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8.188. s390utils

Updated s390utils packages that fix a number of bugs and add various enhancements are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.
The s390utils packages contain a set of user space utilities for Linux on IBM System z architecture.

Bug Fixes

BZ#883456
Previously, the ziomon utility did not follow symbolic links to find multipath devices in the /dev/mapper/ directory. Consequently, the multipath devices could not be found. The bug has been fixed with this update so that ziomon now follows the symbolic links and the multipath devices can be found as expected.
BZ#887336
The dbginfo.sh utility collects various data from the system for debugging purposes. Previously, certain runtime data were missing from the dbginfo.sh output and the underlying source code was not coherent. As a consequence, incomplete information was provided and the utility performance was decreased. In addition, in certain cases, dbginfo.sh failed to detect if the debgfs file system had been mounted. The code has been unified and calls to additional utilities and commands have been added to improve collecting data. Also, dbginfo.sh now collects data from additional configuration and log files.
BZ#906836
The ziorep_config configuration report is supposed to ignore Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) disks that are not part of the multipath devices when creating the multipath mapper report. Previously, ziorep_config failed to correctly ignore SCSI disks, which were not a part of a multipath device. Now, when no multipath device is found for a SCSI disk, such a disk is skipped in the output.
BZ#948343
Previously, the sysfs_getUnitsFromPort() function only searched the Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) device directory for devices using the scsi_generic:sg* layout. This layout is deprecated and available only if the CONFIG_SYSFS_DEPRECATED[_V2] option is set in the kernel configuration. Consequently, the function did not work properly. With this update, the function has been modified to search for devices using also the scsi_generic/sg* layout so that it now works as expected.
BZ#951585
The World Wide Names (WWNs) and Logic Unit Numbers (LUNs) strings, and the fc_host statistics sysfs attributes were converted to an incorrect integer type, which was too small to hold the entire possible range of the strings. This could cause a loss of information. The underlying source code has been modified to fix this bug and WWNs, LUNs, and the fc_host statistics sysfs attributes are now converted to the correct integer type.
BZ#973235
Due to the incoherent dbginfo.sh source code, the collection of the sysfs tree took a long time and logs were not written serialized, but were mixed up. Also, some information was missing from the generated file, because the utility did not collect information from all necessary configuration files. With this update, the underlying source code has been improved to fix these problems and dbginfo.sh now works as expected.
BZ#974180
The dbginfo.sh utility collects various data from the system for debugging purposes. Previously, the collected information from the system did not provide enough data about cryptographic adapters. The dbginfo.sh has been modified to collect information providing further information about the adapters.
BZ#996180
The trace pipes for CPU tracing in the sysfs file system could potentially block the dbginfo.sh utility. Consequently, the utility became unresponsive in such a case. This bug has been fixed so that the trace pipes no longer block dbginfo.sh. As a result, the utility no longer hangs in the described scenario.
BZ#997359
The zgetdump utility did not allocate enough memory for the CPU ELF notes. Consequently, on systems with many CPUs, the following error was returned:
zgetdump: Internal Error: hdr_size=28512 alloc_size=26624
With this update, the utility has been modified to allocate enough memory for the ELF notes and the error is no longer returned.
BZ#997360
Previously, the even addresses were loaded incorrectly. Consequently, when the --force option for the Direct Access Storage Device (DASD) multi-volume dump had been specified and the dump partition was modified afterwards, the dump failed with an error. With this update, the correct even address is loaded and the option works as expected.

Enhancements

BZ#929261
This enhancement provides the Fuzzy live dump feature, which is a utility that can extract the current memory state of the kernel. To do so, Fuzzy live dump extracts an ELF core dump and filters it with the makedumpfile command. This feature allows users to provide a problem analysis without shutting down the system.

Note

The recorded memory can change during recording so that results may not be consistent in all cases.
BZ#929263
This enhancement introduces a new Direct Access Storage Device (DASD) interface, which writes all outstanding data to a DASD device before setting it offline. Users now can use the safe offline option to ensure that all outstanding write requests are completed before setting the device offline.
BZ#967014
Support for the physical channel-ID (PCHID) mapping has been added to the s390utils packages allowing users to determine PCHID associated with a logical channel-path identifier (CHPID). The ability to map CHPID to PCHID is important for maintenance purposes and error determination processes. In addition, advanced health checks, which rely on the PCHID information, can be now enabled.
Users of s390utils are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which fix these bugs and add these enhancements.