[Resolved] Katello client returns 403 PYCURL errors when using yum

While testing a client connection to a Katello server, the client returns an error when any yum command is issued. The error is quite visible with [Errno 14] PYCURL ERROR 22 – “The requested URL returned error: 403 Forbidden”, however, it is not quite clear.

While the environments will likely vary, this is the environment used for this test.

Environment
Oracle VirtualBox 4.3.8
Katello Server 1.4 running on CentOS 6.5 x86-64
Katello Client 1.4 running on CentOS 6.5 x86-64

Cause
The reason for this, at least for my case, was that I reverted to an earlier snapshot of a virtual instance of the Katello server. The date was corrected, and the Katello server did not take to kindly to this.

Resolution
From the server, to resolve, navigate to /etc/pki/pulp/content and look for a seemingly randomly generated name of a file that is symbolically linked to /var/lib/candlepin/candlpin-crl.crl. This control file is the culprit. Delete it. Restart Katello service.

To demonstrate this, here is an example. The ls -Atlr result has been truncated here.

cd /etc/pki/pulp/content
ls -Atlr
..
.. Mar 14 15:57 a828e5ee.r0 -&gt; /var/lib/candlepin/candlepin-crl.crl
..
rm -f a828e5ee.r0
service katello restart

Test
From the client, reissue the yum update command. The repositories should and did repopulate. Success. Done.