DOCUMENTATION

From rPath Wiki

Understanding that not every appliance update will complete successfully, rPath provides a list of scenarios where updates can fail and some steps that can be taken to repair some of the failed updates.

Contents 1 Power Failure 2 System Shutdown 3 Kill the Update Process 4 Software Incompatibilities 5 Tag Handler Errors 6 Bugs in Software

If the system is recoverable, use the Update task provided by the appliance. Appliances designed with a flip-flop update or factory reset provide additional recovery options.

Power Failure

If the power fails during an appliance update, the system can be recovered provided that the failure did not occur during an update of Conary, rPath Appliance Platform Agent, one of their dependencies, or anything in the system stack (such as init).

System Shutdown

If the system is shut down during an appliance update, the system can be recovered provided that the failure did not occur during an update of Conary, rPath Appliance Platform Agent, one of their dependencies, or anything in the system stack (such as init). The current version of rAPA instructs Conary to kill an update event safely before shutting down.

Kill the Update Process

If the appliance update process is killed (such as in a forced kill from a command line), the system can be recovered provided that the failure did not occur during an update of Conary, rPath Appliance Platform Agent, one of their dependencies, or anything in the system stack (such as init).

Software Incompatibilities

If an appliance update results in incompatible software, the appliance can be rolled back to a previous state. Exceptions include changes to /boot, grub.conf, or other files that are required for the appliance to fully boot. In such cases, an appliance administrator can boot the appliance from different media and use commands to repair the system.

Tag Handler Errors

During an appliance update, a bug in a tag handler or an unexpected power failure during its execution may leave the system in an inconsistent state and possibly unrecoverable.

Bugs in Software

Bugs is software can cause failures in appliance function. If these bugs occur in Conary, rPath Appliance Platform Agent, or one of their dependencies, the appliance may be unrecoverable.