[Info-vax] SSH/SCP sessions hanging for 7 minutes while reading from "/dev/random"

[sphowes]

On Thursday, September 30, 2021 at 12:54:37 PM UTC-4, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
> On 2021-09-30 16:37:37 +0000, sphowes said: 
> 
> > It doesn't matter if the connection is coming to/from another OpenVMS 
> > server or a Linux server, there is still the 7 minute wait. We have 
> > tried to/from multiple servers with the same delay. The "/dev/random" 
> > delay is definitely occurring on the OpenVMS server.
> Bad DNS is another option. 
> 
> Wouldn't be the first configuration with sketchy DNS causing long delays. 
> 
> Really needs an upgrade to V8.4-2L1 or V8.4-2L2, too. 
> 
> Twenty-year-old software... has issues.
> -- 
> Pure Personal Opinion | HoffmanLabs LLC

BIND is disabled on the cluster so it is not doing any DNS lookups.

I agree regarding upgrading the OS however the version of Oracle we are running is not supported past 7.3-2.  Clusters are pretty much in "maintain" mode until a replacement option is built out, so this SSH/SCP issue is something that we would like to resolve, if possible, in the meantime.

I just wonder when it is trying to open "/dev/random" what is it actually trying to access?  That must translate to something that is actually part of OpenVMS in the code.