Topic: Raid degraded and can not get into SME

[jamesli]

One of my RAID array drive failed yesterday. I disconnected the bad drive and thought it should switch to a single drive RAID and continue to work. But the system always get into the CentOS login with localhost prompt instead of SME login and the server is not running. What can I do here?

PS: my system is SME 7.1.3

[raem]

jamesli

It sounds like you have a machine that was originally a 7.0 install.
There were some issues with earlier versions of 7.x that selected the wrong kernel in grub.conf. ie smeserver kernel should have been selected whereas Centos kernel was selected. The Centos kernel didn't allow a degraded single drive RAID1 to work after a failure whereas the sme server kernel did.

Search the forums (eg on grub or grub.conf) about selecting the correct kernel in
/boot/grub/grub.conf
There were also bugs in bugzilla about this.

My 7.1.3 server looks like this
Note the default kernel is 0 (the first one listed)

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd0,0)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/main/root
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0
timeout=15
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
#hiddenmenu
title You are logged into xxxx server - SME Server (2.6.9-42.0.10.ELsmp)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-42.0.10.ELsmp ro root=/dev/main/root
        initrd /initrd-2.6.9-42.0.10.ELsmp.img
title You are logged into xxxx server - SME Server (2.6.9-42.0.10.EL)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-42.0.10.EL ro root=/dev/main/root
        initrd /initrd-2.6.9-42.0.10.EL.img
title CentOS (2.6.9-42.0.3.EL)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-42.0.3.EL ro root=/dev/main/root
        initrd /initrd-2.6.9-42.0.3.EL.img
title CentOS (2.6.9-42.0.3.ELsmp)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-42.0.3.ELsmp ro root=/dev/main/root
        initrd /initrd-2.6.9-42.0.3.ELsmp.img
title CentOS (2.6.9-42.0.2.EL)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-42.0.2.EL ro root=/dev/main/root
        initrd /initrd-2.6.9-42.0.2.EL.img
title CentOS (2.6.9-42.0.2.ELsmp)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-42.0.2.ELsmp ro root=/dev/main/root
        initrd /initrd-2.6.9-42.0.2.ELsmp.img
title CentOS (2.6.9-34.0.2.EL)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-34.0.2.EL ro root=/dev/main/root
        initrd /initrd-2.6.9-34.0.2.EL.img
title CentOS (2.6.9-34.0.2.ELsmp)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-34.0.2.ELsmp ro root=/dev/main/root
        initrd /initrd-2.6.9-34.0.2.ELsmp.img
title SME Server (2.6.9-34.ELsmp)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-34.ELsmp ro root=/dev/main/root
        initrd /initrd-2.6.9-34.ELsmp.img
title SME Server-up (2.6.9-34.EL)
        root (hd0,0)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.9-34.EL ro root=/dev/main/root
        initrd /initrd-2.6.9-34.EL.img


A seperate issue (nothing to do with your RAID problem) may be related to upgrades using yum pre7.1 update1 where a Centos kernel (55) is installed that is ahead of sme server module releases. See the very first FAQ entry. There have been plenty of posts about this in the forums also particularly relating to VPN not working after upgrades from 7.1.

[jamesli]

Hi, Ray

The system is a brand new install using the SME 7.1 CD and then YUM update to 7.1.3 later. I had try to select the SME from the white penguim menu on the bootup or change the default in the GRUB.conf. But it always boot into CentOS instead of SME and I don't know how to access the ibays inside CentOS. Is there a way to force the machine boot into SME? I really need to recover the data in those ibays. Please help.

[raem]

jamesli

> The system is a brand new install using the SME 7.1 CD and then YUM update to 7.1.3 later.

Did you follow these recommendations ? If not you may now have a 2.6.9.55 kernel installed.
http://wiki.contribs.org/SME_Server:Documentation:FAQ#Yum_Updates

yum update smeserver-support smeserver-yum yum yum-plugin-fastest-mirror python-sqlite
signal-event post-upgrade; signal-event reboot


> Is there a way to force the machine boot into SME (kernel)?

You set the default kernel in /boot/grub/grub.conf
Log in as root
pico -w /boot/grub/grub.conf

then change
default=0
or equal whichever kernel you want to boot to, 0 is the first, 1 is the second, 2 is the third in the list of kernels in grub.conf
You should be selecting 2.6.9-42.0.10.ELsmp
(the smp kernel should work OK even for non smp systems)

You can also change the entry for
timeout=15
so you get more time to see & select options in the penguin splash screen at startup

[jamesli]

I did follow the Yum updata guideline, but I remember the update failed the first time then I run it again it worked. The system is running fine until my RAID array broken. And I can not go back to SME.

Like I said before, I had change the grub.conf but it still booted into CentOS. Now I think my priority is recovering the data in the ibays. I had try to put the drive into a USB enclosure but I got the same file system as I saw in CentOS with nothing in the home folder and a huge file rhinstall-stage2.img in the root. Any idea ?

[TrevorB]

I had try to put the drive into a USB enclosure but I got the same file system as I saw in CentOS with nothing in the home folder and a huge file rhinstall-stage2.img in the root. Any idea ?

This is NOT a drive from your raid... either that or you have started another install (which didn't complete).

The rhinstall-stage2.img is from the initial install of centos (on which smeserver is based). Look on that drive and see if there are any other partitions there.

Trevor B

[jamesli]

Unfortunely this is the remaining drive in my RAID array, I know this looks odd and I am sure there is something is not working right. But I just can not figure it out.