Zentyal Forum, Linux Small Business Server

Zentyal Server => Installation and Upgrades => Topic started by: ocdpfsas on March 12, 2013, 08:00:55 pm

Title: Today's update killed my server
Post by: ocdpfsas on March 12, 2013, 08:00:55 pm: I've been running Zentyal Community with the latest updates as a PDC for my company for a few weeks and noticed an update this morning. I went ahead an issued an apt-get dist-upgrade and after it finished, DNS stopped working. I couldn't get any nodes on the network to access the internet while using Zentyal as the primary DNS. I then rebooted the server and it's been stuck on the initial loading screen ever since.

I tried rebooting a few times and went into recovery mode but over the past 10 years that I've been using Linux, my biggest frustration has been when it just won't boot. I simply don't know what to do...

I have reconfigured my router to take care of the issue with the network access but I really need to get this server back up and running. I do have a configuration backup so I could reinstall but I made a lot of remote changes such as Group Policy that I'm not sure will come back properly.

Please help! I'm not a Linux noob but I just don't know what to do at this point other than reinstall. Also, if anyone has any recommendations as far as applying dist-updates for Zentyal, I'm all ears.

Thanks!

-Ryan
Title: Re: Today's update killed my server
Post by: christian on March 12, 2013, 10:00:13 pm: What I would suggest is to not (never) run apt-get dist-upgrade.

BTW, what's your goal with such command ?
Title: Re: Today's update killed my server
Post by: mgiammarco on March 13, 2013, 08:34:12 am: Can you start it in single user/emergency mode?

PS: ubuntu/debian default upgrade command is apt-get dist-upgrade. Why are you saying that it is a dangerous command?
Title: Re: Today's update killed my server
Post by: ctek on March 13, 2013, 11:25:30 am: Default command is apt-get update followed by apt-get upgrade
with dist-upgrade you are also upgrading from the current version Ex 12.04 to 12.10 and things tend to break when you issue such commands.

Best regards
Bogdan
Title: Re: Today's update killed my server
Post by: Sam Graf on March 13, 2013, 12:58:18 pm: Quote from: ocdpfsas on March 12, 2013, 08:00:55 pm
Also, if anyone has any recommendations as far as applying dist-updates for Zentyal, I'm all ears.

I would just suggest that using Zentyal's software management tools is an option to doing updates at the command line at all. That route serves as a reminder that there is no true distribution upgrade for Zentyal.
Title: Re: Today's update killed my server
Post by: ocdpfsas on March 13, 2013, 02:19:38 pm: I updated with dist-upgrade following the Zentyal update documentation (http://trac.zentyal.org/wiki/Documentation/Community/Updates)

Regardless, I still need to get this back up and running. I can get to the terminal through recovery mode and can get SSH access while the boot hangs but I don't know what to do to attempt to roll it back or find the problem.

Other than reinstalling, do you guys have any recommendations?

Thanks again
Title: Re: Today's update killed my server
Post by: Sam Graf on March 13, 2013, 03:16:47 pm: Thank you for pointing out what the documentation is saying. I continue to think that that's bad advice and will see if it can be changed.

There is no rollback capability in Ubuntu that I know of. To my knowledge you would have to "force" apt to install certain package versions only if there is any hope of restoring things to a normal state, and my apt skills are inadequate for that. Hopefully someone else can offer better help. :-[
Title: Re: Today's update killed my server
Post by: ocdpfsas on March 13, 2013, 04:27:29 pm: Thanks for the message. Yeah I figured there wouldn't be a simple rollback solution... I guess I'll have to reinstall. Luckily I do have the configuration backup but I have a feeling I'm going to have to redo a bunch of stuff.