@JustARockStorUser I second @Hooverdan’s comment re trying harder with the Suse side.
The installer you are using is now 4 years old, hence the massive amount of updates, work needed on certificate, and the back-config bit. Any the core of your update problem is internet speed during the Rock-on update. Also we no longer support the older CentOS version and haven’t released any updates on our side since ages. Copied from the downloads page:
- Last Testing Channel release (3.9.1-16) - November 2017
- Last Stable channel released (3.9.2-57) - April 2020
Also the reasone we moved from our CentOS base was our failure to keep on top of the kernel updates. We now have openSUSE/SuSE on that one which is great, give they now default to using btrfs. So there are literally years of improvements between our 4.10 / 4.12 kernels on the CentOS elrepo side and our new upstream 5.12 kernels with btrfs backports.
Even so your report of many repeated btrfs failures is alarming and uncommon. But likely best approached by sorting the openSUSE compatibility bit. But you also likely have a memory issue on your machine. Take a look at our Pre-Install Best Practice (PBP):
https://rockstor.com/docs/installation/pre-install-howto.html
specifically the memtest side of things. You really shouldn’t be having such difficulties.
So I suggest that you start a new thread explaining exactly your experience re the v4 installer. We may be able to address this or track it down at least as that where you need to be really.
As to the cause of the Rock-on update it’s as mentioned slow internet and a timeout getting the Rock-on info. Take a look at the following thread:
Basically you are experiencing a cummulative time out on the Rock-ons as we now redirect from the old http to the new https. This doubles the round trip chat time and break things on slow internet connections. You also are likely, on the btrfs front, either triggering weakneses in now very old btrfs or have bad memory.
Try starting a new thread on exactly what’s happening on your drives recognition issue re the v4 installer as I’d like to get that sorted for you as then all other things go away. You can import your existing pool and even the config if need be. But will then have the newer https rock-on update so not incure the timeout and have up-to-date certs and likely be OK on the config back-up restore issue. But it won’t address any bad memory of course ;). Also note that the new installer doesn’t, by default, show drives that are over a set size (5TB) to try and avoid folks accidentally installing on their data drives. I dought it that but that’s why I think we should concentrate on helping you get the new v4 in. Otherwise it’s all up-stream swimming there and is basically dealing with stuff that is either fixed years later (ago) and we can’t improve the older CentOS variant as we no longer release updates for it. If we can help get you on to v4 then it can hopefully help all others experiencing a similar incompatibility. By rights, given the newer kernel, the compatibility should be much better.
Try staring a new forum thread with the specifics of your hardware and how the v4 installer is failing you. There is also the more extreme option of modifing an openSUSE Leap 15.3 server install and adding the rockstor testing repo (see the downloads page for the details). You can then subscribe to stable is that is your wish.
But before anything else try a memory test. But your remaining problem is the http → https time outs but given the long list of effort just to get up-an-running with something that it’s difficult to help you with anyway it would seem that approaching the v4 install difficulties or a work around such as taking the openSUSE server install approach and retrofitting Rockstor will be far less frustrating and get you all new and shiny on the install front. A far more gratifying situation than hand patching a 4 year old install with as you say 800 updates. If you need a custom kernel options for instance to get the v4 installer working then you can now build your own with that. See our fairly new:
And once build, with your hypothetical required customnization, you then get zero updates required upon install as during the DIY installer build all pending updates are applied. Just a thought as you are now familiar with bare metal recovery and having to drop back 4 years is not good really. Especially since we are no longer able to build on the now way old CentOS base.
Hope that helps and lets see if we can get you on some form on openSUSE Leap first. Also note that there are 2 bases of the installer downloadable as pre-build isos. One based on Leap 15.2 and another based on Leap 15.3. It may be that one works where the other doesn’t. I did see you mention if you have tried them both. Just a thought.