System Might Hang When Using SSL on Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 3

If you are running the Sun N1 Service Provisioning System on Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 3, the system might hang when using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) connections.

SSL uses SecureRandom which uses /dev/random to generate random numbers. Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 3 includes a bug that causes /dev/random not to collect entropy. Since /dev/random does not generate numbers unless sufficient entropy is collected, applications hang when attempting to read random data from /dev/random.

Workaround: Choose one of the following workarounds:

• Do not use SSL as a connection type. Choose TCP/IP or SSH.

• Remove /dev/random and replace it with a symbolic link to /dev/urandom. /dev/urandom is less secure than /dev/random, but the system does not hang when the provisioning system attempts an SSL connection on Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 3.0.