Re: [K12OSN] bad rpm database after restore from backup

[Julius Szelagiewicz <julius turtle com>]

On Sun, 4 Jan 2004, Les Mikesell wrote:

> On Sun, 2004-01-04 at 07:27, Julius Szelagiewicz wrote:
>
> > 	no rpm operation worked before i blew away the database - that
> > meant no yum as well. i cleaned out the rpm database just to be able to
> > use apt to remove cups and install lprng. this din't go smothly, but it
> > did go. still no joy with printtool, or printing, for that matter.
> > 	the plan is: total destruction of th weekend by full install of
> > 3.1.2 from scratch and than a very judicious restore:
> > /home, /usr/local/bin, stop dhcpd, blow away leases files, in /etc:
> > passwd, shadow, group, gshadow, dhcpd.conf, rsyncd.conf, ./init.d/nat ...
> >
> > what am i forgetting here?
>
> Just a lot of updates.  I'd copy all of /etc somewhere else so
> you can pick individual files to copy back easier than doing
> it from tape. Then do the apt-get or yum update to the fresh
> install before dropping the old stuff back.
>
> If you have a similar 3.1.2 install somewhere, you might make
> one last attempt to make rpm work by copying everything related
> over from the other machine.
>
> If there is a lesson to be learned here it is that the best
> way to to a major upgrade is to have a spare machine where
> you can build it and cut over.  Then if there are problems
> you can switch back quickly.  This isn't too expensive if
> you have several servers because you only need to keep a
> couple of spares so you can use one for testing and one
> as the spare for repairs and rebuilds.  Hot-swap disk
> carriers are a nice touch too, so you can just trade disks
> instead of the whole machine.
>
> And if it is any consolation, we have had even worse problems
> doing upgrades on Windows servers.  Usually we make Norton
> Ghost images of them for the restore because it is faster
> and safer than most backups.
>
Les,
	I tried the rpm copy, but the machines were too far apart in
levels. have double copies of everything, both old 3.1.x and 4.0.0 and the
install is running now. who needs weekend with friends if you can sit
alone in the computer room ;-)
	problem with dual servers is cost - i am trying to make the
server perform too many duties. i need to rethink the setup.
	problem with upgrade was that i did too many things to "save time"
- upgrading the disk array forced me to blow away the old system and
instead of doing full restore and upgrade i opted for new insrtall and
copy /home. bad idea in retrospect :-)
	we'll see how i get going with 3.1.2 - part of the difficul;ty
yestrday was that the original 3.1.x system was really 3.1.0 dis-upgraded
to the gills - there are differences. julius