[systemd-devel] Emergency mode if non-critical /etc/fstab entries are missing

[Marc Haber]

On Thu, Nov 03, 2016 at 10:55:35PM +0100, Lennart Poettering wrote:
> On Mon, 26.09.16 07:02, Marc Haber (mh+systemd-devel at zugschlus.de) wrote:
> > On Mon, Sep 26, 2016 at 10:52:50AM +1300, Sergei Franco wrote:
> > > The emergency mode assumes console access, which requires physical access,
> > > which is quiet difficult if the machine is remote.
> > 
> > It does also assume knowledge of the root password, which is in
> > enterprise environments not often the case. Enterprises usually have
> > root passwords stowed away in a safe, behind a three-headed guard dog,
> > requiring management approval, and > 2 eyes mechanisms, and usually
> > have password-changing processes attached that touch other machines
> > sharign the same root password as well (for example because the root
> > password hash is stamped into the golden image).
> > 
> > Many enterprise environments that I know have their processes geared
> > in a way that the root password is not needed in daily operation.
> > Login via ssh key, privilege escalation via sudo.
> > 
> > systemd requiring the root password because some tertiary file system
> > doesn't mount is a nuisance for those environments.
> > 
> > Some sites have resorted to adding "nofail" to all fstab lines just to
> > find themselves with the next issue since the initramfs of some
> > distributions doesn't know this option yet. 
> 
> "nofail" has been around as long as fstab has been around really. It's
> not a systemd invention.

I cannot say anything about that, I don't have any non-systemd
machines left. However, that machines stop booting and require the
root password is a totally new experience for me that came with systemd.

Greetings
Marc

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