puppetlabs/puppet · error · Puppet::Error

Unmanageable state '#{state}' on service #{name}

Error message

Unmanageable state '#{state}' on service #{name}

What it means

The same SMF state-mapping case statement has a catch-all: any svcs state string other than online, offline, disabled, uninitialized, maintenance, degraded, or legacy_run raises 'Unmanageable state'. This fires when Solaris reports a state the provider's mapping predates or an unexpected value reaches status.

Source

Thrown at lib/puppet/provider/service/smf.rb:230

      # TODO (PUP-8957): Should this be set back to INFO ?
      debug "Could not get status on service #{name} #{e}"
      return :stopped
    end

    case state
    when "online"
      :running
    when "offline", "disabled", "uninitialized"
      :stopped
    when "maintenance"
      :maintenance
    when "degraded"
      :degraded
    when "legacy_run"
      raise Puppet::Error,
            "Cannot manage legacy services through SMF"
    else
      raise Puppet::Error,
            "Unmanageable state '#{state}' on service #{name}"
    end
  end

  # Helper that encapsulates the clear + svcadm [enable|disable]
  # logic in one place. Makes it easy to test things out and also
  # cleans up flush's code.
  def maybe_clear_service_then_svcadm(cur_state, subcmd, flags)
    # If the cur_state is maint or degraded, then we need to clear the service
    # before we enable or disable it.
    adm('clear', service_fmri) if [:maintenance, :degraded].include?(cur_state)
    adm(subcmd, flags, service_fmri)
  end

  # The flush method is necessary for the SMF provider because syncing the enable and ensure
  # properties are not independent operations like they are in most of our other service
  # providers.
  def flush

View on GitHub (pinned to e227c27540)

Solutions

1. See the raw value: svcs -H -o state <fmri> and compare with the recognized list in the error's sibling branches
2. Upgrade Puppet to a release matching your Solaris version (state mapping fixes land in newer providers)
3. Force a sane locale (LC_ALL=C) for the agent environment so svcs output is not transformed
4. If the state is transitional, re-run after it settles; if persistent, report the state string upstream

# surface unmappable states before the provider does
state=$(LC_ALL=C svcs -H -o state "${name}" 2>/dev/null)
case "$state" in
  online|offline|disabled|uninitialized|maintenance|degraded|legacy_run) ;;
  *) echo "svcs reports unknown state '${state}' — provider too old for this Solaris?" ;;
esac

When it happens

Trigger: svcs emitting a state string added in a newer/older Solaris patch level than the provider's mapping knows, or a corrupted/empty state field (state column parse returning something odd) during a status query on the smf provider.

Common situations: Running an older Puppet on a newer Solaris update that introduced state vocabulary; SRU upgrades changing svcs output; zones reporting transitional states; output-mangling locales or wrappers around svcs.

Related errors

• Failed to get the FMRI of the %{service} service: The patter
• Cannot query if the %{service} service is complete: The conc
• Timed out waiting for #{@resource[:name]} to transition stat
• Cannot manage legacy services through SMF
• The pkg-get command is missing; blastwave packaging unavaila

AI-assisted analysis of puppetlabs/puppet@e227c27540 (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/72f6644d18a4d90f. Report an issue: GitHub.