Topic: Upgrade : disk unmounted improperly

[ChocoKiller]

Hi All,

Recently, I've got a big problem with the server (4.1.2) and the only rapid solution to make it work was to perform an upgrade from the CD ... I don't know if this feature is on the ISO of SME V5 server, but when I try to upgrade, I've got a message like "HDD not properly unmounted, try to load e-smith server to repair the disk first ..."

The problem is that my kernel was corrupted, and of course, no login, no boot anymore ... ) ... Just thing to do, upgrade ... just impossible (because disk are not unmounted properly) ...

Then ... could you guys add something which could repair (in fact just perform a check) on HDD's at boot time of the ISO cd ? I think it will be a very usefull feature for rescuing servers ... )

Note : I've taking out the server HDD, use it in another PC with a SlackWare linux on it, and then perform the check, and then back to the server ... and ... upgrade works fine ... )

Thanks Guys for your job !

[Rob Hillis]

ChocoKiller wrote:

> Recently, I've got a big problem with the server (4.1.2) and
> the only rapid solution to make it work was to perform an
> upgrade from the CD ... I don't know if this feature is on
> the ISO of SME V5 server, but when I try to upgrade, I've got
> a message like "HDD not properly unmounted, try to load
> e-smith server to repair the disk first ..."
> The problem is that my kernel was corrupted, and of course,
> no login, no boot anymore ... ) ... Just thing to do,
> upgrade ... just impossible (because disk are not unmounted
> properly) ...

That's what the emergency boot disk is for.  If you didn't make one when you installed SME/e-smith, then you can use a RedHat disk to boot into rescue mode and fsck your disk then.

> Then ... could you guys add something which could repair (in
> fact just perform a check) on HDD's at boot time of the ISO
> cd ? I think it will be a very usefull feature for rescuing
> servers ... )

I agree, the inclusion of a "rescue" option (similar to RedHat's) would be a useful inclusion, but most serious system admins will have a floppy hanging around to boot off under circumstances such as yours.

[Scott Smith]

Rob Hillis wrote:
[snipped for content]
> ChocoKiller wrote:
> > Then ... could you guys add something which could repair (in
> > fact just perform a check) on HDD's at boot time of the ISO
> > cd ? I think it will be a very usefull feature for rescuing
> > servers ... )
>
> I agree, the inclusion of a "rescue" option (similar to
> RedHat's) would be a useful inclusion, but most serious
> system admins will have a floppy hanging around to boot off
> under circumstances such as yours.

Then again, one of the points of e-smith/SME is that it will be running in the absence of a "serious system admin". Having an option to build a meaningful rescue set (instead of just a boot disk) would be in keeping with the rest of the "you don't have to be an expert" philosophy.

On the other hand, even if you built a boot/root set with a few utilities on it, the absence of a serious sysadmin also implies that they wouldn't know what to do with a boot/root rescue disk that just dropped them to a prompt. To be done right, the set would have to present a menu of common solutions (if this problem, select that option) and attempt to hide the shell prompt as much as possible.

Scott