Description of problem: When rpmdb is corrupted, rhn_check fails to contact RHN. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): rhn_check (Red Hat Network Client Tools) 0.4.17-8.el5 How reproducible: always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Register a system to RHN 2. Schedule a reboot for that system 3. Corrupt rpmdb (deleting /var/lib/rpm/__db.002 worked for me) 4. run rhn_check Actual results: .qa.[root@dellgx240 ~]# rhn_check rpmdb: /var/lib/rpm/__db.002: No such file or directory error: db4 error(2) from dbenv->open: No such file or directory error: cannot open Packages index using db3 - No such file or directory (2) error: cannot open Packages database in /var/lib/rpm An error has occurred: exceptions.TypeError See /var/log/up2date for more information the "Checked In:" date in RHN webinterface does not change Expected results: .qa.[root@dellgx240 sysconfig]# rhn_check Broadcast message from root (pts/0) (Tue Jan 6 08:59:36 2009): The system is going DOWN for reboot in 3 minutes! the "Checked In:" date in RHN webinterface changes Additional info: This bug prevents a damaged system to be repaired by scheduling a kickstart reinstall using RHN, for example.
We have no chance of performing an rpm transaction to install the needed rhn-kickstart or auto-kickstart packages if the rpm db is corrupted. There is very few things I would expect to work in picking up an event. The use case of reinstall OS for corrupt rpm DB is very very bad... always try and fix/repair the rpm db. Cliff
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