Upgrading SLES 11 SP2 to 11 SP4 - no partitions

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server SLES Install-Boot
1

So I went to update the server to SLES 11 SP4 from SLES 11 SP2. On other servers, when I have started the upgrade process, it normally will show the root partition that it wants to install to. This time, it said it couldn’t find a root partition. When I look in Expert Partitioner in YAST, the root partition shows up under ‘system’ which is under ‘Volume Management’. Is this an LVM setup?

Do I have to tell the installation program to show all partitions then somehow try to find this under the volume management? I have never dealt with LVM volumes before.

Thanks,

Dan

2

Hi Dan,

just want to confirm that you’re dealing with LVM there. It looks as if you have a volume group named “system”.

I do not recall having had problems upgrading SLES11 SP3 to SP4, while using LVM. Have you skipped that intermediate step? If so, you might try the supported route and first upgrade to SP3…

Regards,
Jens

3

Jens, thanks for the reply. What should I look for in Partitioner to determine if this is an LVM setup? Unfortunately I am not familiar with how LVM sets up partitions. What I see in partitioner is as follows:

ServerName
Hard Disks
sda
sda1
sda2
RAID
Volume Management
system
root
swap
tmp

I don’t know if that helps or not.

You think I should first upgrade from SLES 11 SP2 to SLES 11 SP3, then to SP4? What if I don’t see the root partition listed in the SLES 11 SP3 installation process? I didn’t realize that I could not upgrade directly from SLES 11 SP2 to SLES 11 SP4.

Dan

4

Hi Dan,

What should I look for in Partitioner to determine if this is an LVM setup?

this is an LVM setup. Your volume group is named “system” and it has four logical volumes, named to their respective intended use. Sorry that I was unclear in my earlier statement.

You think I should first upgrade from SLES 11 SP2 to SLES 11 SP3, then to SP4?

See https://www.suse.com/documentation/sles11/book_sle_deployment/data/sec_update_proc_prep_paths.html. Skipping intermediate SPs has been introduced with SLES12, but you’re not there, yet :wink:

What if I don’t see the root partition listed in the SLES 11 SP3 installation process?

Let’s handle that once you have tried and came across this problem again :wink: It may well be that the (SP4) upgrade is looking for an existing SP3 installation and doesn’t accept the existing SP2, hence not showing any upgradable partition. If true, SP3 should well offer you to upgrade the SP2 installation…

Regards,
Jens

5

Thanks. I did not realize that it was not supported to go from SLES 11 SP2 to SLES 11 SP4 directly. I’ll try upgrading to SLES 11 SP3 first.

Thanks for the quick replies. I really appreciate it.

dan

6

So, my bad, the server is at SLES 11 SP3. When I try to do the upgrade to SLES 11 SP4 and get to the part about picking the root partition, I get the error “The architecture of the system installed in the selected partition is different from the one of this product.”

What does that mean?

Dan

7

[QUOTE=dchunt;51326]So, my bad, the server is at SLES 11 SP3. When I try to do the upgrade to SLES 11 SP4 and get to the part about picking the root partition, I get the error “The architecture of the system installed in the selected partition is different from the one of this product.”

What does that mean?

Dan[/QUOTE]
Hi
Trying to install 32bit onto 64bit or the other way (or another arch ppc, s390 etc)… what is the hardware and output from the command uname -a