Capsule unable to sync yum content, claiming missing pulp plugin

Solution Verified - Updated

Environment

  • Red Hat Satellite 6
    • External Capsule

Issue

  • No new content is being synchronized to a Capsule
  • WebUI shows a warning about missing Pulp plugin causing yum repos won't be synced.
  • There was a recent change in networking / DHCP affecting the Capsule

Resolution

Ensure Capsule can resolve its own hostname properly. That means, hostname resolution (chose either command, the latest is the more reliable in this case):

dig +short capsule.in.full.fdqn
getent hosts capsule.in.full.fdqn
getent ahostsv4 capsule.in.full.fdqn
nslookup capsule.in.full.fdqn
ruby -r resolv -e 'puts Resolv.getaddress("capsule.in.full.fdqn")'

must show some IP address from ip addr output.

For more KB articles/solutions related to Red Hat Satellite 6.x Capsule Sync Issues, please refer to the Consolidated Troubleshooting Article for Red Hat Satellite 6.x Capsule Sync Issues

Root Cause

Below call flow chain if fatally broken at the end, causing Satellite assumes the Capsule cant sync yum repositories:

  • Satellite queries Capsule for its features to get its capabilities (GET /v2/features raised against Capsule's foreman-proxy)
  • foreman-proxy on Capsule queries pulp on the Capsule - via FQDN in its URI - for list of pulp plugins, to know what types of content pulp on the Capsule can handle
  • FQDN in the pulp API request is resolved into wrong IP address, not to Capsule's one
  • the pulp API request fails, hence Satellite doesnt know what types of content the Capsule is capable to sync

Diagnostic Steps

  • Satellite WebUI shows on the Capsule's sync page:
Pulp plugin missing for synchronizable content types: yum.
Repositories containing these content types will not be synced.
  • An attempt to refresh features (either via WebUI or from hammer) might take suspiciously long time, but does not help
  • /var/log/foreman-proxy/proxy.log on the Capsule contains:
2026-04-29T09:58:31 af43497c [I] Started GET /v2/features
2026-04-29T09:59:31 af43497c [E] Could not fetch capabilities: execution expired

or:

2026-04-29T09:58:31 af43497c [I] Started GET /v2/features
2026-04-29T09:58:34 af43497c [E] Could not fetch capabilities: Failed to open TCP connection to capsule.in.full.fdqn:443 (No route to host - connect(2) for "capsule.in.full.fdqn" port 443)
  • ip addr output shows some IP address, but dig/getent/ruby commands from Resolution, or e.g. /etc/hosts show different IP address, not present in the ip addr output at all
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