PowerFlex Firmware Update Fails With Invalid Byte Sequence In US-ASCII

Summary: The cluster was undergoing a firmware upgrade performed using the Resource Group. Upgrade fails with the message "invalid byte sequence in US-ASCII."

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Symptoms

The deployment.log from the Job-ID reports the firmware update failed. The playbook is running the command /usr/sbin/sysctl -p:

ERROR [2024-01-25T20:21:33.358478] 25824: service_deployment.rb:6084:in `process_firmware_update': Encountered an error during firmware update: ArgumentError: invalid byte sequence in US-ASCII
["org/jruby/RubyString.java:4727:in `scan'", "/opt/asm-deployer/lib/asm/provider/elementmanager/scaleio.rb:9762:in `update_sysctl_parameter'", "/opt/asm-deployer/lib/asm/service_deployment.rb:5909:in `block in process_firmware_update'", "org/jruby/RubyArray.java:1865:in `each'", "/opt/asm-deployer/lib/asm/service_deployment.rb:5731:in `process_firmware_update'", "/opt/asm-deployer/lib/asm/service_deployment.rb:504:in `process'", "/opt/asm-deployer/lib/asm.rb:369:in `block in process_deployment'", "org/jruby/RubyArray.java:1907:in `each_slice'", "/opt/asm-deployer/lib/asm.rb:351:in `block in process_deployment'", "/opt/dependencies/dell-asm-util/lib/asm/util.rb:22:in `block in execute_async'"]
...
INFO  [2024-01-25T20:22:45.017056] 25824: service_deployment.rb:1795:in `process_ansible_playbook': Starting processing playbook: [{"hosts"=>"all", "become"=>true, "vars"=>{"overcommit_ratio"=>100, "overcommit_memory"=>2}, "tasks"=>[{"name"=>"Replace unvalid values in sysctl conf", "replace"=>{"path"=>"/etc/sysctl.conf", "regexp"=>"^net.ipv4.conf.(ens192.log_martians.*)$", "replace"=>"#net.ipv4.conf.\\1 # PFXM REMOVED INVALID OPTION"}}, {"name"=>"Replace unvalid values in sysctl conf", "replace"=>{"path"=>"/etc/sysctl.conf", "regexp"=>"^net.ipv4.conf.(ens32.log_martians.*)$", "replace"=>"#net.ipv4.conf.\\1 # PFXM REMOVED INVALID OPTION"}}, {"name"=>"update threshold1", "ansible.posix.sysctl"=>{"name"=>"net.ipv4.neigh.default.gc_thresh1", "value"=>8192}}, {"name"=>"update threshold2", "ansible.posix.sysctl"=>{"name"=>"net.ipv4.neigh.default.gc_thresh2", "value"=>16384}}, {"name"=>"update threshold3", "ansible.posix.sysctl"=>{"name"=>"net.ipv4.neigh.default.gc_thresh3", "value"=>32768}}, {"name"=>"Update overcommit ratio for SDS", "ansible.posix.sysctl"=>{"name"=>"vm.overcommit_ratio", "value"=>"{{ overcommit_ratio }}"}}, {"name"=>"Update overcommit_memory ratio for SDS", "ansible.posix.sysctl"=>{"name"=>"vm.overcommit_memory", "value"=>"{{ overcommit_memory }}"}}, {"name"=>"Apply sysctl changes", "command"=>{"argv"=>["
]}}]}] with inventory:
...

The following error may be seen when running the command directly on the node:

[root@node3 etc]# /usr/sbin/sysctl -p
...
sysctl: /etc/sysctl.conf(91): invalid syntax, continuing...

Cause

The issue stems from a non-ASCII or a special character in the sysctl.conf file. This character is not compatible with the expected US-ASCII character encoding used during the sysctl processing. When the system attempts to read and apply the configurations from sysctl.conf, it encounters this invalid character, leading to an "invalid byte sequence in US-ASCII" error. The specific reason for this character's inclusion remains unclear.

Resolution

Workaround

  1. Back up the original sysctl.conf file on the affected node:
cp /etc/sysctl.conf /etc/sysctl.conf.backup
  1. Copy a sysctl.conf file from a node where it is known to be functioning correctly:
scp /etc/sysctl.conf root@<problematic_node_ip>:/etc/sysctl.conf
  1. Apply the new configuration on the affected node:
/usr/sbin/sysctl -p
  1. Ensure that the command completes successfully without any "invalid syntax" errors.
  2. Once the above steps are completed and verified, reinitiate the firmware update process using the Resource Group.

Additional Information

Affected product:
PowerFlex Manager 4.5.2

Affected Products

VxRack, PowerFlex Software
Article Properties
Article Number: 000222350
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 19 Mar 2024
Version:  1
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