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Duane_Toler
Advisor

Run "fdisk -l" on one of the hosts and you'll see the issue.  Here's why:

Like most other Check Point customers, you likely had these built originally with an earlier R80 or even R77.x version and upgraded over the years.  Those earlier versions used a different partition layout than what R81+ now wants.  Check Point developers have done "something" (I can't figure out what) to the Grub boot loader parameters to where it now requires a specific disk layout of only 3 partitions (or 4 if have a BIOS utilities partition on some servers; this partition seems to be ignored by the partition verifier).  I had a TAC case open for it, and that was the reply I got back.

I also tried to be "clever" and disabled this partition check, then did a Blink upgrade on a host like yours.  The install went fine, then on the first reboot, Grub failed to load and said it couldn't find the boot partition.  I tried in vain to fix it, but eventually I had to give up (not something I do lightly!); granted this would not have been a sustainable and repeatable fix, had I solved it.  I did a fresh install and it worked just fine.  The partition layout DID change, too, which was somewhat surprising.

Unfortunately, you will have to do a net-new install on this server from ISO (bootable USB, or spinning plastic discs).  However, looking back, I see now that the fresh-install method at that time ultimately was a good choice.

Someone else can explain what happened with the disk layout; I certainly don't know.  Regardless, I understand why they need to have this in a deterministic state so things like the Blink installer and images can be universal and predictable.  I'm highly impressed with the Blink mechanism, so if this is the price to pay, then I'm ok with paying it.

 

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