Foreman - ERF42-9911 [Foreman::Exception]: Host is pending for Build

Although this error is probably rather rare, I didn't really find anything useful on the internet regarding this error so here's my shot at it I guess.

The ERF42-9911 error appears when provisioning hosts and is most likely caused by the Kickstart Finish Template when calling home to the Satellite / Foreman host to tell it that the host is built. Foreman / Satellite will then cancel the build token for the host and will let it boot into the os from the installation residing on the hard drive.

If that call-home is unsuccessful, the host will stay in build mode and the Satellite / Foreman server will not cancel the build mode resulting in provisioning loops for the host.

Possible cause Nr. 1: Proxy.

This can happen if 'set_proxy: true' is specified in the parameters without an appropriate no_proxy parameter in place. As a result, the provisioned host will not be able to reach the Foreman / Satellite host to cancel its build mode.

Possible cause Nr. 2: DHCP Fact conflicts.

This can be found when digging deeper in the production logs. I'd recommend using foreman-tail like this:

 [root@katello ~]# foreman-tail 2>&1 | tee foreman_tail_$(date +%F).log

This will give you all relevant info regarding the provisioning process. If there are some messages regarding DHCP fact conflicts towards the end of the provisioning process, make sure the 'update_ip_from_built_request' is set to false.

 [root@katello ~]# hammer --no-use-defaults settings set --name 'update_ip_from_built_request' --value 'false'  
 Setting [update_ip_from_built_request] updated to [].

Ensure it's set to false:

 [root@katello ~]# hammer --no-use-defaults settings info --name 'update_ip_from_built_request'  
 Id:            update_ip_from_built_request  
 Name:          update_ip_from_built_request  
 Description:   Foreman will update the host IP with the IP that made the built request  
 Category:      Provisioning  
 Settings type: boolean  
 Value:         false

When you try to provision a host again it should go through.

Feel free to comment and / or suggest a topic.

Comments

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