I am running Redhat 6.4 and doesn't want to update the kernel now due to some GPFS storage issues. I have

more /etc/yum.conf

[main]
exclude=kernel*

so did a yum update and it has given the following error.

---> Package irqbalance.x86_64 2:1.0.7-9.el6 will be an update
--> Processing Dependency: kernel >= 2.6.32-358.2.1 for package: 2:irqbalance-1.0.7-9.el6.x86_64
---> Package python-backports.x86_64 0:1.0-5.el6 will be installed
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Error: Package: 2:irqbalance-1.0.7-9.el6.x86_64 (rhel-6-server-rpms)
Requires: kernel >= 2.6.32-358.2.1
Installed: kernel-2.6.32-358.el6.x86_64 (@anaconda-RedHatEnterpriseLinux-201301301459.x86_64/6.4)
kernel = 2.6.32-358.el6
kernel = 2.6.32-358.el6

yum can be configured to try to resolve such errors by temporarily enabling
disabled repos and searching for missing dependencies.
To enable this functionality please set 'notify_only=0' in /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/search-disabled-repos.conf

Error: Package: 2:irqbalance-1.0.7-9.el6.x86_64 (rhel-6-server-rpms)
Requires: kernel >= 2.6.32-358.2.1
Installed: kernel-2.6.32-358.el6.x86_64 (@anaconda-RedHatEnterpriseLinux-201301301459.x86_64/6.4)
kernel = 2.6.32-358.el6
kernel = 2.6.32-358.el6
You could try using --skip-broken to work around the problem
You could try running: rpm -Va --nofiles --nodigest

====================================
so I did

yum -x 'kernel*' update --skip-broken

and it updated the kernel also to

cat /etc/issue

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 6.10 (Santiago)

kindly advise why did it update the kernel?
I have another 14 machines to do the security update only excluding the kernel update.
how will i do that , kindly advise
thanks
Abraham