Error: "Another app is currently holding the yum lock; waiting for it to exit..."

Products

• Messaging Gateway

Issue/Introduction

Running the update command from the Symantec Messaging Gateway (SMG) command line interface returns the following error indicating that the update command is unable to lock required resources and that an existing lock already exists:

Existing lock /var/run/yum.pid: another copy is running as pid xxxx.
Another app is currently holding the yum lock; waiting for it to exit...

smg> update list

Loaded plugins: downloadonly, fastestmirror, sym_check, sym_output
Existing lock /var/run/yum.pid: another copy is running as pid xxxx.
Another app is currently holding the yum lock; waiting for it to exit...
  The other application is: yum
    Memory :  64 M RSS ( 75 MB VSZ)
    Started: Sun May 29 22:55:53 2016 - 00:45 ago
    State  : Running, pid: xxxx
Another app is currently holding the yum lock; waiting for it to exit...
  The other application is: yum
    Memory :  66 M RSS ( 76 MB VSZ)
    Started: Sun May 29 22:55:53 2016 - 00:47 ago
    State  : Running, pid: 4xxx
Another app is currently holding the yum lock; waiting for it to exit...

Cause

YUM is the utility used to upgrade SMG.  Another instance of the update command is running and has locked the resourced needed to update the SMG system.

Resolution

The update command is used internally by the system to check if an update for SMG is available.

• Waiting a few minutes will usually give the running update check time to complete.

In some cases, if the yum lock is not cleared, the system may need to be rebooted to remove a potentially stale lock file:

1. Check the Control Center > Administration > Version > Updates to ensure an update is not running.
2. Run the reboot command from the SMG command line.
3. Run the update localcleanup command from the SMG command line.
4. Attempt the update again.