87%), or content view publish gets stuck and doesn't finish
The DistributorPublish subtask of the content view publish fails with

NoMethodError
undefined method `[]' for nil:NilClass

Resolution

Determine if the content view publish is failing for a specific repository. Examine the subtasks for the content view publish and check for any subtasks that are in the errored state. Then expand that task and check the input and output of the tasks. The output should show something similar to:

NoMethodError
undefined method `[]' for nil:NilClass 
---
- "/opt/theforeman/tfm/root/usr/share/gems/gems/katello-3.16.0.26/app/services/katello/pulp/repository.rb:199:in
  `lookup_distributor_id'"
- "/opt/theforeman/tfm/root/usr/share/gems/gems/katello-3.16.0.26/app/services/katello/pulp/repository.rb:193:in
  `block in distributor_publish'"
- "/opt/theforeman/tfm/root/usr/share/gems/gems/katello-3.16.0.26/app/services/katello/pulp/repository.rb:191:in
  `each'"
- "/opt/theforeman/tfm/root/usr/share/gems/gems/katello-3.16.0.26/app/services/katello/pulp/repository.rb:191:in
  `map'"
- "/opt/theforeman/tfm/root/usr/share/gems/gems/katello-3.16.0.26/app/services/katello/pulp/repository.rb:191:in
  `distributor_publish'"

Then review the input and find the source_repository section, and the name which will say which repository is failing:

  source_repository:
    id: 1240
    name: Red_Hat_CodeReady_Linux_Builder_for_RHEL_8_x86_64_RPMs_8

Remove all repositories found from the content view found from errored subtasks, and then publish a new version of the content view. Then add all of the repositories back to the content view and publish one more time. If the 2nd publish is successful, you can remove the publish that excluded the affected repositories.

For more KB articles/solutions related to Red Hat Satellite 6.x Content View Issues, please refer to the Red Hat Satellite Consolidated Troubleshooting Article for Red Hat Satellite 6.x Content View Issues

Root Cause

One or more repositories is missing from an environment or version of a content view.
This happens either by having a previous content view publish that did not complete successfully, or if the repository for a specific environment/version of the content view is manually removed from pulp.

Diagnostic Steps

Review the foreman tasks for the content view publish by navigating to Monitor => Tasks in the Satellite UI. Find the content view publish that failed, click on it, and then click the Dynflow console button. Click the Run tab and review if any of the subtasks are showing an error.
If any tasks are showing an error, click on them to expand the input and output values for the task. Find the output values and see if a similar error message exists:

NoMethodError
undefined method `[]' for nil:NilClass 
---
- "/opt/theforeman/tfm/root/usr/share/gems/gems/katello-3.16.0.26/app/services/katello/pulp/repository.rb:199:in
  `lookup_distributor_id'"
- "/opt/theforeman/tfm/root/usr/share/gems/gems/katello-3.16.0.26/app/services/katello/pulp/repository.rb:193:in
  `block in distributor_publish'"
- "/opt/theforeman/tfm/root/usr/share/gems/gems/katello-3.16.0.26/app/services/katello/pulp/repository.rb:191:in
  `each'"
- "/opt/theforeman/tfm/root/usr/share/gems/gems/katello-3.16.0.26/app/services/katello/pulp/repository.rb:191:in
  `map'"
- "/opt/theforeman/tfm/root/usr/share/gems/gems/katello-3.16.0.26/app/services/katello/pulp/repository.rb:191:in
  `distributor_publish'"

Then find the input and and see which repository is causing issues (this example shows the CodeReady Linux Builder repository):

  source_repository:
    id: 1240
    name: Red_Hat_CodeReady_Linux_Builder_for_RHEL_8_x86_64_RPMs_8

Also you can review the /var/log/foreman/production.log on the Satellite server and find the time when you see the error from the foreman tasks. Please note, the foreman tasks are using the timezone UTC-0, and the production.log uses the timezone of the Satellite server, so the time values may differ. In the logs you should see an error about a missing resource, which indicates the organization id, the content view, the lifecycle environment, and the id of the repository in question. The following example shows "1-RHEL_x86_64-Library-9b969c1e-3194-4b10-8d36-2d8f2285de89":

2022-01-03T16:09:17 [I|kat|] GET: https://satellite.example.com/pulp/api/v2/repositories/1-RHEL_x86_64-Library-9b969c1e-3194-4b10-8d36-2d8f2285de89/?details=true: {"content_type"=>"application/json", "accept"=>"application/json"}
404 Not Found: {"http_request_method": "GET", "exception": null, "error_message": "Missing resource(s): repository=1-RHEL_x86_64-Library-9b969c1e-3194-4b10-8d36-2d8f2285de89", "_href": "/pulp/api/v2/repositories/1-RHEL_x86_64-Library-9b969c1e-3194-4b10-8d36-2d8f2285de89/?details=true", "http_status": 404, "error": {"code": "PLP0009", "data": {"resources": {"repository": "1-RHEL_x86_64-Library-9b969c1e-3194-4b10-8d36-2d8f2285de89"}}, "description": "Missing resource(s): repository=1-RHEL_x86_64-Library-9b969c1e-3194-4b10-8d36-2d8f2285de89", "sub_errors": []}, "traceback": null, "resources": {"repository": "1-RHEL_x86_64-Library-9b969c1e-3194-4b10-8d36-2d8f2285de89"
}}

Product(s)

Red Hat Satellite

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