MOTD on Public Cloud Instances Unchanged after OS Upgrade

This document (000020640) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server in Public Clouds (All Versions)
SUSE Linux Enterprise for SAP Applications in Public Clouds (All Versions)

Situation

After performing an OS upgrade on a cloud instance via zypper migration or the Distribution Management System, the /etc/motd (message of the day) file from a previous SLES version remains on the system.

azureuser@sles15sp1:~> head -n 1 /etc/motd
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP4 x86_64 (64-bit)

Resolution

Solution A.

Revert to system *-release package default motd

1. Delete the old /etc/motd

# rm /etc/motd

2. Reinstall the *-release package for the basesystem product. It is of utmost importance to install the correct *-release package for the installed SLE product. See Additional Information section for instructions to verify the baseproduct.

For regular SLES systems:

# zypper in --force sles-release

For SLES for SAP systems:

# zypper in --force SLES_SAP-release

Solution B.

If desired, one may also manually update the version string to match the new OS version.

Cause

The /etc/motd file included in the *-release package is empty by design. On cloud images, the Public Cloud Engineering team writes a custom motd which contains a version string of the original image's OS version.

When RPM installs the new *-release package during an OS upgrade, the custom motd file causes RPM verification to fail since it was modified from its original state in the package. As a result, the RPM installation saves the new blank motd file as /etc/motd.rpmnew and retains the original motd. This is expected behavior.

Additional Information

This issue is also documented in the caveats section of the DMS official documentation:

https://documentation.suse.com/suse-distribution-migration-system/15/single-html/distribution-migration-system/index.html#id-public-and-private-cloud-specific

The "basesystem" product can be found two ways:

1. Target file of /etc/products.d/basesystem symbolic link.

# ls -l /etc/products.d/basesystem

2. Checking installed products with zypper.

# zypper pd -i

Disclaimer

This Support Knowledgebase provides a valuable tool for SUSE customers and parties interested in our products and solutions to acquire information, ideas and learn from one another. Materials are provided for informational, personal or non-commercial use within your organization and are presented "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.

Document ID:000020640
Creation Date: 14-Apr-2022
Modified Date:15-Apr-2022
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications

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