Checking Red Hat Satellite 6 service status fails with error Unit name pulpcore-worker@.service is neither a valid invocation ID nor unit name is encountered

Solution Verified - Updated 20 Mar 2025

Environment

Red Hat Satellite 6

Issue

Below error is encountered while checking the Red Hat Satellite 6 service status:

Failed to get load state of pulpcore-worker@.service: Unit name pulpcore-worker@.service is neither a valid invocation ID nor unit name

The same error is encountered while trying to upgrade the Satellite server

   Check whether all services are running:                               [FAIL]
   Following services are not running: pulpcore-worker@.service

   Continue with step [Restart applicable services]?, [y(yes), n(no)] y
   Restart applicable services:

   Stopping the following service(s):
   pulpcore-worker@.service
   \ stopping pulpcore-worker@.service
   Failed to stop pulpcore-worker@.service: Unit name pulpcore-worker@.service is missing the instance name.
   See system logs and 'systemctl status pulpcore-worker@.service' for details.
   Failed to get load state of pulpcore-worker@.service: Unit name pulpcore-worker@.service is neither a valid invocation ID nor unit name.
   \ All services stopped

Resolution

Follow the steps in the Diagnostic Steps section below.
If the output from step (2) in the Diagnostic Steps section reports ony one pulpcore-worker@.service service as [FAIL] like this:

  # satellite-maintain service status -b
  Running Status Services

  Get status of applicable services:

  Displaying the following service(s):
  redis, postgresql, pulpcore-api, pulpcore-content, qdrouterd, qpidd, pulpcore-worker@.service, tomcat, dynflow- 
  sidekiq@orchestrator, foreman, httpd, puppetserver, dynflow-sidekiq@worker-1, foreman-proxy
  - displaying redis                                 [OK]
  - displaying postgresql                            [OK]
  - displaying pulpcore-api                          [OK]
  - displaying pulpcore-content                      [OK]
  - displaying qdrouterd                             [OK]
  - displaying qpidd                                 [OK]
  - displaying pulpcore-worker@.service              [FAIL]
  - displaying tomcat                                [OK]
  \ displaying dynflow-sidekiq@orchestrator          [OK]
  \ displaying foreman                               [OK]
  \ displaying httpd                                 [OK]
  \ displaying puppetserver                          [OK]
  \ displaying dynflow-sidekiq@worker-1              [OK]
  \ displaying foreman-proxy                         [OK]
  \ All services displayed                                              [FAIL]
  Some services are not running (pulpcore-worker@.service)

  Scenario [Status Services] failed.

and the output from step (3) in the Diagnostic Steps section displays only:

# ls -l /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/pulpcore-worker*
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 44 Oct  9 22:32 /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/pulpcore-worker@.service -> /etc/systemd/system/pulpcore-worker@.service
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 44 Sep  2  2021 /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/pulp_workers.service -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/pulp_workers.service

then run the following commands:

  # for b in $(ls -1 /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants | grep ^pulpcore-worker); do echo - $b;unlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/$b; done

  # satellite-installer

Examine the output from the following command:

# satellite-maintain service status -b

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

For more KB articles/solutions related to Red Hat Satellite 6.x Pulp 3.0 Issues, please refer to the Consolidated Troubleshooting Article for Red Hat Satellite 6.x Pulp 3.0-related Issues

Root Cause

The satellite-maintain service status -b command was confused by wrong redundant symbolic link under the /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/ directory:

lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 44 Oct  9 22:32 /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/pulpcore-worker@.service -> /etc/systemd/system/pulpcore-worker@.service

Diagnostic Steps

Check the pulpcore_worker_count in /etc/foreman-installer/scenarios.d/satellite-answers.yaml:

pulpcore_worker_count: n

where n is an integer.

Note: For capsule server check pulpcore_worker_count in /etc/foreman-installer/scenarios.d/capsule-answers.yaml

Examine the output from the following command:

# satellite-maintain service status -b

There should be pulpcore-worker@1.service through pulpcore-worker@n.service services reporting [OK].

So, for instance, if pulpcore_worker_count in /etc/foreman-installer/scenarios.d/satellite-answers.yaml was 8, the output should be like this:

  Running Status Services

  Get status of applicable services: 

  Displaying the following service(s):
  redis, postgresql, pulpcore-api, pulpcore-content, pulpcore-worker@1.service, pulpcore-worker@2.service, 
  pulpcore-worker@3.service, pulpcore-worker@4.service, tomcat, dynflow-sidekiq@orchestrator, foreman, httpd, 
  puppetserver, dynflow-sidekiq@worker-1, dynflow-sidekiq@worker-hosts-queue-1, foreman-proxy
  / displaying redis                                 [OK]                         
  / displaying postgresql                            [OK]                         
  / displaying pulpcore-api                          [OK]                         
  / displaying pulpcore-content                      [OK]                         
  / displaying pulpcore-worker@1.service             [OK]                         
  / displaying pulpcore-worker@2.service             [OK]                         
  / displaying pulpcore-worker@3.service             [OK]                         
  / displaying pulpcore-worker@4.service             [OK]                         
  / displaying pulpcore-worker@5.service             [OK]                         
  / displaying pulpcore-worker@6.service             [OK]                         
  / displaying pulpcore-worker@7.service             [OK]                         
  / displaying pulpcore-worker@8.service             [OK]                         
  / displaying tomcat                                [OK]                         
  / displaying dynflow-sidekiq@orchestrator          [OK]                         
  / displaying foreman                               [OK]                         
  / displaying httpd                                 [OK]                         
  / displaying puppetserver                          [OK]                         
  - displaying dynflow-sidekiq@worker-1              [OK]                         
  - displaying dynflow-sidekiq@worker-hosts-queue-1  [OK]                         
  - displaying foreman-proxy                         [OK]                         
  - All services are running                                            [OK]

Examine the output of the following command:

# ls -l /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/pulpcore-worker*

The output from the above command should display n lines like this:

lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 44 May  4  2023 /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/pulpcore-worker@1.service -> /etc/systemd/system/pulpcore-worker@.service
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 44 May  4  2023 /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/pulpcore-worker@2.service -> /etc/systemd/system/pulpcore-worker@.service
.
.
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 44 May  4  2023 /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/pulpcore-worker@n.service -> /etc/systemd/system/pulpcore-worker@.service

So, for instance, if pulpcore_worker_count in /etc/foreman-installer/scenarios.d/satellite-answers.yaml was 8, the output should be like this:

lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 44 May  4  2023 /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/pulpcore-worker@1.service -> /etc/systemd/system/pulpcore-worker@.service
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 44 May  4  2023 /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/pulpcore-worker@2.service -> /etc/systemd/system/pulpcore-worker@.service
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 44 May  4  2023 /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/pulpcore-worker@3.service -> /etc/systemd/system/pulpcore-worker@.service
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 44 May  4  2023 /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/pulpcore-worker@4.service -> /etc/systemd/system/pulpcore-worker@.service
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 44 May  4  2023 /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/pulpcore-worker@5.service -> /etc/systemd/system/pulpcore-worker@.service
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 44 May  4  2023 /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/pulpcore-worker@6.service -> /etc/systemd/system/pulpcore-worker@.service
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 44 May  4  2023 /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/pulpcore-worker@7.service -> /etc/systemd/system/pulpcore-worker@.service
lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 44 May  4  2023 /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/pulpcore-worker@8.service -> /etc/systemd/system/pulpcore-worker@.service

Below error can be observed in /var/log/foreman-maintain/foreman-maintain.log on Red Hat Satellite.

  Failed to get load state of pulpcore-worker@.service: Unit name pulpcore-worker@.service is neither a valid invocation ID nor unit name.
Failed to get properties: Unit name pulpcore-worker@.service is neither a valid invocation ID nor unit name.

SBR

SysMgmt

Product(s)

Red Hat Satellite

Components

katello
pulp

Category

Troubleshoot

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