End-of-weekend rant: This is exactly why in fact we want certified platforms!

this weekend I had an Oracle clusterware issue (at install time). As usual, with root.sh.

Error message:
USM driver install actions failed
/u01/app/grid/11.2.0/perl/bin/perl -I/u01/app/grid/11.2.0/perl/lib
-I/u01/app/grid/11.2.0/crs/install
/u01/app/grid/11.2.0/crs/install/rootcrs.pl execution failed

The platform was Linux SLES11 SP2, and the GI version 11.2.0.4.0. Means: fully certified.

But the "solution" was, to create a symlink with your Linux Kernel version number somewhere in $GRID_HOME, or apply a patch whose description did not fully match.
(Details:
http://www.usn-it.de/index.php/2014/01/12/oracle-clusterware-root-sh-usm-driver-install-actions-failed-oracleoks-ko/ )

So tell me - why do we have such things like "certified platforms"? I understand that in this case, the Linux Kernel version changed with an online update due to some security stuff. But this could have been foreseen, and avoided, by not kind of hard-coding volatile numbers into a directory structure. Bah.

_at_Oracle: Thank you for the interesting self-study class. Sorry, but stuff like that costs valuable time I could hav spent better - for doing more useful doings within the maintenance window, or with my family. Also nice I: This was all about ACFS drivers, that I can't use on that platform anyway.
Also nice II: Patch application or workaround only work AFTER root.sh already failed, since it needs structures created by earlier parts of the script. Un the upside: root.sh now has checkpoints and is (within some limitations) repeatable.

Listers, sorry for sounding frustrated, but I hope - at least - I can save somebody from having to find this him/herself by posting this in public.

Have a good time
Martin Klier

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