[sles-beta] SLES11SP4RC2 x86_64 autoyast installation - problem with reinstall

[Joel Barbieri]

Finally got a chance to work with SLES11SP4.  Cut our shrunken distro.

Mostly I see problems with re-installations.  The autoyast profile is set to "blow-up" the server each time, but stops with some sort of problem dealing with the partitions on a "second" install.

Hardware is Intel NUC Core i3 in UEFI mode with installation over the wire.  Problem is consistent.  Will try on a Dell r610 in UEFI tomorrow to see if the problem follows the hardware or software.  I have had similar grief in SLES11SP3 when switching a system from UEFI to BIOS mode where I have to nuke the drive manually to execute a re-install from scratch, but never when re-installing without switching BIOS modes.

To nuke a drive, I just escape to an available shell [alt-f2, or whichever is available], dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1M count=1;reboot -f.  Don't forget the "-f" on the reboot.  This is the only way I have succeeded on Dell r610 at switching from UEFI back to BIOS mode.  Without it, I estimate the kernel or RAID card or some other driver re-writes the UEFI/GPT partition table back to disk, thus not effectively "cleaning" it.

I wouldn't call this a show stopper, but it is a major nuisance for product testing for me.  It wouldn't be so bad except for Server Manufacturers have made the BIOS/UEFI initialization so long that it physically hurts. UEFI was supposed to be faster, but apparently not on servers.  Does great on laptops and many modern desktops.

I gathered the /var/log/YaST directory in case SuSE would like to look at why it bombed.  I may deconstruct also if I have time.

Let me know if this is SR worthy by description.

I don't remember of SLES12 was more amenable to always succeeding in second installs.  I may have just kept them all in UEFI.  I know on the r610s it re-installed repeatedly just fine.

-Joel

Joel Barbieri
Merge Healthcare

________________________________________
From: sles-beta-bounces at lists.suse.com [sles-beta-bounces at lists.suse.com] on behalf of urs.frey at post.ch [urs.frey at post.ch]
Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2015 7:17 AM
To: sles-beta at lists.suse.com
Subject: [sles-beta] SLES11SP4RC2 x86_64 autoyast installation & online upgrade OK

Hi

Just installed a HP Proliant BL460cGen8 and a HP Proliant BL460cG7 with SLES11-SP4 x86_64 using autoyast
Installation works OK. Profiles working under SLES11-SP3 are working the same under SLES11-SP4

Upgrades using zypper dist upgrade from SLES11-SP3 kernel version 3.0.101-0.47.52-default do work OK.

Thank you very much SUSE for this stable work
Best regards

Urs Frey
Post CH AG
Informationstechnologie
IT Betrieb
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E-Mail:   urs.frey at post.ch<mailto:urs.frey at post.ch>