Help! RHEL 3 Box won't boot - No init found
During boot, I get:
Kernel panic: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel.
Probably using kernel 2.4.21-27.0.2.EL on a PowerEdge 2800 with a PERC 4e/Di controller.
RH won't provide support to get business back up and running. Is there a tech in the Houston/Sugarland area?
We have original cd to boot into a rescue environment but need guidance beyond that which is hard to do without remote control assistance. Is there a "live" cd we could burn and boot into and someone remote in?
Responses
Is it known what happened just prior to the kernel panic? For the short-term, perhaps that could be investigated to see if you can work with your unsupported version of RHEL 3 until you can transition to something supported and sustainable. Does this kernel panic occur upon every reboot? (I suspect so from the scant description you gave, but not sure). Since it is RHEL 3, I doubt you are suffering this as a result of a kernel update. There might be a way for the short term to do a band-aid fix to get the server operational again. But to be fair, it's a small miracle a RHEL 3 system has lasted this long. Fixing that system itself and even getting it operational is just short term. Long term, you'll really need to come up with some plan to get to a supported version of RHEL that performs whatever server role your current server is performing.
It seems one of the best of the limited options would be to (if possible) transition the data and services to another system. I live in another state - here's a few thoughts for an approach. Perhaps others will chime in as well.
There's no warranty with this approach, and I'd get other ideas and consider other options as well. Perhaps put another drive into the system. You'll need to of course bring the system down. After putting a new drive into the system, format it using fdisk (I've never done this with anything short of RHEL 4), and create a file system. Then use ufsdump to dump the data to the disk you partitioned & formatted.
Build another system that has a supported version of Red Hat (I'd recommend RHEL 7), you could perhaps even use an amazon cloud server if you do not have immediate access to physical hardware.
The obvious difficulty throughout this whole bit will be surveying/transferring the important data, services you have from the old RHEL 3 system to something current.
Does anyone in your company know of some Linux experts in your area (I added a couple of links for your area below), perhaps do you have a Linux User's Group in your city? I'd consider hunting that down. Perhaps look into Linkedin for Linux people within your area as well, for direct help.
Anyway, a RHEL 3 system - it could not have had a terribly large amount of storage, but since it was obviously a server that housed important data to your company, is there a chance you could recreate the services on a newer server? What did that system actually do? Is it a web server with a website or a database? Could the website or database be recreated on a new system? Did you have some form of 3rd party software running on your system?
Some more details here as to what role your server performed, what data it had and if it was a database, or a web-server or whatever it did may be useful for others to provide help here.
Check out this link of a Linux User's group here and also here.
Personally, I think your best option is to have someone transition or recreate whatever services your RHEL 3 system was performing to a supported version of RHEL, This may mean transitioning or recreating the data with a current version of RHEL. Considering you had a RHEL 3 system, it is likely a very long shot to transition the data directly to a supported version of RHEL (it's hard to know with a lack of detail here). If you don't have physical hardware, perhaps using Amazon Web Services (for example) could be an option.
Please do carefully weight the options with the guidance of some Linux professionals.
I know your business is going to suffer while the computer is unavailable, however, consider some interview process to make sure you get the person who can provide a means to get you through this process. Additionally, I'd recommend consideration on a viable backup strategy and also a viable recovery process too.
I wish you well with this
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