Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES4 (U5) locks on boot after P2V

[SamTCLEGNZ]

Hi all,

I have a Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES release 4 (Nahant Update 5) server that I am attempting to virtualise. It runs a Tomcat application as well as an Oracle Database. I am using vCenter Converter Standalone and receive no errors during the process, however on attempting to boot the newly created VM after the P2V has finished it gets to the following point before seemingly locking and no progressing any further (while I can still use the ALT+Function keys to switch terminals, none display anything except #1):

SELinux: Completing initialization.
SELinux: Setting up existing superblocks.
SELinux: initialized (dev dm-0, type ext3), uses xattr
SELinux: initialized (dev tmpfs, type tmpfs), uses transition SIDs
SELinux: initialized (dev selinuxfs, type selinuxfs), uses genfs_contexts
SELinux: initialized (dev mqueue, type mqueue), not configured for labeling
SELinux: initialized (dev hugetlbfs, type hugetlbfs), uses genfs_contexts
SELinux: initialized (dev devpts, type devpts), uses transition SIDs
SELinux: initialized (dev eventpollfs, type eventpollfs), uses genfs_contexts
SELinux: initialized (dev pipefs, type pipefs), uses task SIDs
SELinux: initialized (dev tmpfs, type tmpfs), uses transition SIDs
SELinux: initialized (dev futexfs, type futexfs), uses genfs_contexts
SELinux: initialized (dev sockfs, type sockfs), uses task SIDs
SELinux: initialized (dev proc, type proc), uses genfs_contexts
SELinux: initialized (dev bdev, type bdev), uses genfs_contexts
SELinux: initialized (dev rootfs, type rootfs), uses genfs_contexts
SELinux: initialized (dev sysfs, type sysfs), uses genfs_contexts
SELinux: initialized (dev usbfs, type usbfs), uses genfs_contexts

Looking at the DMESG log on the functional server, I can see that the next few lines of a successful boot should relate to the floppy controller, or at least the lack of it:

inserting floppy driver for 2.6.9-55.ELsmp
Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M
floppy0: no floppy controllers found

and then initalisation of the NICs:

Broadcom NetXtreme II Gigabit Ethernet Driver bnx2 v1.4.43-rh (June 28, 2006)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:03:00.0[A] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 185
divert: allocating divert_blk for eth0
eth0: Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5708 1000Base-T (B2) PCI-X 64-bit 133MHz found at mem f8000000, IRQ 185, node addr xe
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:05:00.0[A] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 193
divert: allocating divert_blk for eth1
eth1: Broadcom NetXtreme II BCM5708 1000Base-T (B2) PCI-X 64-bit 133MHz found at mem fa000000, IRQ 193, node addr xa

however with any combination of floppy controller and NICs being enabled and disabled does not seem to be able to get the VM to boot past the "SELinux: initialized (dev usbfs, type usbfs), uses genfs_contexts" line. The server is orginially an HP DL360 G5.

How can I troubleshoot this issue further? I would like to keep changes to the physical machine to a minimum to preserve the state of it, however with the advantage of snapshotting I am less concerned about making changes to the VM.

Cheers

Sam

[vmweathers]

That's a tough one to debug. I would suspect an issue with the SELinux based on what you wrote. You might consider disabling SELinux on the source before converting.

Also it is a good practice to disable active servers (Tomcat and especially Oracle) before starting the conversion, you might try doing that.

(If your question has been resolved please mark the answers as "Helpful" or "Correct".)

[SamTCLEGNZ]

Thanks VMWeathers, you were quite right about SELinux. I booted the VM using a LiveCD and edited /etc/selinux/config, setting the "SELINUX" variable in the file to "disabled" and the machine booted successfully.

Cheers!