localos user "named" was deleted after updating from vCSA 7.0 U3g or earlier

Products

• VMware vCenter Server 7.0

Issue/Introduction

When updating from vCSA 7.0 U3g or earlier, localos user "named" will be deleted.

From journalctl, we see that "named" was deleted just before erasing bindutils-XX.XX.XX-X.phX.x86_64

Dec 10 06:30:59 vc-tmp01 groupdel[46983]: group 'named' removed from /etc/gshadow
Dec 10 06:30:59 vc-tmp01 groupdel[46983]: group 'named' removed
Dec 10 06:30:59 vc-tmp01 [RPM][46960]: erase bindutils-9.16.15-1.ph3.x86_64: success

Cause

Due to a known issue in the bindutils packaged version with the vCSA, the named user/group is incorrectly deleted when uninstalling old bindutils.

Resolution

This issue is fixed in vCenter Server 7.0 U3f (P05).

Workaround:
Log in to the vCSA shell and run the following command to manually create a named user/group:
# groupadd -r named
# useradd -g named -d /var/lib/bind -s /bin/false -M -r named
# chown -R root:named /var/lib/bind
# chmod 0770 /var/lib/bind

Additional Information

There are no tasks using named, so it does not affect any services in vCenter.