SuSE11 server hangs on patch update

I am trying to troubleshoot a issue with a SLES server we are trying to update. Server was SLES11sp1 and we updated it with yast2 wagon to sp3. The update process was about 90% done when it completely hung, no response from server at all, Eventually we had to power off. It didn’t come back up the first time we rebooted, but we cycled it again and it booted fine. I did a zypper up on it and it showed 102 patches remaining to install. We took a snapshot again of it at this point and then let the patches start applying again. It downloaded them all and got to about the 5th patch and hung again, same way, the patch is was installing was hal-0.5.12-23.71.1. Does anyone have an idea why it would continue to hang on this patch. Server is a VMware virtual server as well. We did about 15 others in same type setup and had no issues.

On 29/05/2014 01:24, jlewter wrote:
[color=blue]

I am trying to troubleshoot a issue with a SLES server we are trying to
update. Server was SLES11sp1 and we updated it with yast2 wagon to sp3.
The update process was about 90% done when it completely hung, no
response from server at all, Eventually we had to power off. It didn’t
come back up the first time we rebooted, but we cycled it again and it
booted fine. I did a zypper up on it and it showed 102 patches remaining
to install. We took a snapshot again of it at this point and then let
the patches start applying again. It downloaded them all and got to
about the 5th patch and hung again, same way, the patch is was
installing was hal-0.5.12-23.71.1. Does anyone have an idea why it would
continue to hang on this patch. Server is a VMware virtual server as
well. We did about 15 others in same type setup and had no issues.[/color]

I’m reading the above as you’ve upgraded directly from SLES11 SP1 to
SLES11 SP3 without upgrading to SLES11 SP2 - is that correct?

If so, that’s not supported may be accounting for your troubles.

HTH.

Simon
SUSE Knowledge Partner


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I use the yast2 wagon utility to move it. It has always worked fine for me to patch support packs from one level to another. Usually it takes it to sp2 during the process, and then moves it to sp3. This box was sp1 to start with it and we used the tool to take it to sp3 in the process.

On 29/05/2014 14:24, jlewter wrote:
[color=blue]

I use the yast2 wagon utility to move it. It has always worked fine for
me to patch support packs from one level to another. Usually it takes it
to sp2 during the process, and then moves it to sp3. This box was sp1 to
start with it and we used the tool to take it to sp3 in the process.[/color]

So you went directly from SLES11 SP1 to SLES11 SP3? Presumably you
selected the SP3 installation media or SP3-related channels rather than
SP2 ones?

Re-reading your original post am I right in thinking all 102 patches
were downloaded after the rebooting the hung server but it then hung
again when applying the 5th patch, hal-0.5.12-23.71.1?

Does /var/log/messages or /var/log/boot.msg reveal anything?

What version of hal does “rpm -q hal” report, the “problem” version or
an earlier one?

You could try opening an Service Request but if you did upgrade directly
from SLES11 SP1 to SLES11 SP3 I’m sure whether SUSE can help you. Since
it’s a VMware virtual server do you have a snapshot of the server at
SLES11 SP1 which you could roll back to and then retry the upgrade but
going via SLES11 SP2 first?

HTH.

Simon
SUSE Knowledge Partner


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please show your appreciation and click on the star below. Thanks.