Hi,

We have a webserver running CentOS4 32-bit hosting websites with H-sphere. The webserver was running on a dedicated server for several years, a few months ago our colocation partner moved the server onto a VPS using rsync.

The VPS has been working flawless the last 2-3 months. Then last weekend the mails stopped coming in and files could not be loaded to the server. It appeared that old backupfiles caused the disk to use all its capacity, the disk was full (300 GB). Before knowing this, we tried to reboot the VPS. Then we got a kernel panic message. Now the server has been down for one week and we need some urgent help to get it running.

Here is the error msg from the vSphere Client console:
Red Hat nash version 4.2.1.13 starting
Mounted /proc filesystem
Mounting sysfs
Creating /dev
Starting udev
Loading scsi_mod.ko module
SCSI subsystem initialized
Loading sd_mod.ko module
Loading libdata.ko module
Loading ata_piix.ko module
Loading jbd.ko module
Loading ext3.ko module
Loading vmxnet.ko module
VMware vmxnet virtual NIC driver
Loading vmxnet3.ko module
VMware vmxnet3 virtual NIC driver - version 1.0.36.0-NAPI
Creating root device
Mounting root filesystem
Mount: error 6 mounting ext3
Mount: error 2 mounting none
Switching to new root
switchroot: mount failed: 22
umount /initrd/dev failed: 2
Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!
-

What we have tried so far:
- Tried to boot the different kernel versions in grub
- Run fsck on all partitions
- Checked that grub/kernel files are in place
- Deleted oldest backup in /hsphere/ to free up disk space
- Tried to fix existing kernel, only getting errors
- Tried to install new kernel versione (2.6.9, 2.6.39, 3.6.2), all give different errors
- Tried to fix vmware-tools, wont install because of missing kernel-headers, yum wont install kernel-headers in a chrooted environment (maybe manual install will work?)

Any suggestions appreciated!

Ask your provider to clear out some files or have them increase your 300 GB to say 512 GB and then reboot?

If it's OpenVZ (and a lot of hosting Co.s are) with cPanel, the VPS doesn't even have to be started for them to "vzctl enter <VPS_nnn> and remove files.
Increasing the Disk Space can be done with the VPS unstarted also.

Contact your VPS supplier and/or support.

It is VMware and not OpenVZ, its also h-sphere hosting, not cpanel.

It also show a warning in vSphere client: Virtual machine disks consolidation is needed
Seems like this was why the 300GB disk was filled by the system, some info on this here:
http://www.gabesvirtualworld.com/new...ion-is-needed/

Our hosting partner is one of the 3 major datacentres in our country, and they struggle to figure this out. So now we try forums for more suggestions.