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Obsolete Releases => SME Server 8.x => Topic started by: calisun on October 08, 2015, 03:06:43 AM

Title: Moving hard drives from older server into newer PC
Post by: calisun on October 08, 2015, 03:06:43 AM
I have a workhorse of a server that just died on me this morning.
(Dual CPU OPTERON 250 2.4GHz, 4GB memory, software raid 2x750GB HD, running SME 8.1)
I have a PC (which already has SME 8.1 installed on it)
But the data on my Opteron server is a high priority, so I took out hard drives from my Opteron server and put it into the PC. The system boots up, but it only gets to GRUB screen with blinking cursor, and it does not continue on. I even left it alone for 30 minutes without any luck.
I tried installing both drives (software raid) and also with only one drive, both times with the same result, just gets to GRUB with blinking cursor.

Does anybody have any idea how to make it boot?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
 
Title: Re: Moving hard drives from older server into newer PC
Post by: Stefano on October 08, 2015, 08:55:30 AM
Boot from cd in rescue mode and re-create the initrd file
Search for mkinitrd here and in the wiki
Title: Re: Moving hard drives from older server into newer PC
Post by: CharlieBrady on October 09, 2015, 04:51:43 AM
Rebuilding the initrd won't be sufficient to fix the problem if you don't see the kernel boot and load the initrd being loaded. I think there might be some grub issue.
Title: Re: Moving hard drives from older server into newer PC
Post by: Stefano on October 09, 2015, 09:51:04 AM
or some bios settings to be changed..

Charlie observation is true, my bad.

calisun: check bios settings, then start from cd in rescue mode, check if you're able to see your data into disks.
maybe doing an upgrade from cd will repair grub (not sure)

BTW, do you have a good backup?
Title: Re: Moving hard drives from older server into newer PC
Post by: calisun on October 12, 2015, 06:38:56 AM
Thank you Stefano and Charlie, yes, doing a DVD upgrade (using freshly downloaded 8.1 iso x86_64) did allow me to start the computer, but now I have another problem.
I need to get into admin console from command prompt to setup correct network cards, but I can't log into admin.
I see someone else is also having a problem getting into admin, is this a bug?
http://forums.contribs.org/index.php/topic,51992.0.html
Title: Re: Moving hard drives from older server into newer PC
Post by: Stefano on October 12, 2015, 07:21:52 AM
Login as root and then
Code: [Select]
console
Title: Re: Moving hard drives from older server into newer PC
Post by: calisun on October 12, 2015, 07:43:47 AM
I did try that, and I got a message:

-bash: /sbin/e-smith/console: /user/bin/perl: bad interpreter: No such file or directory

also from root I tried:
Code: [Select]
su adminand I got this message:
su: /sbin/e-smith/console: No such file or directory
Title: Re: Moving hard drives from older server into newer PC
Post by: Stefano on October 12, 2015, 08:34:52 AM
Was your SME 32 or 64 bit?
In any case, it seems that your SME is broken
Do you have a good backup?
Title: Re: Moving hard drives from older server into newer PC
Post by: calisun on October 12, 2015, 08:43:38 AM
Do you have a good backup?

I thought I did, I have an external USB drive connected, I set up daily backup to USB drive in server-manager, but when I looked at the drive now, there is nothing on it.

When I browse file directory under root, it looks like the system in intact, all the files are there. Is there a root command I can use to backup files/ database? I was planning to upgrade to SME 9 anyway.
Title: Re: Moving hard drives from older server into newer PC
Post by: Stefano on October 12, 2015, 11:24:00 AM
please, answer to question you've been asked..

was your SME 32 or 64 bit?
Title: Re: Moving hard drives from older server into newer PC
Post by: calisun on October 12, 2015, 09:43:26 PM
I am not 100% sure, but I believe it was 64 bit
Title: Re: Moving hard drives from older server into newer PC
Post by: calisun on October 13, 2015, 05:41:46 PM
Is there a root command I can use to backup files/ database? I was planning to upgrade to SME 9 anyway.
Title: Re: Moving hard drives from older server into newer PC
Post by: janet on October 13, 2015, 06:55:19 PM
calisun

Quote
....I have an external USB drive connected, I set up daily backup to USB drive in server-manager.....
.....Is there a root command I can use to backup files/ database?

To manually invoke the pre-configured server manager backupto workstation (eg to local USB), do
/sbin/e-smith/do_backupwk
Title: Re: Moving hard drives from older server into newer PC
Post by: Stefano on October 14, 2015, 09:58:33 AM
calisun, please reboot your server from cd in rescue mode, mount your disks, and try to access /sbin/e-smith and report back here
Title: Re: Moving hard drives from older server into newer PC
Post by: calisun on October 14, 2015, 08:03:19 PM
calisun

To manually invoke the pre-configured server manager backupto workstation (eg to local USB), do
/sbin/e-smith/do_backupwk

Janet, when I give the command you suggested, I get this:

-bash: /sbin/e-smith/do_backupwk: /usr/bin/perl: bad interpreter: No such file or directory


Stefano,
I am able to get to the directory /sbin/e-smith from root, I see all files inside the directory.
As far as getting to the directory from cd rescue mode, I will have to report later today. I don't have a CD drive permanently connected in that computer (small form factor computer with only two sata connections) so I will have to swap one of the raid drives for DVD drive, which I will do that in the evening.

ps. on a side note to Janet reply, I did try to look into the directory that the system was giving error about, /usr/bin/perl, I can get into /usr/bin/ no problem, but inside /usr/bin/ there is no file or directory named perl
Title: Re: Moving hard drives from older server into newer PC
Post by: janet on October 15, 2015, 09:46:55 AM
calisun

Just googling for your error
from here
https://www.centos.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=19286

try
yum install perl
signal-event post-upgrade
signal-event reboot

after that maybe to play safe you should do
yum update
followed by
signal-event post-upgrade
signal-event reboot
Title: Re: Moving hard drives from older server into newer PC
Post by: calisun on October 18, 2015, 11:35:23 AM
Thanks Janet,
But since my server died and I have drives in a substitute computer, I can't connect to internet because I can't get into admin console to setup network cards.

I was looking into downloading and installing from RPM
I found following perl RMP distros for CentOS

(CentOS 5.11 for x86_64)  -  perl-5.8.8-42.el5.x86_64.rpm
(Extras packages for CentOS 5.11 for x86_64)   -  perl-5.8.8-41.el5.i386.rpm

My question is, since SME 8.1 is based on CentOS 5.10, will the packages above work since they are for CentOS 5.11?
Title: Re: Moving hard drives from older server into newer PC
Post by: Stefano on October 18, 2015, 11:56:45 AM
ok..

1) download last SME8.2 rc2 iso, for example from http://mirror.pialasse.com/releases/testing/8.2.rc2/iso/
be sure you download the right one (i386 or x86_64)

2) if you can, burn it, insert the cd into the cd tray than, from console:
Code: [Select]
cd /mnt/
mkdir tmpdir
mount /dev/cdrom ./tmpdir

3) move to Packages dir
Code: [Select]
cd /mnt/tmpdir/Packages

4) install perl
Code: [Select]
rpm -Uvh perl*

this will install all perl rpms

reboot and try again

WARNING not tested, should work
Title: Re: Moving hard drives from older server into newer PC
Post by: calisun on October 18, 2015, 12:11:37 PM
Thanks Stefano,
just a quick question while ISO is downloading.
You don't recommend I do an upgrade to 8.2 rc2? Just wondering if that would fix it?
Title: Re: Moving hard drives from older server into newer PC
Post by: Stefano on October 18, 2015, 12:13:49 PM
you just need to reinstall perl.. don't boot and don't do any upgrade

BTW, the above command (rpm -UVH perl*) will fail if you have any perl package already installed..
in the first instance, just do:

Code: [Select]
rpm -Uvh perl-5 [tab to autocomplete]