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Updating the Kernel on Your CentOS 5 Dedicated Server with RAID

If your CentOS 5 server was provisioned prior to Dec 17 2010, then you are likely not running the latest CentOS kernel and are missing many important security patches.

Why am I missing security patches?

To provide the necessary drivers for your RAID card, we used to install a custom kernel on your server. However, updating to the current kernel could remove access to your hard drive.

To remedy this, we recommend reprovisioning your server. This installs an updated kernel that has drivers for your RAID card as well as all necessary security updates. For more information, see Is there a way for me to start over with my dedicated server?.

However, if you do not want to reprovision your server, you can update your kernel manually and install a RAID card driver from ElRepo.

Completing these steps requires in-depth Linux knowledge and is an advanced procedure. If you decide to attempt this procedure, we recommend backing up your server and reprovisioning it if you cannot complete the steps.

To Upgrade Your CentOS Server's Kernel

1. Via SSH, log in to your server as 'root.' See How can I log in as 'root' on my server? for information.
2. Verify that you have the custom kernel. Type:
   uname -r
   You should receive the following response:
   2.6.18-HPTraid
   If you receive a different response, you are not using the custom kernel and are already using the updated kernel.
3. Verify that you have the expected RAID card connected. Type:
   lspci -d 1103:1720
   You should receive the following response:
   03:09.0 SCSI storage controller: HighPoint (or Triones) Technologies, Inc. RocketRAID
   1720 (2x SATA II RAID Controller) (rev 02)
   If you receive another response, do not proceed.
4. Download and install the driver for your RAID card. Type the following commands:
   rpm --import http://elrepo.org/RPM-GPG-KEY-elrepo.org
   rpm -Uvh http://elrepo.org/elrepo-release-5-1.el5.elrepo.noarch.rpm
   yum --enablerepo=elrepo install kmod-rr172x
5. Modify the file attributes of your grub.conf file to make it editable:
   chattr -i /boot/grub/grub.conf
6. Modify your yum repo file to allow kernel updates by commenting out the exclude lines in your CentOS-Base.repo file. Type:
   sed -i 's/^exclude/#exclude/' /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo
7. Install the latest kernel. Type:
   yum update

   If you do not see the kernel install, try using yum clean.

8. Reboot your server. Type:
   reboot
9. Verify you installed the new kernel:
   uname -r
   You should receive the following response:
   2.6.18-194.26.1.el5

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