OS update / Kernel update and leap second

General support questions including new installations
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DiViNe
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Joined: 2015/05/12 12:18:59

OS update / Kernel update and leap second

Post by DiViNe » 2015/05/22 09:28:20

Hello everyone!

I've got a couple (maybe stupid) questions. Hope you can help me anyway :)
  • Is it possible to update from 5.5 straight to 7.1? Is it wise to do that?
  • Is it possible/a good idea, to run CentOS 5.5, 5.7, 5.10 ... with the 3.10.0-229 kernel?
Soon there will be an other leap second. I googled and found this:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1127 ... e-problems
  • Is this still true? Please take a look at our list of OS/kernels we use. Are only the bold ones affected?
CentOS release 5.5 (Final) 2.6.18-194.8.1.el5
CentOS release 5.7 (Final) 2.6.18-274.7.1.el5
CentOS release 5.10 (Final) 2.6.18-371.3.1.el5
CentOS release 5.11 (Final) 2.6.18-404.el5
CentOS release 6.5 (Final) 2.6.32-431.17.1.el6.centos.plus.x86_64
CentOS release 6.5 (Final) 2.6.32-431.20.3.el6.x86_64
CentOS release 6.5 (Final) 2.6.32-431.3.1.el6.centos.plus.x86_64
CentOS release 6.6 (Final) 2.6.32-504.1.3.el6.x86_64
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.1 (Tikanga) 2.6.18-53.el5
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 (x86_64) Patchlevel 3 3.0.101-0.29-default
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 (x86_64) Patchlevel 3 3.0.101-0.8-default
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 (x86_64)Patchlevel 3 3.0.58-0.6.6-default
  • Am I totally save from the leap second problem, if I upgrade to the newest kernel?
Big thanks for answering all my questions :idea:

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TrevorH
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Re: OS update / Kernel update and leap second

Post by TrevorH » 2015/05/22 10:37:06

Is it possible to update from 5.5 straight to 7.1? Is it wise to do that?
Is it possible/a good idea, to run CentOS 5.5, 5.7, 5.10 ... with the 3.10.0-229 kernel?
No. And no.

You should read https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/backporting about how fixes are backported to Redhat/CentOS kernels. I do not know the exact kernel version numbers where the leap second bugs are fixed but all of your CentOS 5 kernels except 2.6.18-404.el5 are out of date and vulnerable to various security issues and should be updated anyway. The same applies to all your CentOS 6 kernels - all are out of date and should be updated. Your RHEL system is so far out of date that it's not funny and badly needs updating. All can be updated to the latest using yum update

We don't support SuSE here.
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

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DiViNe
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Re: OS update / Kernel update and leap second

Post by DiViNe » 2015/05/27 05:46:01

Thanks for your input.
Yes, I know. My predecessor did not put much effort in updating and maintaining the systems :oops:
It looks like that it's not recommended to update the OS to the newest version. They say it's better to make a new server. So I think I'll have to set up new servers.... :?

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avij
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Re: OS update / Kernel update and leap second

Post by avij » 2015/05/27 08:10:27

What you should be doing is to update your various 5.x servers to 5.11 with yum update, and your 6.x servers to 6.6 with the same yum update. This should take care of any leap second issues.

On the other hand, it would be a good idea to start migrating 5.x servers to something newer, like CentOS 6.6 or 7. CentOS 5 and RHEL 5 are already at the latter stages of their lifecycle.

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TrevorH
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Re: OS update / Kernel update and leap second

Post by TrevorH » 2015/05/27 09:05:34

It looks like that it's not recommended to update the OS to the newest version.
But it is recommended to update it to the latest available in that version stream. No-one should run 5.5, everyone should run 5.11 + latest updates. No-one should run 6.0, everyone should run 6.6 + latest updates etc. Run yum update to bring them all up to date. Done.
The future appears to be RHEL or Debian. I think I'm going Debian.
Info for USB installs on http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/InstallFromUSBkey
CentOS 5 and 6 are deadest, do not use them.
Use the FAQ Luke

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