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8.105. kexec-tools

Updated kexec-tools packages that fix several bugs and add various enhancements are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.
The kexec-tools packages contain the /sbin/kexec binary and utilities that together form the user-space component of the kernel's kexec feature. The /sbin/kexec binary facilitates a new kernel to boot using the kernel's kexec feature either on a normal or a panic reboot. The kexec fastboot mechanism allows booting a Linux kernel from the context of an already running kernel.

Bug Fixes

BZ#806992
Previously, if the system had configured two or more network interfaces, where one of the devices was configured with a default gateway, and another with a static route to a private network, kdump ignored the non-default static route. As a consequence, kdump failed to dump a core file over NFS or SSH because it did not configure the route to the private network. This bug has been fixed and now kdump successfully dumps the kernel over NFS or SSH as expected.
BZ#1061480
Previously, booting the crash kernel with more than one CPUs occasionally caused some systems to become unresponsive when the crash happened on an Application Processor (AP) and not on the Boot Strap Processor (BSP). To fix this bug, the initialization scripts were modified to include the disable_cpu_apicid kernel option automatically which acts as the BSP ID. Additionally, the user has to modify the value of the nr_cpus option to specify the number of CPUs used on the system. With this fix, the user can now successfully use the crash kernel with more than one CPUs on the system.
BZ#1128248
Due to a bug in the wait_for_multipath routine in the mkdumprd utility, kdump could fail to dump a core file on certain configurations with many multipath devices. This problem has been addressed with this update, and kdump now works as expected on systems with a large number of multipath devices.
BZ#1022871
Previously, kdump was unable to capture a core file on IBM System z machines with a DASD FBA device specified as a kdump target. This problem has been fixed by adding the necessary support for the DASD FBA type device to kdump, and a core file can now be captured as expected on the above configuration.
BZ#1122880
Due to an incorrect SELinux test condition in the mkdumprd utility, the kdump kernel could fail to load a SELinux policy and produce an unknown operand error. This update corrects the affected condition, and kdump now behaves as intended.
BZ#1122883
The mkdumprd utility could previously emit spurious warning messages about non-existent ifcfg files under certain circumstances. This problem has been fixed and kdump no longer emits these warning messages.
In addition, this update adds the following

Enhancements

BZ#929312, BZ#823561, BZ#1035156
The makedumpfile tool has been upgraded to version 1.5.6, which provides a number of bug fixes and enhancements over the previous version, including enhanced filtering and support for custom EPPIC macros in order to eliminate complex data structures, cryptographic keys, and any other specified sensitive data from dump files.
BZ#1083938
As a part of support for the kdump_fence agent in cluster environment, the new options, fence_kdump_nodes and fence_kdump_args, have been introduced to the kdump.conf file. The fence_kdump_nodes option is used to list the hosts to send notifications from the kdump_fence agent to. The fence_kdump_args is used for passing command-line arguments to the kdump_fence agent.
Users of kexec-tools are advised to upgrade to these updated packages, which fix these bugs and add these enhancements.