Changes between Version 4 and Version 5 of Obsolete/Doc/OS/Errata

Timestamp:

Aug 26, 2009, 6:00:40 PM (15 years ago)

Author:

/O=GRID-FR/C=FR/O=CNRS/OU=LAL/CN=Michel Jouvin

Comment:

--

Obsolete/Doc/OS/Errata

@@ -26 +26 @@
 
 
+
 == Generating Templates for OS Errata ==
 
@@ -35 +36 @@
 }}}
 
-In the resulting template, due to the specificities of upgrading kernels, kernel entries are commented out. See later for kernel upgrade specificities.
+''Note: `rpmErrata.pl` is very verbose. All the information messages are sent to stderr and can be redirected separatly.
+
+`In the resulting template, due to the specificities of upgrading kernels, kernel entries are are not added. See later for kernel upgrade specificities.
 
 As the template use `pkg_ronly()` SPMA function, the errata will be included in the configuration only if another version of the same package and architecture is already part of the configuration.
@@ -48 +51 @@
 When enabled, OS errata deployment will use a template `rpms/errata.tpl` in the templates for the OS version used on a specific node. This default name can be changed using variable `PKG_OS_ERRATA_TEMPLATE` to define the template to use. It is '''strongly recommended''' to use a non default name to avoid any clash with the `errata.tpl` provided by the standard templates. This also allows to produce a different template for a different version of the errata (using the date in the template name for example) with a finer control over what is deployed when on which machine.
 
+=== Kernel errata ===
+
+Handling of kernel errata is a bit specific due to some restrictions in the current version of SPMA and because an improper upgrade may lead to a machine not restartable.
+
+With the current version of SPMA it is not possible to tell SPMA to never uninstall a kernel, even if it is no longer part of the configuration. As a result if you just replace the kernel, the one actually used will be removed at the same time the new one is installed and in case of a problem you may not be able to reboot. For this reason it is necessary to add new kernels with `pkg_add` and option `multi`.
+
+With the kernel itself, you also need to ensure you have an entry for each of the kernel modules you use. For kernel modules, `pkg_add` must be used (same syntax as `pkg_ronly`) as the RPM name for the kernel module contains the kernel version as part of its name (and not of its version). There is no need for the `multi` option in this case as there is one unique package name based on the kernel version and clearly you can install only one version of a kernel module for given version of the kernel.