RPM : error: db3 error(-30974) from dbenv->failchk: DB_RUNRECOVERY: Fatal error, run database recovery

Ok, was trying to update one of my servers today and encounter these funky error messages "error: db3 error(-30974) from dbenv->failchk: DB_RUNRECOVERY: Fatal error, run database recovery" while trying to update yum

sudo yum update

[sudo] password for manager:

rpmdb: Thread/process 19525/140269149038336 failed: Thread died in Berkeley DB library

error: db3 error(-30974) from dbenv->failchk: DB_RUNRECOVERY: Fatal error, run database recovery

error: cannot open Packages index using db3 - (-30974)

error: cannot open Packages database in /var/lib/rpm

CRITICAL:yum.main:

Error: rpmdb open failed

Attempt to fix this with database recovery command somehow did not work

rpm --rebuilddb

rpmdb: Thread/process 19525/140269149038336 failed: Thread died in Berkeley DB library

error: db3 error(-30974) from dbenv->failchk: DB_RUNRECOVERY: Fatal error, run database recovery

error: cannot open Packages index using db3 - (-30974)

so proceed to check cd /var/lib/rpm and see what's going on

ls -l

total 49248

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1548288 Jul 21 09:57 Basenames

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12288 Jul 21 09:57 Conflictname

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24576 Aug 7 18:07 __db.001 <----- files with __ are the lock files

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 229376 Aug 7 18:07 __db.002

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1318912 Aug 7 18:07 __db.003

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 753664 Aug 2 11:30 __db.004

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 802816 Jul 21 09:57 Dirnames

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2605056 Jul 21 09:57 Filedigests

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12288 Jul 21 09:57 Group

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8192 Jul 21 09:57 Installtid

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24576 Jul 21 09:57 Name

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12288 Jul 21 09:57 Obsoletename

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 40312832 Jul 21 09:57 Packages

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2576384 Jul 21 09:57 Providename

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1486848 Jul 21 09:57 Provideversion

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12288 Jul 5 2013 Pubkeys

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 196608 Jul 21 09:57 Requirename

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 90112 Jul 21 09:57 Requireversion

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 45056 Jul 21 09:57 Sha1header

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 24576 Jul 21 09:57 Sigmd5

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12288 Jul 21 09:57 Triggername

remove the unwanted files with rm -f __* command

and bingo !

yum update

Loaded plugins: fastestmirror

Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile

epel/metalink | 14 kB 00:00

• base: mirrors.loosefoot.com

• epel: mirrors.kernel.org

Hope this tutorial can be useful for those having problem with yum update