RMT Server: "rmt-server-sync" and "rmt-server-mirror" services do not work when invoked by systemd timers

This document (000021360) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5

Situation

The RMT server has a proxy defined in /etc/sysconfig/proxy:

PROXY_ENABLED="no"
HTTP_PROXY=http://proxy-server:3128
HTTPS_PROXY=http://proxy-server:3128
FTP_PROXY=http://proxy-server:3128
GOPHER_PROXY=""
SOCKS_PROXY=""
SOCKS5_SERVER=""
NO_PROXY="localhost, 127.0.0.1"

The services rmt-server-sync.service and rmt-server-mirror.service fail when invoked by systemd timers (rmt-server-systems-scc-sync.timer or rmt-server-mirror.timer) or when started manually (systemctl start rmt-server-sync.service or systemctl start rmt-server-mirror.service).

Running rmt-cli sync and rmt-cli mirror from command line works fine.

These error messages are shown in the logs:

2024-02-04T13:44:17.246628+01:00 sles-dev-1 rmt-cli[2016]: WARN: Poking /SUSE/Updates/SLE-INSTALLER/15-SP5/x86_64/update/repodata/repomd.xml failed with bad_content_encoding (0). Retrying 4 more times after 2 seconds 
2024-02-04T13:44:17.246653+01:00 sles-dev-1 rmt-cli[2016]: WARN: Poking /SUSE/Updates/SLE-INSTALLER/15-SP5/x86_64/update/repodata/repomd.xml failed with bad_content_encoding (0). Retrying 3 more times after 2 seconds 
2024-02-04T13:44:17.246672+01:00 sles-dev-1 rmt-cli[2016]: WARN: Poking /SUSE/Updates/SLE-INSTALLER/15-SP5/x86_64/update/repodata/repomd.xml failed with bad_content_encoding (0). Retrying 2 more times after 2 seconds 
2024-02-04T13:44:17.246697+01:00 sles-dev-1 rmt-cli[2016]: WARN: Poking /SUSE/Updates/SLE-INSTALLER/15-SP5/x86_64/update/repodata/repomd.xml failed with bad_content_encoding (0). Retrying 1 more times after 2 seconds 
2024-02-04T13:44:17.246722+01:00 sles-dev-1 rmt-cli[2016]: INFO: Mirroring repository SLE-Product-SLES15-SP5-Pool to /usr/share/rmt/public/repo/SUSE/Products/SLE-Product-SLES/15-SP5/x86_64/product/ 
2024-02-04T13:44:17.246737+01:00 sles-dev-1 rmt-cli[2016]: WARN: Poking /SUSE/Products/SLE-Product-SLES/15-SP5/x86_64/product.license/directory.yast failed with bad_content_encoding (0). Retrying 4 more times after 2 seconds 
2024-02-04T13:44:17.246757+01:00 sles-dev-1 rmt-cli[2016]: WARN: Poking /SUSE/Products/SLE-Product-SLES/15-SP5/x86_64/product.license/directory.yast failed with bad_content_encoding (0). Retrying 3 more times after 2 seconds 
2024-02-04T13:44:17.246776+01:00 sles-dev-1 rmt-cli[2016]: WARN: Poking /SUSE/Products/SLE-Product-SLES/15-SP5/x86_64/product.license/directory.yast failed with bad_content_encoding (0). Retrying 2 more times after 2 seconds 
2024-02-04T13:44:17.246800+01:00 sles-dev-1 rmt-cli[2016]: WARN: Poking /SUSE/Products/SLE-Product-SLES/15-SP5/x86_64/product.license/directory.yast failed with bad_content_encoding (0). Retrying 1 more times after 2 seconds 
2024-02-04T13:44:17.246815+01:00 sles-dev-1 rmt-cli[2016]: WARN: Poking /SUSE/Products/SLE-Product-SLES/15-SP5/x86_64/product/repodata/repomd.xml failed with bad_content_encoding (0). Retrying 4 more times after 2 seconds 
2024-02-04T13:44:17.246833+01:00 sles-dev-1 rmt-cli[2016]: WARN: Poking /SUSE/Products/SLE-Product-SLES/15-SP5/x86_64/product/repodata/repomd.xml failed with bad_content_encoding (0). Retrying 3 more times after 2 seconds 
2024-02-04T13:44:17.246848+01:00 sles-dev-1 rmt-cli[2016]: WARN: Poking /SUSE/Products/SLE-Product-SLES/15-SP5/x86_64/product/repodata/repomd.xml failed with bad_content_encoding (0). Retrying 2 more times after 2 seconds 
2024-02-04T13:44:17.246863+01:00 sles-dev-1 rmt-cli[2016]: WARN: Poking /SUSE/Products/SLE-Product-SLES/15-SP5/x86_64/product/repodata/repomd.xml failed with bad_content_encoding (0). Retrying 1 more times after 2 seconds

Resolution

Set the proxy: parameter in the /etc/rmt.conf file, as for example:

http_client:
verbose: false
proxy: http://proxy-server:3128
proxy_auth:
proxy_user:
proxy_password:

Then restart rmt-server-mirror.service and rmt-server-sync.service:

# systemctl restart rmt-server-mirror.service
# systemctl restart rmt-server-sync.service

If proxy authentication is also required, proxy_auth, proxy_user and proxy_password parameters must be set.

Cause

HTTP[S]_PROXY variables are not picked up by systemd

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