0042-358 niminit: The connect attribute may only be assigned a service value of "shell" or "nimsh". (Chris's AIX Blog)

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0042-358 niminit: The connect attribute may only be assigned a service value of "shell" or "nimsh".

cggibbo Apr 20 2011 Comments (8) Visits (54197)

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I was working at a client site today, on a NIM master that I configured a month or so ago. I was there to install the TSM backup client software on about 30 or so LPARs. Of course I was going to use NIM to accomplish this task.

The software install via NIM worked for the majority of the LPARs but I noticed a few of them were failing. This was very odd, as the last time I’d use the same NIM method to install software, everything was fine.

I suspected that perhaps something had changed on the client LPARs...maybe with their /etc/niminfo file for instance. So I performed the following steps to reconfigure the /etc/niminfo file and configure the nimsh subsystem on the client LPAR.

lpar1# mv /etc/niminfo /etc/niminfo.old

lpar1# niminit -a master=nim1 -a name=`hostname`

lpar1# stopsrc -s nimsh

lpar1# smit nim_config_services

Configure Client Communication Services

Type or select values in entry fields.

Press Enter AFTER making all desired changes.

[Entry Fields]

* Communication Protocol used by client [nimsh] +

NIM Service Handler Options

* Enable Cryptographic Authentication [disable] +

for client communication?

Install Secure Socket Layer Software (SSLv3)? [no] +

Absolute path location for INSTALLP package [/dev/cd0] /

-OR-

lpp_source which contains INSTALLP package [] +

Alternate Port Range for Secondary Connections

(reserved values will be used if left blank)

Secondary Port Number [] #

Port Increment Range [] +#

The last step failed with the following error message:

0042-358 niminit: The connect attribute may only be assigned a service value of "shell" or "nimsh".

I checked the NIM client and confirmed it was configured for nimsh and it was fine. However, I did notice something odd when I ran the following command:

lpar1# egrep 'nimsh|nimaux' /etc/services

lpar1#

The entries for nimsh were missing from the /etc/services file!

Somebody had decided that these entries were not required and had simply removed them! Gee, thanks so much for that!

After adding the following entries back into the services file, everything started working again!

nimsh 3901/tcp # NIM Service Handler

nimsh 3901/udp # NIM Service Handler

nimaux 3902/tcp # NIMsh Auxiliary Port

nimaux 3902/udp # NIMsh Auxiliary Port

I’ve also encountered this error when there is another process (other than nimsh) using port 3901 or 3902.

Another error message you might confront, if those entries are either missing or commented out, is on the NIM master:

nimmast# nim -o showlog -a log_type=lppchk lpar1

0042-001 nim: processing error encountered on "master":

0042-006 m_showlog: (From_Master) connect Error 0

poll: setup failure

I thought I’d also mention another error message that can potentially drive you insane (especially if you haven’t had your morning coffee!). The error doesn’t relate to nimsh at all but I thought I’d describe it anyway. The message appears when running the nim –o showlog command against a client LPAR.

nimmast# nim -o showlog lpar1

0042-001 nim: processing error encountered on "master":

0042-006 m_showlog: (From_Master) connect Error 0

0042-008 nimsh: Request denied – wronghostname

I’ve modified the output a little to make it easier to identify the problem. Can you see it? I thought so! Upon investigation you may find that the IP address for the NIM master is resolving to a different hostname on the client. For example:

On the NIM master:

nimmast# host nimmast

nimmast is 172.29.150.177

nimmast# host 172.29.150.177

nimmast is 172.29.150.177

nimmast# grep 177 /etc/hosts

172.29.150.177 nimmast

On the NIM client:

lpar1# host nimmast

nimmast is 172.29.150.177

lpar1# host 172.29.150.177

wronghostname is 172.29.150.177

lpar1# grep 172.29.150.177 /etc/hosts

172.29.150.177 wronghostname

172.29.150.177 nimmast

In this example, someone placed two host entries in /etc/hosts with the same IP address. The client was resolving the IP address to an incorrect hostname. This resulted in our nim –o showlog command failing.

Tags: 3901 gibson chris nimsh nim 3902 aix

Comments (8)

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AliSShaik commented Oct 4 Comment Permalink

We have been facing some issue, with below error, any assistance would be appreciated much and helpful.

Backing up 178404 files..............................
129874 of 178404 files (72%).........

178404 of 178404 files (100%)
0512-038 savevg: Backup Completed Successfully.
0042-001 nim: processing error encountered on "master":
0042-006 m_mkbosi: (From_Master) connect Error 0

poll: setup failure

and we noticed FIN_WAIT_1 at client side and LAST_ACK is hanging at NIM server side

NIM server end:-
============
# netstat -Aan |grep 1022
f1001000003e63b8 tcp4 0 0 10.231.128.141.1022 10.231.128.10.3902 LAST_ACK
# netstat -Aan |grep 1022
f1001000003e63b8 tcp4 0 0 10.231.128.141.1022 10.231.128.10.3902 LAST_ACK
# netstat -Aan |grep 1022
f1001000003e63b8 tcp4 0 0 10.231.128.141.1022 10.231.128.10.3902 LAST_ACK
# netstat -Aan |grep 1022
f1001000003e63b8 tcp4 0 0 10.231.128.141.1022 10.231.128.10.3902 LAST_ACK

Client side nimsh.log
================

Thu Oct 3 21:57:32 2019 getting 2nd port
Thu Oct 3 21:57:32 2019 count equals 0
Thu Oct 3 21:57:32 2019 count equals 1
Thu Oct 3 21:57:32 2019 count equals 2
Thu Oct 3 21:57:32 2019 count equals 3
Thu Oct 3 21:57:32 2019 count equals 4
Thu Oct 3 21:57:32 2019 got stderr port 1021
Thu Oct 3 21:57:32 2019 get_auxport: timelag is 1
Thu Oct 3 21:57:33 2019 get_auxport: timelag is 2
Thu Oct 3 21:57:35 2019 get_auxport: timelag is 4
Thu Oct 3 21:57:39 2019 get_auxport: timelag is 8
Thu Oct 3 21:57:47 2019 get_auxport: timelag is 16
Thu Oct 3 21:58:03 2019 cannot bind addr: Address already in use
Thu Oct 3 21:58:03 2019 error: can't get stderr port for 2nd socket

cggibbo commented May 16 2018 Comment Permalink

Hi Kunal, these issues are almost always related to host/IP resolution on both/either the NIM client and the master. If you're are sure that the /etc/hosts & DNS entries are correct for both the NIM client and the master, and everything else looks OK, then I would recommend opening a PMR for support. Please also check that /etc/netsvc.conf has a single entry of hosts=local4,bind4. Is there a firewall in the middle? Please refer to the following link for details on NIM comms in a firewall environment http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=isg3T1011808. Please check the /var/adm/ras/nimsh.log file on the client, for any useful messages and/or errors. Please refer to the following document on configuring NIMSH with SSL, http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=isg3T1024615. Is this issue impacting just one NIM client, or multiple. If it's just this one NIM client that has a problem, try removing and redefining the NIM client definition. Good luck!

KunalLanger commented May 15 2018 Comment Permalink

Hi Chris

In my environment /etc/hosts entries in NIM Master and AIX LPAR are correct. The Client is defined to use nimsh, I can see that nimsh ports are enabled in /etc/services. Yet when I run niminit command from AIX LPAR it fails with below error:

# niminit -a name=BLR-Deploy2 -a master=10.23.172.99
0042-042 niminit: unable to communicate with 10.23.172.99

#

And when I try to run nim -o showlog <AIX LPAR> it fails as well
# nim -o showlog BLR-Deploy2
warning: warning: 0042-001 m_showlog: processing error encountered on "BLR-Deploy2":
0042-006 m_showlog: (From_Master) connect A remote host did not respond within the timeout period.

nconn: connect() failed, errno is 78
BLR-Deploy2: A remote host did not respond within the timeout period.

#

Any idea what could be the possible reason.

cggibbo commented Mar 31 2014 Comment Permalink

If the client is configured for rsh, make sure that the client rshd daemon is running and that you can connect to the client from the master using rsh as root .e.g. # rsh client1 date. Check the /.rhosts file configuration and permissions is correct. If the client is configured for nimsh, make sure that the client nimsh daemon is running. Try communicating with the client from the master using 'nim -o showlog'. Check the /var/adm/ras/nimsh.log file for errors on the client.

cggibbo commented Mar 31 2014 Comment Permalink

Hi b2b, could be lot's of reasons. Is this over rsh or nimsh? Check that the NIM master and client can resolve each others IP addresses and hostnames correctly. Double-check the entries in the /etc/hosts file to ensure they are correct on both the master & the client. Check for duplicate entries.

2bB commented Mar 31 2014 Comment Permalink

HI Chris, I find your blogs extremely useful. I am facing one issue on my NIM server while running command [root@<nimserver>]/export/nim/backup_images=> nim -o showlog <nimclienthostname> 0042-001 nim: processing error encountered on "master": 0042-006 m_showlog: (From_Master) connect Error 0 Permission denied. Do you know what could be the possible root cause?</nimclienthostname></nimserver>

Gcina-maseko commented Aug 21 2013 Comment Permalink

Thanks a lot it really helped ......

ramveera commented Apr 20 2011 Comment Permalink

good one..

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