Hiring a technician (urgent)

[DjMiX]

Hello all,

I am looking for someone to fix an issue on my server. I received my server from my provider a few days ago. I installed Cpanel on it, everything worked. But I rebooted once the server, and it never came back online. So now, I launched it in rescue mode (livecd).
However, my technician knowledges are not very good. The datacenter tells me that the problem could come from the fact that Cpanel installation would install a Kernel before 2.6.16, and that this would cause a problem because
of the RAID and Network drivers, these are special Kernels for the Hardware.

So they tell me to install a new kernel version on the server, with raid-support, etc... But I don't know how to do this. I also don't know if the error really comes from there.

Therefore, I am looking for someone to check the server, repair whatever is going wrong so I can finally get it back online.

Please send an e-mail to flotosello@gmail.com (or add me to MSN: flotosello@hotmail.com), with the price you are expecting to be paid for this issue.

Thank you.

[HostMerit]

You can tell the kernel version by:

uname -a

Also, why cant you reboot in one of the alternate or SMP kernels?

Also, you can run:

yum update

To update all pacakages, and by default kernel will update.



If you didnt modify the kernel and just did a reboot, and the server died your data center should FIX it. CPanel doesnt install any kernel by default etc etc, and it sounds like the data center is jerking you around, lying.

[DjMiX]

Hello,

uname result:

Linux 85-31-186-162_rescue 2.6.15-gentoo-r5 #1 SMP Tue Feb 21 17:19:47 UTC 2006 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3800+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux

Concerning yum update, this command doesn't exist on SuSe... Any other one ?

Concerning the DC, they are not lying. Because the problem happenned right after rebooting, and I tested twice (after server reinstall once).

Thank you.

[webignition]

A given server can have any number of kernels installed and it is the bootloader (commonly grub or lilo) that determines which kernel should be used. Concerning grub, as I have no experience of lilo, the available kernels are numerically indexed from 0 to n and the kernel that is to be used is specified by number in grub's config.

When a newer kernel is installed, it can sometimes be the case that the newer kernel is set, in grub's config, as the kernel that should be used. Kernel's can't be swapped live and so any changes in grub's config concerning the kernel to be used will only take effect after a reboot. If you install a new kernel that for some reason won't work for you, set it as the kernel to be used by the bootloader and then reboot you'll find that the server won't reboot properly as it can't use the specified kernel.

And as HostMerit says, cPanel stays well away from your kernel.

Taking all this into account, it sounds very much like you have more than one kernel installed on the machine and that the kernel the bootloader is set to use is one that, for whatever reason, won't work for you. That is not to say that can't, just at present it won't and this may be due to a whole host of reasons.

Given that the server works fine after a fresh OS install, it seems safe to say that whatever kernel is installed by default works fine. Although cPanel doesn't install any kernel, it will, during install and during regular updates, run your OS's default package manager so that various OS tools are kept up to date.

To ensure that the OS's default package manager doesn't mess things up too much, it's quite common to exclude kernel updates from it's duties so that kernels can be upgraded only when needed and not when the OS chooses to.

I reckon that your OS's default package manager is not set to exclude kernel updates. Therefore when cPanel runs your OS's default package manager during installation, the package manager is installing a new kernel and setting your bootloader to use the new kernel. If you're not specifically choosing to install a new kernel and as cPanel doesn't do so, this is the only logical explanation.

I'd suggest the following (assuming only two kernels are installed - one that works, one that does not):

1) Open your bootloader's config and check what kernels are listed
2) Set it to use the kernel that it is not currently set to use
3) Reboot and away you go

If there are more than two installed kernels, you could either figure out which one is the best by means of trying them all and seeing what happens, or you could try and find out what kernel is being installed as the OS default.

Using whichever method, you should end up with your bootloader set to use a kernel that will work. You should then ensure that your OS's default package manager is set to exclude kernel updates. That should keep you safe from the same thing happening again.

Failing all that, you could try the following:

1) Reload the OS from scratch
2) Reboot and check that everything works
3) Check which kernel is set to be used by the bootloader
4) Set your OS's default package manager to exclude kernel updates
5) Install cPanel
6) Check that the same kernel is still set as the one to be used in the bootloader config
7) Reboot and away you go (just to check that reboots work fine)

[rikgarner]

Cpanel by standard adds "Kernel*" to the yum excludes list, so I would assume that it does the same for apt-get and whatever Suse uses (YaST?)

If you are booting with grub, Use your recovery boot to have a look at grub.conf (usually in /etc, if not, run "locate grub.conf")

This will show you what kernels you have installed. Post back and let us know what you have.

Rich