Not a valid block device error during the upgrade process from OES2 to OES2 SP1

  • 7002461
  • 27-Jan-2009
  • 27-Apr-2012

Environment

Novell Open Enterprise Server 2 (OES 2)
Novell Open Enterprise Server 2 (OES 2) Support Pack 1
Novell Open Enterprise Server (Linux based)

Situation

YaST2 shows the following error during the upgrade/update process from OES2 to OES2 SP1:
       The partition /dev/evms/DEVICE could not be mounted.
       mount: /dev/evms/DEVICE is not a valid block device.

Resolution

Because the YaST installer is designed to use LVM by default, it looks for the LVM partitions in the /dev/ device nodes path during an upgrade. When EVMS is the volume manager of the system devices, the Linux path for the /boot, swap, and / (root) partitions are under /dev/evms/, so the YaST installer will not find the system devices. The YaST installer looks for this information in the /etc/fstab file.

The YaST installer uses the boot.lvm boot loader when it attempts to boot the device for the upgrade so, make sure to remove evms entry from the boot line in /etc/fstab file before proceeding the upgrade/update process.

Example:

in /etc/fstab, change the following before starting the upgrade/update process:
         /dev/evms/sda1           /boot
         to
         /dev/sda1           /boot

NOTE: make sure to keep the assigned device. In the above example, sda1 was used to demonstrate what needs to be changed.

Now, start the update/upgrade process based on your scenario.

For XEN Virtual machines, check KB 7002177: Upgrading a XEN virtual machine to OES2 SP1 or KB 7002118: How to upgrade to OES2sp1 for bare metal hardware.

After, finishing the update/upgrade process, test your server and check if it is necessary to include evms entry back into /etc/fstab for your server boot partition.