[CentOS] yum problem with glibc

Sun May 27 02:44:25 UTC 2012
John Stanley <john.stanley at elslc.com>

On Sun, 2012-05-27 at 01:01 +0100, Timothy Murphy wrote:
> John Stanley wrote:
> 
> >> Now this is my last question:
> >> Can I be reasonably (say 90%) sure that the above command
> >> will not stop the server running?
> 
> The command in question was: rpm -Uvh --force *.rpm
> where the RPMs were glibc and glibc-common.
> 
> > No you can NOT and don't ever assume that.  
> > That's a mistake thinking that.
> 
> Aren't you exaggerating a little?

No I'm not.  Just being honest.  You break glibc and then if you exit
the ssh session PAM want let you back in.

> There are a lot of commands I would feel perfectly safe giving remotely,
> eg "sudo yum update" which I've said a couple of times a week
> for the last 3 years without any disasters resulting.

Trust me it will bite you eventually.  Nothing is fool proof.  But yes
there is a  lot of commands I would feel safe running also but not in
your situation.  I'm just giving you experienced advice.

> The trouble with the command above is that I am not sure
> if a change in glibc would affect a running kernel?
> I suspect that it would not.
> 
> >> The problem is that the server is a long way away (in another country)
> >> and I won't have any way of contacting it if it stops running.
> > 
> > Wait and schedule a downtime window for it.
> 
> I don't know what a "downtime window" is in this context.
> I'm either in the same place as the server, or I am not.

Downtime Window:  It's when you schedule a specific time to update the
machine or make repairs to that it needs.  It's also for time when the
machine is halfway around the world and your not sure what will happen
when you perform a command ie; you would have a hands on person
available there also.

> > If the machine in question has like a Fencing Device (like a drac card )
> > with an IP addy that's public then maybe (that is card dependent).
> 
> I'm not really in that kind of environment.
> It isn't the end of the world if the machine goes down;
> just a little annoying.

If it's not a needed production machine then do it but you say it's
annoying if it happens and you seem worried (previous mails) so that is
why I gave the stern reply to not assume anything.  One thing i'm not
going to tell someone in your situation is go ahead and do it.  You
asked a valid question and I gave a valid response to you.

I really don't think any one on this list would say go and do it.  You
have good info to go on and what can happen.


John
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