AESM is not reponsive on Ubuntu

[Nazmus_S_]

Hi,

I am using SGX Linux SDK 1.9 on Ubuntu 16.04. Until yesterday, I could build the sample codes. But. today I am experiencing this error: AESM service is not responsive.

I restarted the service (using service aesmd restart). But the issue is not fixed.

Here is the log I got from, service aesmd status:

aesmd.service - Intel(R) Architectural Enclave Service Manager
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/aesmd.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: activating (auto-restart) (Result: exit-code) since Mon 2017-07-31 12:44:57 CDT; 10s ago
  Process: 4091 ExecStart=/opt/intel/sgxpsw/aesm/aesm_service (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  Process: 4087 ExecStartPre=/bin/chmod 0755 /var/run/aesmd/ (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  Process: 4084 ExecStartPre=/bin/chown -R aesmd:aesmd /var/run/aesmd/ (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  Process: 4082 ExecStartPre=/bin/mkdir -p /var/run/aesmd/ (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 4092 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Jul 31 12:44:57 sadat-HP-Notebook systemd[1]: aesmd.service: Unit entered failed state.
Jul 31 12:44:57 sadat-HP-Notebook systemd[1]: aesmd.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

Any idea?

[Rodolfo_S_ · Accepted solution]

Hi Nazmus,

I can confirm that this error occurs after rebooting my machine. There was a previous problem that crashed aesmd during initialization, but they fixed it on SGX SDK 1.9 gold release. The cause of the problem seems to have changed though. I have reported it on linux-sgx github.
Let's wait and see if they know what may be causing it, and if they will provide a fix anytime soon.

In the meantime, the workaround is to reinstall SGX PSW on your machine.

[Nazmus_S_]

Hi Rodolfo,

Thanks for your quick response.

Previously I used the PSW from Intel's official download site (https://download.01.org/intel-sgx/linux-1.9/sgx_linux_ubuntu16.04.1_x64_psw_1.9.100.39124.bin).

Are you suggesting to install this again?

Do I need to reinstall SGX driver or SDK?

[Rodolfo_S_]

So, I have just completely reinstalled SGX components (Driver and PSW), and AESMd successfully started after rebooting the system.

I have installed the components directly following the instructions at 01org SGX github repositories (Driver and SDK/PSW).

I suggest you reinstall both of them as I did.

[Nazmus_S_]

Thanks. 

I will try this.

[Nazmus_S_]

Update:

AESM service is available after reinstalling the driver and psw. It seems I will have to reinstall psw once a day until they resolve the issue :)