Hiding particular disks from the installer-upgrade to prevent any misbehaviour

This document (000020665) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP3

Situation

In a system with multiple disks may share some disks or the disks are otherwise in use by other systems in r/w mode, there's a concern that the shared disks could adversely be affected by the installation/upgrade.

Resolution

If the disks are shared on SAN, unzoning would be best option.

If unzoning is not possible, a workaround could be as following:

Manual Installation

Boot from the installation/upgrade medium (eg. ISO or network boot) and in the GRUB2 menu modify the kernel parameters for to be booted menu entry - that is add the 'startshell=1' installation/upgrade (linuxrc ) kernel parameter:

This kernel parameter will cause installer/upgrade to stop in the shell and wait for human intervention before the installation/upgrade itself will proceed. Thus, you should be present with the screen:

ATTENTION: Starting shell... (use 'exit' to proceed with installation)
console:install:/ #

Query your disks, for example for SCSI disks use `lsscsi':

console:install:/ # lsscsi   
[0:0:0:0]    cd/dvd  QEMU     QEMU DVD-ROM     2.5+  /dev/sr0 
[6:0:0:1]    disk    LIO-ORG  s153cl-raid0     4.0   /dev/sda

Then, if you would like to "disable" eg. /dev/sda, do the following:

echo 1 > /sys/block/sda/device/delete

Re-query of the disks, eg. via `lsscsi' will not list the removed disk anymore.

Then to continue the installation/upgrade, type 'exit':

exit

The installer/upgrade will no longer show the removed disk.

AutoYaST installation/upgrade

AutoYaST can be customized to use 'pre-scripts' which run very early, before real installation/upgrade happens. See 'Pre-install scripts ' section in 'AutoYaST Guide '. An example:

<pre-scripts config:type="list">
    <script>
        <filename>01_install_cert</filename>
        <interpreter>shell</interpreter>
        <source><![CDATA[
echo 1 > /sys/block/sda/device/delete
     ]]></source>
   </script>
  </pre-scripts>

Cause

The installer/upgrade tries to detect all disks and offer them as destinations for the OS installation/upgrade, which could adversely affect disks which are actively used by other systems.

Status

Reported to Engineering

Additional Information

https://documentation.suse.com/sles/15-SP3/html/SLES-all/cha-grub2.html#sec-grub2-menu-change
https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Linuxrc
https://documentation.suse.com/sles/15-SP3/single-html/SLES-autoyast/index.html#pre-install-scripts
https://documentation.suse.com/sles/15-SP3/single-html/SLES-autoyast/index.html

Disclaimer

This Support Knowledgebase provides a valuable tool for SUSE customers and parties interested in our products and solutions to acquire information, ideas and learn from one another. Materials are provided for informational, personal or non-commercial use within your organization and are presented "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.

Document ID:000020665
Creation Date: 22-Jun-2022
Modified Date:22-Jun-2022
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications

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