Unable to useradd on 11.31

UNIX HP-UX
1

Running into a bit of a problem on one of our HP-UX nodes.

I'm unable to add users through useradd .

We can edit the passwd file normally or through vipw, just fine. Once you remove the .pwd.lock file, though, vipw will not work.

root@fake_hp_hostname:/etc>uname -a
HP-UX fake_hp_hostname B.11.31 U ia64 4199993773 unlimited-user license
root@fake_hp_hostname:/etc>useradd -m -d /home/fake -g fake -u 8844 -c "fake" -s /usr/bin/ksh fake
/etc/passwd file does not exist
root@fake_hp_hostname:/etc>l /etc/passwd
-r--r--r--   1 root       other         7400 Jul 28 11:42 /etc/passwd
root@fake_hp_hostname:/etc>l /etc/.pwd.lock
-r--------   1 root       sys              0 Jul 28 11:43 /etc/.pwd.lock
root@fake_hp_hostname:/etc>rm /etc/.pwd.lock
root@fake_hp_hostname:/etc>useradd -m -d /home/fake -g fake -u 8844 -c "fake" -s /usr/bin/ksh fake
/etc/passwd file busy -- try again
root@fake_hp_hostname:/etc>touch /etc/.pwd.lock
root@fake_hp_hostname:/etc>chmod 400 /etc/.pwd.lock
root@fake_hp_hostname:/etc>useradd -m -d /home/fake -g fake -u 8844 -c "fake" -s /usr/bin/ksh fake
/etc/passwd file does not exist
root@fake_hp_hostname:/etc>

vipw not working after removing .pwd.lock:

root@fake_hp_hostname:/etc>rm /etc/.pwd.lock
root@fake_hp_hostname:/etc>vipwd
sh: vipwd:  not found.
root@fake_hp_hostname:/etc>vipw
lckpwdf: No such file or directory
vipw: Cannot obtain lock for /etc/.pwd.lock

Nothing seems to be attached to /etc/passwd or related files:

root@fake_hp_hostname:/etc>lsof /etc/.pwd.lock
root@fake_hp_hostname:/etc>lsof /etc/passwd
root@fake_hp_hostname:/etc>pgrep passwd
  UID    PID   PPID      STIME    TTY     TIME CMD
root@fake_hp_hostname:/etc>pgrep pw
  UID    PID   PPID      STIME    TTY     TIME CMD
root@fake_hp_hostname:/etc>lsof | grep -i passwd
root@fake_hp_hostname:/etc>

Anyone have any ideas? Other nodes are working just fine -- able to add, remove users, etc., other functions in sam.

edit: Found out the problem. pwgrd wasn't running.

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