The RPM (Red Hat Package Manager) database is a crucial component that maintains information about all the RPM packages installed on your CentOS server. This database consists of files located in the '/var/lib/rpm/' directory and is essential for applying updates to your system through the YUM package manager. However, the RPM database can become corrupted, leading to issues with updating packages or even preventing the execution of rpm and yum commands.
Causes of RPM Database Corruption
Several factors can cause the RPM database to become corrupted, including:
Installation of third-party software
Incomplete transactions from previous operations
Network failures during package upgrades
Accidental removal of critical packages
These are just a few potential causes, but there could be others. If you're interested in determining the exact cause of the corruption, you may need to debug the issue. This tutorial provides several methods to recover a corrupted RPM database.
Symptoms of a Corrupted RPM Database
When the RPM database is corrupted, you might encounter errors such as:
rpm: cannot open Packages database in /var/lib/rpm
rpmdb: Lock table is out of available locker entries
rpmdb: /var/lib/rpm/Packages: unexpected file type or format
error: cannot open Packages index using db3 – Invalid argument (22)
error: rpmdbNextIterator: skipping h# 1601 Header V4 RSA/SHA1 signature: BAD, key ID 2142eef7
rpmdb: BDB0113 Thread/process 4106/140140548798528 failed: BDB1507 Thread died in Berkeley DB library
These errors typically indicate that the RPM database is corrupted.
Solutions to Rebuild a Corrupted RPM Database
Method 1: Rebuilding the RPM Database
1. Backup the current RPM database:
mkdir /var/lib/rpm/backup
cp -a /var/lib/rpm/__db* /var/lib/rpm/backup/
2. Remove the old database:
rm -f /var/lib/rpm/__db.[0-9][0-9]*
3. Rebuild the database indices from installed package headers:
rpm --quiet -qa
rpm --rebuilddb
4. Clean all entries from the cache for currently enabled repositories:
yum clean all
Method 2: Verify and Rebuild the RPM Database
1. Backup the current RPM database:
mkdir /backups/
tar -zcvf /backups/rpmdb-$(date +"%d%m%Y").tar.gz /var/lib/rpm
2. Remove stale lock files and verify the integrity of the master package metadata file:**
rm -f /var/lib/rpm/__db*
/usr/lib/rpm/rpmdb_verify /var/lib/rpm/Packages
3. If verification fails, dump and load a new database:
cd /var/lib/rpm/
mv Packages Packages.back
/usr/lib/rpm/rpmdb_dump Packages.back | /usr/lib/rpm/rpmdb_load Packages
/usr/lib/rpm/rpmdb_verify Packages
4. Check database headers:
rpm -qa >/dev/null
5. Rebuild the RPM database with debugging information:
rpm -vv --rebuilddb
To check this method in more detail, you can check the RMP database recovery page.
Method 3: Alternative Rebuild Process
If the above methods fail, try the following:
1. Backup and rebuild:
mv Packages Packages-BAKUP
db_dump Packages-BAKUP | db_load Packages
rpm -qa
rpm --rebuilddb
Using dcrpm to Detect and Correct RPM Database Issues
The dcrpm (detect and correct RPM) command-line tool can help manage issues with the RPM database. It can also be scheduled to run regularly via cron.
To install and use dcrpm, follow these steps:
1. Clone and install the tool:
git clone https://github.com/facebookincubator/dcrpm.git
cd dcrpm
python setup.py install
2. Detect issues with RPM on your server:
dcrpm
Before using 'dcrpm' on your host, be sure to review its GitHub repository for the latest updates and documentation.
Acknowledgments
We thank our client in Toulupe for suggesting the discussion on RPM database issues in our community forum and for contributing one of the solutions above.
