Topic: Moving hard drives from older server into newer PC

[calisun]

I have a workhorse of a server that just died on me this morning.
(Dual CPU OPTERON 250 2.4GHz, 4GB memory, software raid 2x750GB HD, running SME 8.1)
I have a PC (which already has SME 8.1 installed on it)
But the data on my Opteron server is a high priority, so I took out hard drives from my Opteron server and put it into the PC. The system boots up, but it only gets to GRUB screen with blinking cursor, and it does not continue on. I even left it alone for 30 minutes without any luck.
I tried installing both drives (software raid) and also with only one drive, both times with the same result, just gets to GRUB with blinking cursor.

Does anybody have any idea how to make it boot?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
 

[Stefano]

Boot from cd in rescue mode and re-create the initrd file
Search for mkinitrd here and in the wiki

[CharlieBrady]

Rebuilding the initrd won't be sufficient to fix the problem if you don't see the kernel boot and load the initrd being loaded. I think there might be some grub issue.

[Stefano]

or some bios settings to be changed..

Charlie observation is true, my bad.

calisun: check bios settings, then start from cd in rescue mode, check if you're able to see your data into disks.
maybe doing an upgrade from cd will repair grub (not sure)

BTW, do you have a good backup?

[calisun]

Thank you Stefano and Charlie, yes, doing a DVD upgrade (using freshly downloaded 8.1 iso x86_64) did allow me to start the computer, but now I have another problem.
I need to get into admin console from command prompt to setup correct network cards, but I can't log into admin.
I see someone else is also having a problem getting into admin, is this a bug?
http://forums.contribs.org/index.php/topic,51992.0.html

[Stefano]

Login as root and then

Code: [Select]

console


[calisun]

I did try that, and I got a message:

-bash: /sbin/e-smith/console: /user/bin/perl: bad interpreter: No such file or directory

also from root I tried:

Code: [Select]

su adminand I got this message:
su: /sbin/e-smith/console: No such file or directory

[Stefano]

Was your SME 32 or 64 bit?
In any case, it seems that your SME is broken
Do you have a good backup?

[calisun]

Do you have a good backup?

I thought I did, I have an external USB drive connected, I set up daily backup to USB drive in server-manager, but when I looked at the drive now, there is nothing on it.

When I browse file directory under root, it looks like the system in intact, all the files are there. Is there a root command I can use to backup files/ database? I was planning to upgrade to SME 9 anyway.

[Stefano]

please, answer to question you've been asked..

was your SME 32 or 64 bit?

[calisun]

I am not 100% sure, but I believe it was 64 bit

[calisun]

Is there a root command I can use to backup files/ database? I was planning to upgrade to SME 9 anyway.

[janet]

calisun

....I have an external USB drive connected, I set up daily backup to USB drive in server-manager.....
.....Is there a root command I can use to backup files/ database?

To manually invoke the pre-configured server manager backupto workstation (eg to local USB), do
/sbin/e-smith/do_backupwk

[Stefano]

calisun, please reboot your server from cd in rescue mode, mount your disks, and try to access /sbin/e-smith and report back here

[calisun]

calisun

To manually invoke the pre-configured server manager backupto workstation (eg to local USB), do
/sbin/e-smith/do_backupwk

Janet, when I give the command you suggested, I get this:

-bash: /sbin/e-smith/do_backupwk: /usr/bin/perl: bad interpreter: No such file or directory


Stefano,
I am able to get to the directory /sbin/e-smith from root, I see all files inside the directory.
As far as getting to the directory from cd rescue mode, I will have to report later today. I don't have a CD drive permanently connected in that computer (small form factor computer with only two sata connections) so I will have to swap one of the raid drives for DVD drive, which I will do that in the evening.

ps. on a side note to Janet reply, I did try to look into the directory that the system was giving error about, /usr/bin/perl, I can get into /usr/bin/ no problem, but inside /usr/bin/ there is no file or directory named perl