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The last attempt to update cPanel & WHM was blocked - Workaround

cPanelChrisD
]Would you please post the steps to the solution that Chris provided for you?

Please keep in mind that this should be considered a last resort to get things going. The long-term goal should be to provision a new server with an appropriate disk partitioning scheme and migrate. Here's the steps that I provided, slightly modified for further clarification: Moving /usr/local/cpanel to another location 1) Ensure that there are no "immutable" files under /usr/local/cpanel that will cause the directory move to fail. The cPanel software does not require or use immutable file attributes:
chattr -f -R -i -a /usr/local/cpanel
2) Ensure that you don't have any SSH or console terminals open that have a current working directory under /usr/local/cpanel. If there are, simply change the shell to use another working directory, such as "cd /root". 3) Shut down all WHM/cPanel services and the cron service. We do not want any services to automatically start that may open a file under /usr/local/cpanel:
service cpanel stop service crond stop service exim stop service httpd stop killall leechprotect
4) At this point, if your server isn't running any unusual services, no processes should have a file open under the /usr/local/cpanel path, which can be verified by running "lsof | grep /usr/local/cpanel" and it should return no output:
lsof | grep /usr/local/cpanel
If it does print anything then you'll want to stop the service or kill the process listed. Some third-party software may also keep files open under this path and those services would need to be stopped. 5) Create the new base path where you're going to move the cpanel directory:
mkdir -p /home/usr/local
6) Run lsof one more time to make sure it doesn't print anything and then move the directory:
lsof | grep /usr/local/cpanel mv /usr/local/cpanel /home/usr/local/cpanel
7) Ensure that the move completed without errors and that the "/usr/local/cpanel" directory no longer exists. 8) Create an empty /usr/local/cpanel directory with correct permissions:
mkdir /usr/local/cpanel chmod 711 /usr/local/cpanel
9) Make a backup of /etc/fstab, and then add a bind-mount entry to mount /home/usr/local/cpanel on /usr/local/cpanel:
cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.bak echo "/home/usr/local/cpanel /usr/local/cpanel none rw,bind 0 0" >> /etc/fstab
10) Check /etc/fstab and compare it to the backup, you should see the original /etc/fstab contents with the following line added at the bottom:
/home/usr/local/cpanel /usr/local/cpanel none rw,bind 0 0
11) Mount the directory, then perform a directory listing to make sure you see the usual contents of /usr/local/cpanel there:
mount /usr/local/cpanel ls /usr/local/cpanel
12) Reboot the server. This will ensure that any stale CageFS or VirtFS filesystem mounts are cleared, restarts any services that were stopped, and most importantly will test the /etc/fstab entry during the boot process to make sure it will work, so that there will not be any surprises in the future. Be prepared to perform maintenance via the server console if a problem with /etc/fstab causes the boot process to fail. That's it. Continue to reference "/usr/local/cpanel" in any custom code you may write (pretend "/home/usr/local/cpanel" doesn't exist). The use of a bind-mount rather than a symlink should ensure that everything works as if the files were located under the original path.

Comments

32 comments

Date Votes
  • PCZero
    Thanks for pasting this here. However can you please address the valid issues that were raised in the other thread that you have elected to close? When can we get a permanent fix to this that does not cost us money?
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  • Infopro
    You Feature Request is now posted here: FIX FOR 'The last attempt to update cPanel & WHM was blocked' - cPanel Feature Requests (Although that title may be changed at some point.) I'll leave the questions on this up to the Developers when they have a chance to address your Feature Request. Thanks
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  • PCZero
    ]You Feature Request is now posted here: I'll leave the questions on this up to the Developers when they have a chance to address your Feature Request.

    While I appreciate the reply, it is a tad disingenuous to post flippant replies such as 'just get a new sever, you need one anyway' but you fail to make a constructive reply. That is not being rude, arrogant, or complaining. It is simply pointing out that many of your replies in the other thread were tantamount to poking the bear rather than offering real solutions. When can we expect 'a developer' to at least come in here and offer some feedback since you have stated that you will not be able to help any further?
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  • Infopro
    ]While I appreciate the reply, it is a tad disingenuous to post flippant replies such as 'just get a new sever, you need one anyway' but you fail to make a constructive reply. That is not being rude, arrogant, or complaining. It is simply pointing out that many of your replies in the other thread were tantamount to poking the bear rather than offering real solutions. When can we expect 'a developer' to at least come in here and offer some feedback since you have stated that you will not be able to help any further?

    Hello PCZero, you know whats disingenuous? Paraphrasing my comments, multiple times now. Have a closer read of the whole thread. Please stop.
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  • PCZero
    Thank you sir... [COLOR="#FAFAFA">YOU HAVE CONTINUALLY PROVEN MY POINT WITH YOUR CRASS NON-ANSWERS JUST LIKE THE LAST POST! .vB
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  • PCZero
    Never Mind
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  • PPNSteve
    Blocker found: Cannot upgrade due to insufficient disk space. Blocker found: Cannot upgrade due to insufficient disk space. Detected 2.92GB. You will need at least 3GB to install/update to a new version of cPanel. WHM 11.48.0 (build 11) CentOS5
    Device Size Used Available Percent Used Mount Point /dev/sda1 99M 75M 20M 80% /boot /dev/sda2 60G 22G 35G 39% /var /dev/sda3 12G 8.3G 3.0G 74% /usr /dev/sda5 9.9G 2.1G 7.4G 22% / /dev/sda7 1008M 48M 910M 5% /tmp /dev/sda8 374G 78G 278G 22% /home /dev/sdb1 148G 188M 140G 1% /backup /dev/sdb2 311G 16G 280G 6% /home2
    Now what?
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  • PPNSteve
    will try this work around on our next server maint period....
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  • PPNSteve
    After a few weeks of it working, its back again..(never got around to trying the undesired workaround)
    fatal,Cannot upgrade due to insufficient disk space. Detected 2.69GB. You will need at least 3GB to install/update to a new version of cPanel.
    sigh
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  • cPanelMichael
    After a few weeks of it working, its back again..(never got around to trying the undesired workaround)

    Could you let us know if the workaround is helpful? Or, do you plan to change the partition setup? Thank you.
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  • Metro2
    Would it be possible for us to get an update on the actual safe solution that Travis' team has been working on at
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  • cPanelMichael
    There's currently no specific time frame available on when the changes stemming from internal case number 167901 (staging directories for upcp) will become available. It looks like the work is complete, however updates this week were for the targeted security release. When the new feature is implemented, you can see the new staging options when you browse to "WHM Home "Server Configuration " Update Preferences". Thank you.
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  • PPNSteve
    Could you let us know if the workaround is helpful? Or, do you plan to change the partition setup? Thank you.

    While it is useful for those desiring an immediate fix, I am also more interested in finding out when the internal case number 167901 (staging directories for upcp) fix will become available. We do not plan to change the partition setup, currently at 12GB (above cP recommended size at time of server order at Softlayer)
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  • cPanelMichael
    While it is useful for those desiring an immediate fix, I am also more interested in finding out when the internal case number 167901 (staging directories for upcp) fix will become available. We do not plan to change the partition setup, currently at 12GB (above cP recommended size at time of server order at Softlayer)

    As mentioned in my previous response, we don't have an exact time frame available on the publication of these changes. I'd expect it in the coming weeks, but we don't put out specific time frames because several factors contribute to when updates are pushed out. Thank you.
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  • PPNSteve
    Understood.. We'll just wait for the release then, thanks.
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  • asmithjr
    In my email I see "The system automatically selected "/home" as a staging directory. All update data will be stored here..." Looking in WHM Update Preferences I now see Staging Directory and Enter a directory name or choose a partition from the table below. It allows me to set /home as the staging directory.Now to see tomorrow if it works.
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  • cPanelMichael
    Hello, Internal case number 167909 was included with cPanel version 11.46.3.3. You can see the new staging options when you browse to "WHM Home "Server Configuration " Update Preferences" after updating to this version (assuming you are using cPanel 11.46). Thank you.
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  • PPNSteve
    In my email I see "The system automatically selected "/home" as a staging directory. All update data will be stored here..." Looking in WHM Update Preferences I now see Staging Directory and Enter a directory name or choose a partition from the table below. It allows me to set /home as the staging directory.Now to see tomorrow if it works.

    I'm see this email and message in WHM as well however there is no Staging Directory settings WHM Update Preferences and all the updates still fail. Wait.. you said its on 11.46.3.3? We're up at 11.48.1.2 so should we downgrade (never a good idea..) or what? How? (You cannot select tiers that are older than the installed version.)
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  • asmithjr
    This was the first email I had stating not enough space. Interestingly I am on version 11.48.2.3 General Availability - Recommended.
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  • cPanelMichael
    We're up at 11.48.1.2 so should we downgrade (never a good idea..) or what?

    This was implemented with case number 169045 for cPanel version 11.48. You can switch to the "Release" build tier to update to a version of cPanel 11.48 that includes this feature (11.48.2.3 is the most recent as of now). Thank you.
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  • PPNSteve
    Apparently I can not..
    [20150326.185129] [20150326.185129] cPanel update completed [20150326.185129] A log of this update is available at /var/cpanel/updatelogs/update.1427395708.log [20150326.185129] Removing upcp pidfile [20150326.185129] W NOTE: A system upgrade was not possible due to the following blockers: [20150326.185129] W [FATAL] - cPanel & WHM cannot update due to insufficient disk space in the staging directory, '/usr/local/cpanel'. The system requires 3 GB to update; this directory only has 2.63 GB available. The system automatically selected '/home2' as a staging directory. All update data will be stored here. If you take no action, the system will continue to use this directory for future updates. To change the location of the staging directory, use WHM's Update Preferences interface. => Log closed Thu Mar 26 18:51:29 2015
    27571
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  • PCZero
    Nice fix for going forward. Thank you VERY much for the efforts by all the development team. The catch 22 is obvious though. Someone who has a previous version and is stuck with the old patition scheme, they don't have this parameter to set until they update and they cannot update until they have this parameter. Oops fatal loop! :)
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  • Metro2
    Hello, Internal case number 167909 was included with cPanel version 11.46.3.3. You can see the new staging options when you browse to "WHM Home "Server Configuration " Update Preferences" after updating to this version (assuming you are using cPanel 11.46). Thank you.

    Hi cPanelMichael, I have servers that have been "stuck" at 11.46.0 (Build 15) since last November when cPanel changed the required free space in /usr from 1.6GB to 3GB. Based on your post, should I assume that the forthcoming solution at
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  • PPNSteve
    Well the 'feature request' still says 'in progress' so there is still some small amount of hope that this will get fixed fairly soon..
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  • PPNSteve
    partial update log on server running 11.48.2.3:
    ------------------------------ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- => Log opened from cPanel Update (upcp) - Slave (13985) at Tue Mar 31 09:03:01 2015 [20150331.090301] Detected cron=1 (cron mode set from command line) [20150331.090301] 1% complete [20150331.090301] Running Standardized hooks [20150331.090302] 2% complete [20150331.090302] mtime on upcp is 1423472845 (Mon Feb 9 09:07:25 2015) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- => Log opened from /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/updatenow (13987) at Tue Mar 31 09:03:02 2015 [20150331.090302] Detected version '11.48.2.3' from version file. [20150331.090302] Running version '11.48.2.3' of updatenow. [20150331.090302] Using mirror '74.200.212.130' for host 'httpupdate.cpanel.net'. [20150331.090302] Target version set to '11.48.1.3' [20150331.090302] Switching to 11.48.1.3 to determine if we can reach that version without failure. [20150331.090303] Retrieving and staging /cpanelsync/11.48.1.3/cpanel/scripts/updatenow.static.bz2 [20150331.090303] Using mirror '67.222.0.10' for host 'httpupdate.cpanel.net'. [20150331.090307] Set permissions on /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/updatenow.static-cpanelsync to 0700 [20150331.090307] Become an updatenow.static for version: 11.48.1.3 => Log closed Tue Mar 31 09:03:07 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- => Log opened from /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/updatenow.static-cpanelsync (13987) at Tue Mar 31 09:03:08 2015 [20150331.090308] Detected version '11.48.2.3' from version file. [20150331.090308] Running version '11.48.1.3' of updatenow. [20150331.090308] Using mirror '67.222.0.10' for host 'httpupdate.cpanel.net'. [20150331.090308] Target version set to '11.48.2.3' [20150331.090308] Up to date (11.48.2.3) => Log closed Tue Mar 31 09:03:08 2015 [20150331.090308] 17% complete => Log closed Tue Mar 31 09:03:08 2015
    and the same partial log from a server running 11.48.1.2:
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- => Log opened from cPanel Update (upcp) - Slave (20182) at Tue Mar 31 22:14:01 2015 [20150331.221401] Detected cron=1 (cron mode set from command line) [20150331.221401] 1% complete [20150331.221401] Running Standardized hooks [20150331.221401] 2% complete [20150331.221401] mtime on upcp is 1422397059 (Tue Jan 27 22:17:39 2015) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- => Log opened from /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/updatenow (20184) at Tue Mar 31 22:14:02 2015 [20150331.221402] Detected version '11.48.1.2' from version file. [20150331.221402] Running version '11.48.1.2' of updatenow. [20150331.221402] Using mirror '208.74.125.43' for host 'httpupdate.cpanel.net'. [20150331.221402] Target version set to '11.48.2.3' [20150331.221402] Switching to 11.48.2.3 to determine if we can reach that version without failure. [20150331.221402] Retrieving and staging /cpanelsync/11.48.2.3/cpanel/scripts/updatenow.static.bz2 [20150331.221402] Using mirror '67.222.0.10' for host 'httpupdate.cpanel.net'. [20150331.221402] Set permissions on /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/updatenow.static-cpanelsync to 0700 [20150331.221402] Become an updatenow.static for version: 11.48.2.3 => Log closed Tue Mar 31 22:14:02 2015 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- => Log opened from /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/updatenow.static-cpanelsync (20184) at Tue Mar 31 22:14:03 2015 [20150331.221403] Detected version '11.48.1.2' from version file. [20150331.221403] Running version '11.48.2.3' of updatenow. [20150331.221403] Using mirror '67.222.0.10' for host 'httpupdate.cpanel.net'. [20150331.221403] Target version set to '11.48.2.3' [20150331.221403] Checking license [20150331.221403] License file check complete [20150331.221403] E Blocker found: cPanel & WHM cannot update due to insufficient disk space in the staging directory, '/usr/local/cpanel'. The system requires 3 GB to update; this directory only has 2.72 GB available. The system automatically selected '/home2' as a staging directory. All update data will be stored here. If you take no action, the system will continue to use this directory for future updates. To change the location of the staging directory, use WHM's Update Preferences interface. [20150331.221403] Checking that the RPM DB is OK... [20150331.221403] glibc-2.12-1.149.el6_6.5.x86_64 [20150331.221403] glibc-2.12-1.149.el6_6.5.i686 [20150331.221403] OK: RPM DB is responding to queries [20150331.221403] Testing if rpm_is_working RPM is installed [20150331.221403] package rpm_is_working is not installed [20150331.221403] Testing if it's possible to install a simple RPM [20150331.221403] Preparing... ################################################## [20150331.221403] rpm_is_working ################################################## [20150331.221404] W An attempt to up/downgrade to 11.48.2.3 was blocked. Please review blockers. => Log closed Tue Mar 31 22:14:04 2015 [20150331.221404] 17% complete => Log closed Tue Mar 31 22:14:04 2015
    NOT QUITE READY FOR PRIME TIME.
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  • Venomous21
    Hello, I checked a few servers that are running 11.48.2.1...however, when I check the release version on the "Update Preferences" page in WHM, it says the target "release" version is 11.48.1.3...very odd... If I upgrade, will it try to force a downgrade to 11.48.1.3 from 11.48.2.1? I will wait before I do anything since this affects multiple servers. Please, advise. Thank you.
    0
  • Venomous21
    Is it safe to upgrade from 11.48.2.1 to 11.48.2.3 now? It's now showing 11.48.2.3 in the release tier instead of 11.48.1.3, which would have been a downgrade. Please, advise. Thanks.
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  • PPNSteve
    still waiting for an update of this fix in 11.48.1.2 Any word yet?
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  • jestep
    Just an FYI for anyone else looking to do this. We performed this last week on a server still running 11.46.0. It did work, but required us to reboot into single user. No matter what we did, there was still a process using a file under /usr/local/cpanel Once we figured that part out, upgrade worked without issue after rebooting.
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  • PPNSteve
    That's a bit drastic IMO. cPanel is now suggesting if this isn't working on your server to open a ticket.. YMMV
    0

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