SLES 12 SP2 issue "Unable to create repository"

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server SLES for System Z
1

Hi,

I am trying to upgrade a SLES 11 SP4 system to SLES 12 SP2 under z/VM 6.4 and am getting the following in the “System Probing” screen.

[CODE]Unable to create repository
from URL ‘nfs://10.17.1.139/media/s390x/sles12sp2/dvd1’.

Details:
[SLES12-SP2-12.2-0|nfs://10.17.1.139/media/s390x/sles12sp2/dvd1] Valid metadata not found at specified URL
History:

  • Can’t hardlink/copy /var/adm/mount/AP_0x3xbBTK/suse/setup/descr/appdata-icons.tar.gz to /var/cache/zypp/raw/SLES12-SP2-12.2-0OcK9aD
  • Can’t provide /suse/setup/descr/appdata-icons.tar.gz

Try again?[/CODE]

My SMT server is hosting the .iso file for SLES 12, which I have mounted and made available via NFS. I have verified that the installation media is available via NFS from a different zLinux server.

Here is the relevant entry from /etc/exports:

/media/s390x/sles12sp2/dvd1     10.17.1.0/24(ro,sync,no_root_squash,no_subtree_check)

Here is the relevant entry from /etc/fstab:

/srv/www/htdocs/iso_repository/sles12/SLE-12-SP2-Server-DVD-s390x-GM-DVD1.iso  /media/s390x/sles12sp2/dvd1 udf,iso9660  ro,loop  0  0

What is confusing is that I used the same installation method when I originally installed SLES 11 (base).

I am using the SLES12 EXEC with a PARMFILE to boot the SLES 12 SP2 installation system. Here is the contents of my PARMFILE:

ramdisk_size=131072 root=/dev/ram1 ro init=/linuxrc term=dumb vmpoff=logoff hostname=wcs-mf-syssoft1 hostip=10.17.1.156 gateway=10.17.1.129 nameserver=172.24.8.126 instnetdev=osa osainterface=qdio layer2=1 portno=0 netmask=255.255.255.192 broadcast=10.17.1.255 readchannel=0.0.1f00 writechannel=0.0.1f01 datachannel=0.0.1f02 install=nfs://10.17.1.139/media/s390x/sles12sp2/dvd1 usessh=1 sshpassword=temppswd linuxrclog=/dev/console manual=0

I searched the forums and see that there have been a few issues, from February 2017, raised on this same issue but there have been no responses. I’m hoping that someone can point out what I need to change to get past this problem.

Harley

2

x0500hl,

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3

With the help of Novell Support, my problem has been resolved.

It turned out to be an incomplete .iso file. I used the SFTP function within the WinSCP program (Windows) to transfer the SLES 12 SP2 .iso file to /tmp on my SMT server (this is where I host the .iso via NFS). WinSCP did not give me an error, but Novell noticed that the filesystem that contains /tmp only had around 1.9GB of free space and the .iso is around 3.2 GB. I deleted the .iso from the SMT server and re-uploaded directly to the repository filesystem (had around 8GB of free space).

I was then able to successfully upgrade, in place, SLES 11 SP4 to SLES 12 SP2.

Harley