With June 3rd came an update for Arch Linux that gave me some server trouble I couldn’t recover from. I had to start my Rackspace server in Rescue Mode to get my data back (files and databases). On the upside I found that Rackspace had upgraded the image to build from, now it’s “Arch 2013.2”. So I rebuilt the server from that image. This article describes how I upgraded the server and created a new image that could be used for creating new servers on Rackspace.
systemdEdit the GRUB boot file and add init=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd to the kernel line:
# nano -w /boot/grub/menu.lst
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/xvda1 ro console=hvc0 init=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd
Then reboot the system:
# reboot
Once you’ve logged back in you could check that cat /proc/1/comm returns systemd, which means systemd is running. Before the reboot init would have been returned.
Next you should synchronize the package databases and upgrade pacman:
# pacman -Syy pacman
# mv /etc/pacman.conf.pacnew /etc/pacman.conf
It is recommended, but, as far as I know, not needed, to enable three components in systemd on your Rackspace NextGen Cloud server. Two of them is in the package xe-guest-utilities and the third, nova-agent, is already on your system.
# pacman -S xe-guest-utilities
Create the custom service for nova-agent:
# nano -w /etc/systemd/system/nova-agent.service
with the following content:
[Unit]
Description=Openstack nova agent
After=xe-daemon.service
[Service]
Type=forking
ExecStart=/usr/bin/nova-agent -q -o /var/log/nova-agent.log -l info /usr/share/nova-agent/nova-agent.py
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
You should move the nova-agent binary to /usr/bin:
# mv /usr/sbin/nova-agent /usr/bin/
Then enable the services:
# systemctl enable xe-linux-distribution.service
# systemctl enable xe-daemon.service
# systemctl enable nova-agent.service
In /etc/rc.conf you should convert the DAEMONS to systemd services. I first switched dcron for cronie, which is the default cron service for Arch Linux:
# pacman -S cronie
and then enabled:
# systemctl enable sshd.service
# systemctl enable syslog-ng.service
# systemctl enable cronie.service
# systemctl enable netcfg.service
To finalize the switch to systemd remove sysvinit and initscript, and install systemd-sysvcompat:
# pacman -R sysvinit initscripts
# pacman -S systemd-sysvcompat
Followed by a reboot
# reboot
netctlThis image still uses netcfg which in time will be deprecated, therefore it is a good idea to do the switch at the same time as the rest of the updates. This is explained in detail on the Arch Linux wiki, and below I describe what I did.
First remove netcfg and then install netctl:
# pacman -R netcfg
# pacman -S netctl
Copy the old netcfg-profiles:
# cp /etc/network.d/eth0 /etc/netctl/
# cp /etc/network.d/eth1 /etc/netctl/
Then edit them according to Migrating from netcfg.
# nano -w /etc/netctl/eth0
Interface=eth0
Connection=ethernet
IP=static
Address=('<public_ip>/24')
Gateway='<gateway>'
DNS=('83.138.151.81' '83.138.151.80')</pre>
# nano -w /etc/netctl/eth1
Interface=eth1
Connection=ethernet
IP=static
Address=('<private_ip>/18')
DNS=('83.138.151.81' '83.138.151.80')
Then enable the profiles, followed by a reboot:
# netctl enable eth0
# netctl enable eth1
# reboot
filesystemOn June 3rd a news bulletin came out stating that the filesystem would be changed on the next system upgrade, all binaries will now be placed in /usr/bin. By following the below steps you will not break your Rackspace server like I did.
First upgrade all packages, but filesystem and bash:
# pacman -Syu --ignore filesystem,bash
Remove obsolete packages:
# pacman -R gen-init-cpio tcp_wrappers
Upgrade bash:
# pacman -S bash
Move GRUB binaries and remove old directories:
# mv `ls /bin/* /sbin/* /usr/sbin/*` /usr/bin/
# rmdir /bin/ /sbin/ /usr/sbin/</span></pre>
Upgrade the filesystem package:
# pacman -Su
And reboot your system to make sure everything is working:
# reboot
At this point you’re pretty much up to date with your system, however, there are som orphan packages you probably will do without. Run this command until it responds with error: no targets specified (use -h for help):
# pacman -R `pacman -Qdtq`
It’s now possible to create a server image to use for creating new servers. Perhaps you first would like to add packages and configurations you probably will do on all your following servers anyway.
I install ntp, mlocate, screen and htop, and configure locales, localtime and bash colours in my basic image.