Is RedHat error “rpmdb open failed” giving you trouble?

At Bobcares, we offer solutions for every query, big and small, as a part of our Server Management Service.

Let’s take a look at how our Support Team recently helped a customer with the very common “rpmdb open failed” error.

What is RedHat error: “rpmdb open failed”?

The rpmdb open failed error often occurs when you attempt to update your system again after it was interrupted earlier. This is when you find yourself facing the following error message:

error: rpmdb: BDB0113 Thread/process 2196/139984719730496 failed: BDB1507 
Thread died in Berkeley DB library 
error: db5 error(-30973) from dbenv->failchk: BDB0087 DB_RUNRECOVERY: Fatal error, run database recovery
 error: cannot open Packages index using db5 - (-30973) error: cannot open Packages database in /var/lib/rpm 
CRITICAL:yum.main: 
Error: rpmdb open failed

We will also not be able to run the rpm query, resulting in the following error message:

[root@testvm~]# rpm -qa 
error: rpmdb: BDB0113 Thread/process 7924/139979327153984 failed: BDB1507 
Thread died in Berkeley DB library 
error: db5 error(-30973) from dbenv->failchk: BDB0087 DB_RUNRECOVERY: Fatal error, run database recovery 
error: cannot open Packages index using db5 - (-30973) 
error: cannot open Packages database in /var/lib/rpm 
error: rpmdb: BDB0113 Thread/process 7924/139979327153984 failed: BDB1507 Thread died in Berkeley DB library 
error: db5 error(-30973) from dbenv->failchk: BDB0087 DB_RUNRECOVERY: Fatal error, run database recovery 
error: cannot open Packages database in /var/lib/rpm 
[root@testvm ~]# rpm -Va 
error: rpmdb: BDB0113 Thread/process 7924/139979327153984 failed: BDB1507 Thread died in Berkeley DB library
 error: db5 error(-30973) from dbenv->failchk: BDB0087 DB_RUNRECOVERY: Fatal error, run database recovery 
error: cannot open Packages index using db5 - (-30973) 
error: cannot open Packages database in /var/lib/rpm 
error: rpmdb: BDB0113 Thread/process 7924/139979327153984 failed: BDB1507 Thread died in Berkeley DB library e
rror: db5 error(-30973) from dbenv->failchk: BDB0087 DB_RUNRECOVERY: Fatal error, run database recovery
 error: cannot open Packages database in /var/lib/rpm 
error: rpmdb: BDB0113 Thread/process 7924/139979327153984 failed: BDB1507 Thread died in Berkeley DB library 
error: db5 error(-30973) from dbenv->failchk: BDB0087 DB_RUNRECOVERY: Fatal error, run database recovery 
error: cannot open Packages database in /var/lib/rpm 
[root@testvm~]#

The error is a result of a corrupt rmd or RPM database. Fortunately, our Support Team has come up with an easy resolution for this specific issue.

How to resolve RedHat error: “rpmdb open failed”

1. First, we will create a backup directory where we can dump the rpmdb backup file as seen below:

   # mkdir /tmp/rpm_db_bak

2. Then, we will back up the files in the newly created directory in the previous step in the /tmp folder.

   # mv /var/lib/rpm/__db* /tmp/rpm_db_bak

3. Next, we have to rebuild the rpmdb by executing these commands:

   # rpm --rebuilddb -vv
   # rpmdb_verify Packages

4. After that, we will clean the yum cache by running this command:

   # yum clean all

5. Then, we will run the yum update command again in order to fetch and apply the updates from the repositories.

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Conclusion

In brief, the skilled Support Engineers at Bobcares demonstrated how to resolve the “rpmdb open failed” error with ease.