How do you resolve the SessionLinker error, "ERROR: Unable to listen on endpoint '/tmp/sessionlinker' (error -1)!" ?

Products

• CA Single Sign On Secure Proxy Server (SiteMinder)
• CA Single Sign On SOA Security Manager (SiteMinder)
• CA Single Sign-On

Issue/Introduction

Description:

The following describes the cause of and solution to the following Siteminder ERP Agent (SessionLinker) error:

ERROR: Unable to listen on endpoint '/tmp/sessionlinker' (error -1)!

Solution:

This error results when an attempt is made to start the SessionLinker daemon after an incomplete shutdown of the SessionLinker daemon had previously occurred. SessionLinker creates a temporary placeholder file in the /tmp directory for its runtime duration, and removes the file upon shutdown.

Typical scenarios when this error can be received are:

1. Sessionlinker daemon start command fired immediately after issuing the stop (kill <PID>) command of previously running daemon process. After issuing a kill command, the daemon's cleanup thread executes which takes some time for cleaning up and deleting the 'sessionlinker' file from the /tmp directory. If a start command for a new daemon process is executed during this period, it will result in the /tmp/sessionlinker error.
2. SessionLinker daemon is abruptly stopped using kill -9 <PID> command, which will not remove the 'sessionlinker' file from /tmp directory.
3. Improper shutdown of the SessionLinker daemon may have occurred, which would not have allowed complete execution of clean up thread. In such cases, the 'sessionlinker' file in the /tmp directory will not be deleted. On attempting to start the daemon process again, the /tmp/sessionlinker error will be encountered.

The resolution in all cases is to manually delete the "/tmp/sessionlinker" file, which will allow the SessionLinker daemon to start successfully.

Environment

Release:
Component: SMSSS