I don't think this is easy to reproduce, is it?
Do you still have the satellite around? I could have a look in the log
files...

I will leave this bug open in case we can reproduce it more reliably.

Has not reproduced yet.  Recommend closing as NOTABUG, as it has been
over 3 weeks.

Cannot reproduce.  Will reopen if needed.

I am also getting this problem, trying to sync the rhel-i386-as-3 channel.

Here's the email that the satellite sent...

15:23:24
ERROR: a general socket occurred:

Exception reported from coyote.open.ac.uk
Time: Mon Jan 24 15:23:24 2005
Exception type socket.error

Exception Handler Information
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/satellite-sync", line 134, in main
    return satsync.Runner().main()
  File "/usr/share/rhn/satellite_tools/satsync.py", line 154, in main
    ret = method()
  File "/usr/share/rhn/satellite_tools/satsync.py", line 245, in
_step_rpms
    self._packages_report = self.syncer.download_rpms()
  File "/usr/share/rhn/satellite_tools/satsync.py", line 869, in
download_rpms
    self._fetch_packages(channel, missing_fs_packages)
  File "/usr/share/rhn/satellite_tools/satsync.py", line 1725, in
_fetch_packages
    package_id, nvrea, sources)
  File "/usr/share/rhn/satellite_tools/satsync.py", line 1803, in
_get_package_stream
    stream = rpmServer.getRpmStream(channel, nvrea)
  File "/usr/share/rhn/satellite_tools/xmlWireSource.py", line 236, in
getRpmStream
  File "/usr/share/rhn/satellite_tools/xmlWireSource.py", line 212, in
_xmlrpc
  File "/usr/lib/python2.2/xmlrpclib.py", line 821, in __call__
  File "/usr/lib/python2.2/site-packages/rhn/rpclib.py", line 308, in
_request
  File "/usr/lib/python2.2/site-packages/rhn/transports.py", line 168,
in request
  File "/usr/lib/python2.2/site-packages/rhn/transports.py", line 693,
in send_http
  File "/usr/lib/python2.2/site-packages/rhn/connections.py", line
244, in connect
  File "/usr/lib/python2.2/site-packages/rhn/connections.py", line
136, in getresponse
  File "/usr/lib/python2.2/httplib.py", line 213, in __init__
error: (24, 'Too many open files')


15:23:24 SYNC ERROR: attempting to display as much information as
possible:

Exception reported from coyote.open.ac.uk
Time: Mon Jan 24 15:23:24 2005
Exception type exceptions.OSError

Exception Handler Information
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/satellite-sync", line 163, in ?
    sys.exit(abs(main() or 0))
  File "/usr/bin/satellite-sync", line 142, in main
    systemExit_exception(1, msg, e)
  File "/usr/bin/satellite-sync", line 121, in systemExit_exception
    satsync.sendMail(forceEmail=1)
  File "/usr/share/rhn/satellite_tools/satsync.py", line 272, in sendMail
    rhnMail.send(headers, body, sender='rhn-satellite')
  File "/usr/share/rhn/common/rhnMail.py", line 39, in send
    (read, write) = os.pipe()
OSError: [Errno 24] Too many open files




And this is cut/pasted directly from the shell window...

...
15:23:17     994/1622 Fetch successful: gd-progs-1.8.4-12.3.1.i386.rpm
(101277 bytes)
15:23:24     995/1622 Fetch successful: rh-postgresql-7.3.8-2.i386.rpm
(1670116 bytes)
+++ sending log as an email +++
+++ sending log as an email +++
SYNC ERROR: attempting to display as much information as possible:

(Check logs/email for potentially more detail)

[Errno 24] Too many open files


(PS. I am a customer...)

Reopening, and assigning to misa, since a customer has hit this in the
field.

Just to say that I also am seeing this problem.
I am running RHN Satellite 3.6 on a RHEL 3 machine.

This should be fixed in the latest version of 3.6 code.