From: stormreaver
Written: 2009-07-28 09:32:13.723556
Subject: Recovering From An Interrupted RHEL 5 Upgrade
Written: 2009-07-28 09:32:13.723556
Subject: Recovering From An Interrupted RHEL 5 Upgrade
As part of my routine server administration procedure, I updated our Red Hat Enterprise servers with the newest software via "yum update" through secure shell from my desk. Three of the first four servers updated flawlessly, but the fourth update was interrupted about a third of the way through the process by a severed secure shell connection. 154 of 530+ packages were installed, with the last installed package being the Xen-enabled kernel. Needless to say, I was concerned.
I reconnected my secure shell to the server, and ran "yum update" again. It said there were 109 packages left to install, so I told it to continue. It downloaded 114 packages (don't ask), then said there were several file conflicts within the libselinux package. I uninstalled libselinux, then ran "yum clean all" and "yum update". Since yum already had all the packages it needed, it went straight to the transaction check and said all dependencies were met. Yum then installed all 114 packages.
I rebooted the server, and hoped that everything worked. It turned out that the resumed update worked perfectly, and the system came back up in working order.
If this had been a Microsoft Windows system, I would almost certainly have had to reinstall the entire operating system and all of its service software. What a nightmare this could have been if I had been using a Windows "server".
I reconnected my secure shell to the server, and ran "yum update" again. It said there were 109 packages left to install, so I told it to continue. It downloaded 114 packages (don't ask), then said there were several file conflicts within the libselinux package. I uninstalled libselinux, then ran "yum clean all" and "yum update". Since yum already had all the packages it needed, it went straight to the transaction check and said all dependencies were met. Yum then installed all 114 packages.
I rebooted the server, and hoped that everything worked. It turned out that the resumed update worked perfectly, and the system came back up in working order.
If this had been a Microsoft Windows system, I would almost certainly have had to reinstall the entire operating system and all of its service software. What a nightmare this could have been if I had been using a Windows "server".