Installing RedHat 7.3 on HP DL380 G9

Latest response

I have a kickstart server. I can install RedHat 7.1 and 7.2 on these servers all day long.
However I cannot install RedHat 7.3. I can install RedHat 7.3 on HP DL380 G7's and G8's.
(Also Lenovo's and Dell's). I noticed it was crashing on microcode_ctl.
So I added this line in my kickstart.cfg

%packages
..stuff...
 # Do not install microcode_ctl
-microcode_ctl
..stuff...
%end

This works. I can install 7.3 on these servers now. The question is, how important is microcode_ctl?
Does this voids any RedHat warranty not running this?

Responses

Hi,

The microcode_ctl package decodes and loads (Intel) CPU microcode to the kernel driver. It's not necessary to use microcode, though it may improve CPU performance in some cases. It's possible that the new microcode shipped with 7.3 breaks stuff for the particular processors used in those servers.

There are several options:

  • Don't install microcode_ctl (as you've done), so microcode isn't available at all.
  • Use the dis_ucode_ldr kernel boot parameter (in GRUB) to disable microcode loading.
  • Wait for an update to microcode_ctl.
  • Try to upgrade the machine's firmware.

The first two options are just workarounds. The last two options may not fix the problem.

Hi, I was having the exact same problem with an HP workstation Z840. Updating the BIOS to the latest firmware did the trick.

Just FYI, a microcode bug relating to hyperthreading was recently found and fixed in some Intel Skylake/Kaby Lake processors. If you are running these processors with hyperthreading enabled, you'd really want to be using the latest versions of the microcode (released May 11, 2017).

Close

Welcome! Check out the Getting Started with Red Hat page for quick tours and guides for common tasks.