RHBA-2008:0050 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated device-mapper-multipath packages that fix two bugs are now
available.

Description

The device-mapper-multipath packages provide tools to manage multipath
devices by giving the device-mapper multipath kernel module instructions on
what to do, as well as by managing the creation and removal of partitions
for device-mapper devices.

These updated device-mapper-multipath packages fix the following bugs:

• a problem with the way that the device-mapper-multipath program looked

for the user_friendly_names bindings file at /var/lib/multipath/bindings.
If /var was on a seperate file system from /, this could cause problems at
boot time, when multipath devices were not created with user-friendly
names. These updated packages provide a "bindings_file" option for the
multipath config file, /etc/multipath.conf. This can be used to set where
the device-mapper-multipath programs will look for the bindings file. The
suggested location is /etc/multipath_bindings.

• a problem with running multipath on the device containing the root

filesystem. The multipath daemon needed access to the root file system in
order to run path group priority callout programs whenever a path was added
or removed. If all the paths to the root filesystem failed, multipathd
would hang trying to access the callout program. It would then not be able
to restore access to the device after a path became active again. These
updated packages fix this problem by creating a ramfs cache for multipathd,
and loading all of the callout programs into it. This way, multipathd
always has access to those programs, even if the device they are stored on
is unreachable.

Users are advised to upgrade to these updated device-mapper-multipath
packages, which resolve this issue.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure that all previously-released
errata relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via Red Hat Network. Details on how to use
the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at
http://kbase.redhat.com/faq/FAQ_58_10188

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 5.1 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 5.1 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 5.1 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 5 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 5 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 5.1 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 5 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 5.1 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 i386

Fixes

• BZ - 426287 - bindings file location is problematic for certain configurations
• BZ - 428338 - [NetApp-S 5.2 bug] RHEL 5.1 root device multipathed host freezes during FCP path faults

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)