Bind fails to start with status=6/NOTCONFIGURED after upgrade to SLES 15 SP4

This document (000020819) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4

Situation

After upgraded to SLES 15 SP4 from a previous service pack, named.service is unable to start and produces the following errors.

# systemctl start named
Job for named.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See "systemctl status named.service" and "journalctl -xeu named.service" for details.
# journalctl -xeu named.service
...
Oct 20 13:28:23 host15sp4 root[4201]: Warning: "/usr/share/bind/createNamedConfInclude" does not exist or is not executable. Check /etc/sysconfig/named
Oct 20 13:28:23 host15sp4 systemd[1]: named.service: Control process exited, code=exited, status=6/NOTCONFIGURED
...

The file /etc/sysconfig/named contains the following line.

NAMED_INITIALIZE_SCRIPTS="createNamedConfInclude"

The following line is present in /etc/named.conf.

include "/etc/named.conf.include";

The file /etc/named.conf.include existed before the upgrade to 15 SP4, but is not present after the upgrade.

Resolution

Edit the file /etc/sysconfig/named and change

NAMED_INITIALIZE_SCRIPTS="createNamedConfInclude"

NAMED_INITIALIZE_SCRIPTS=""

Then, edit the file /etc/named.conf and remove the following line.

include "/etc/named.conf.include";

Now start named.service.

# systemctl start named.service

Cause

The script createNamedConfInclude was provided by previous versions of the bind package, but is not present in the versions for SLES 15 SP4. The config file /etc/sysconfig/named is not updated to reflect this during the upgrade process.

The file /etc/named.conf.include was created by createNamedConfInclude in previous versions of bind. Since createNamedConfInclude does not exist in SLES 15 SP4, /etc/named.conf.include is never created and must be removed from the config.

Status

Reported to Engineering

Additional Information

Other changes were made to the bind package in SLES 15 SP4 that could also prevent the service from starting. If the service is still unable to start after following the resolution above, check for any new errors using the journalctl command shown above.

One other known situation that can lead to bind not starting after an upgrade to SLES 15 SP4 is documented here:
Bind fails to start with "configuring logging: permission denied" after upgrade to SLES 15 SP4

If no Knowledge Base article can be found that describes the situation, please open a support case.

Disclaimer

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