ONTAP Mediator 1.9.1 installation hangs on RHEL 8.2 (Azure VM) with "writing RSA key"

Samet — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 17:24:38 GMT

Hello,
I am having installation hang problem while installing ONTAP Mediator 1.9.1

How I try to install:
Extracted installer archive /opt/ontap/
and on /opt/ontap/ontap-mediator-1.9.1 run:
./ontap-mediator-1.9.1

last part of the installation log:

[2025-06-26 12:37:53] [2025-06-26 12:37:53] If you want SCST to start automatically at boot time, run the following command: [2025-06-26 12:37:53] systemctl enable scst.service [2025-06-26 12:37:53] [2025-06-26 12:37:53] make[1]: Leaving directory '/opt/ontap/ontap-mediator-1.9.1/ontap_mediator.Y5g7HJ/ontap-mediator-1.9.1/ontap-mediator-1.9.1/dist/scst/scst-3.8.0/scstadmin' [2025-06-26 12:37:56] Saving SCST mod keys [2025-06-26 12:37:56] Installing ONTAP Mediator server packages [2025-06-26 12:37:56] Installing dist/rpm/ontap-mediator-*el8* [2025-06-26 12:37:56] Preparing packages... [2025-06-26 12:37:56] ontap-mediator-1.9.1-16.el8.noarch [2025-06-26 12:38:25] Finalizing ontap_mediator module [2025-06-26 12:38:25] Creating mediator service acount + group: netapp:netapp [2025-06-26 12:38:25] Modifying ownership and permissions to mediator service acount + group: netapp:netapp [2025-06-26 12:38:25] Configuring and setting ownership for mailbox_directory: /mnt/iscsi_space [2025-06-26 12:38:26] Checking for pre-existing modification to pyenv/bin/uwsgi SElinux context... [2025-06-26 12:38:26] No pre-existing modification found. Modifying context... [2025-06-26 12:38:29] pyenv/bin/uwsgi context modified! [2025-06-26 12:38:29] Adding Subject Alternative Names to the self-signed server certificate [2025-06-26 12:38:29] # [2025-06-26 12:38:29] # OpenSSL example configuration file. [2025-06-26 12:38:29] Generating self-signed certificates [2025-06-26 12:38:29] For root_ca.key: [2025-06-26 12:38:29] Generating RSA private key, 4096 bit long modulus (2 primes) [2025-06-26 12:38:30] .................................................................................................................++++ [2025-06-26 12:38:30] .........................................++++ [2025-06-26 12:38:30] e is 65537 (0x010001) [2025-06-26 12:38:30] writing RSA key [2025-06-26 12:38:30] For intermediate.key: [2025-06-26 12:38:30] Generating RSA private key, 4096 bit long modulus (2 primes) [2025-06-26 12:38:30] ..................++++ [2025-06-26 12:38:30] ..........................................................................................................................++++ [2025-06-26 12:38:30] e is 65537 (0x010001) [2025-06-26 12:38:30] writing RSA key

What I've Already Tried

Fresh RHEL 8.2 Azure VM deployment (multiple times)
Installed all pre-req RPMs offline:
- python39, python39-libs, python39-devel
- python39-pip-wheel, python39-setuptools-wheel
- chkconfig-1.19.2 (since alternatives was a missing dep)
Verified entropy is not the issue (e.g., /dev/random, getrandom() syscall monitored via strace)
getenforce was set to Enforcing, later changed to Permissive
Still, full installer hangs again during the "writing RSA key" phase

Questions for the Community

Has anyone else seen the RSA generation hang on RHEL 8.2 / Azure specifically?
Is there a known bug in Mediator 1.9.1 related to the cert gen script?
Could there be an issue with OpenSSL or Azure's VM entropy model, even though it's not /dev/random related?
Is there a fully manual install method that bypasses the RSA keygen part?

Thank you in advance.

Re: ONTAP Mediator 1.9.1 installation hangs on RHEL 8.2 (Azure VM) with "writing RSA key"

Samet — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 13:31:09 GMT

Hi all,

I'd like to share detailed findings and progress on the ONTAP Mediator 1.9.1 installation issue I previously posted about, where the installer was hanging indefinitely during RSA key generation on a RHEL 8.2 Azure VM.

Root Issue Observed:

The installation process repeatedly hangs at the openssl genrsa phase, specifically:

"Generating a RSA private key
................................................................................++++
.....................................++++
writing new private key to 'ontap_mediator_server.key'"

During this time, system CPU usage spikes, and the following processes run continuously:

cat

fold

These are related to the certificate-generation logic in make_self_signed_certs.sh.

System Environment:

Fresh RHEL 8.2 Azure VM

OpenSSL version: OpenSSL 1.1.1c FIPS 28 May 2019

Python 3.9 and dependencies installed manually via RPMs (offline install)

SELinux set to enforcing=0 before installation

No active entropy starvation; confirmed key generation works outside installer

Steps Taken Before Final Success:

Removed all previous mediator remnants:

rm -rf /opt/netapp /opt/ontap

sudo /usr/local/bin/uninstall_ontap_mediator

Rebooted VM

Re-ran the installer with:

./ontap-mediator-1.9.1 --skip-code-signature-check --skip-yum-dependencies -y

Installer initially reported ontap_mediator.service failure, but auto-retries eventually started the service successfully.

Final State:

ontap_mediator.service: running

mediator-scst.service: running

Web server started (uWSGI logs present)

Installer finished and moved logs to:
/opt/netapp/lib/ontap_mediator/log/install_<timestamp>.log

RSA certificate generation eventually passed (possibly due to retries)

Workaround:
Observed and discovered running processes which was stuck during installation with "top" command
Retrieved and terminated processes & installation script continued with next installation steps
ps aux | grep -E 'cat|fold|tr'
kill -9 <PID>

Remaining Concerns:

The fact that the installation hangs for indefinitely with high CPU usage indicates a potential bug or inefficiency in make_self_signed_certs.sh — especially the handling of I/O with cat | tr | fold pipe chains.

The script does not fail gracefully, making it hard to debug without killing and re-attempting the installation.

This issue is reproducible across freshly provisioned RHEL 8.2 Azure VMs.

Request:

I’d appreciate if a NetApp engineer could:

Confirm whether this is a known bug in 1.9.1 (and fixed in a later version).

Suggest a clean workaround to avoid the hang without manual intervention.

Clarify whether the certificate generation script could be pre-patched or executed independently prior to install.

Thanks to anyone who reads this.

topic Re: ONTAP Mediator 1.9.1 installation hangs on RHEL 8.2 (Azure VM) with "writing RSA key" in ONTAP Discussions

ONTAP Mediator 1.9.1 installation hangs on RHEL 8.2 (Azure VM) with "writing RSA key"

Questions for the Community

Re: ONTAP Mediator 1.9.1 installation hangs on RHEL 8.2 (Azure VM) with "writing RSA key"