RSA Authentication Manager 8.2 hardware appliance fails to reboot when patch or upgrade is applied
4 years ago
Originally Published: 2018-01-18
Article Number
000041413
Applies To
RSA Product Set: SecurID
RSA Product/Service Type: Authentication Manager
RSA Version/Condition: 8.2.1
Platform: Hardware Appliance only

 
Issue
The problem arises if a customer with RSA Authentication Manager  8.2 SP1 applies a recent patch then uninstalls that patch and goes back and installs patch that is older than the recent patch that was previously applied.  After installing the older patch, the system might not boot.

After installing a patch or upgrade which includes a update to the OS kernel, the system may fail to boot properly and report a message on the appliance system console immediately after the boot attempt, such as: 
kernel (hd0.0)/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.1.1-108.18-default root=/dev/sda1 disk=/dev/saa vga-0x314    quiet

Error 15: File not found

Press any key to continue...
 
Cause
The issue is that the more recent patches install newer versions of the Linux kernel, which cannot be rolled back.  When the Authentication Manager patch is rolled back and then the customer installs an older patch (which may have an earlier version of the kernel), the Linux install tools recognize that the system is already running a newer version of the kernel and so it does not install the older version of the Authentication Manager patch.  However, the system bootstrap assumes that it installed the kernel which came with the patch.  The bootstrap is looking for the old kernel while the system already has a newer version.
Resolution
This issue is reported in defect AM-31714. The solution is to manually modify the bootstrap so that it refers to the correct kernel.

To complete this task,
  1. In the system boot, select the first item; that is, the normal boot and enter e to edit.
  2. There are two commands.  Edit them both starting with the first.   Highlight the line and enter e to edit.
Screenshot for bootstrap
  1. Move the text cursor back to the right of the -default string at the end of the kernel version and use the backspace key to delete the text which follows the version text.  In the screen shots here, that would be 3.0.101-.
Screenshot 2 for bootstrap
  1. Press the Tab key which should auto-complete the reference to the kernel correctly.
  2. Press the Enter key to save the updated line and return to the previous screen, then use the down arrow to highlight the next line.
  3. Edit this line in the same manner as the first.  Again, finish with the Enter key to save.
  4. Press the up arrow to get to the first line then press b to boot with the updated bootstrap data.
Workaround
Using GRUB, change the 18 to a 21 (shown as bold red text in the Issue field) and the appliance will boot.
Notes
The screenshots in this article should be considered as examples only.  Versions displayed may vary from those in other deployments.

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