RHBA-2008:0801 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

An updated fence package that fixes several bugs and adds an enhancement is
now available.

Description

The fence package allows failed or unreachable nodes to be forcibly
restarted and removed from a cluster.

This updated package fixes the following bugs:

• In the previous fence package, IP addresses were used as the basis of

SCSI reservation keys, which may have caused problems. In this updated
package, IP addresses are no longer used, and instead, SCSI reservation
keys are based on cluster and node IDs.

• In the previous fence package, the "/var/run/scsi_reserve" file was used

for tracking registered devices. This may have caused fence_scsi to return
vague errors, such as "No such file or directory". In this updated package,
the "lvs" command is used instead of the "/var/run/scsi_reserve" file.

• The scsi_reserve init script has been modified and is no longer enabled

by default. Previous releases generated SCSI errors and created unnecessary
SCSI reservations. In this updated package, the scsi_reserve init script is
no longer enabled by default during an install, which resolves this issue
for new installations. In addition, if the scsi_reserve init script is
enabled, and the cluster is not configured to use fence_scsi, then the
scsi_reserve init script will not configure SCSI reservations, which
resolves this issue for upgrades.

• Adding a new fence method that used fence_ilo and the 'option="off"'

option, caused an 'agent "fence_ilo" reports: parse error: unknown option
"option=off"' error. In this updated package, fence_ilo recognizes the
'option="off"' option.

• fence_bladecenter no longer fails when blades are not physically present.
• fence_scsi and scsi_reserve may have failed to complete SCSI

reservations with LVM stripes and mirrors, and did not fence at all.
Reservations appeared to complete successfully; however, the "sg_persist"
command showed no reservations. In this updated package, SCSI reservation
scripts support LVM stripes and mirrors, which resolves this issue.

• fence_apc failed to work on a certain 24-port APC device. In this updated

package, support for that device has been added.

• using fence_node to fence via fence_apc may have failed with a "Parse

error: Unknown option 'switch=[x]'" error.

• fence_bladecenter, fence_drac5, and fence_ilo failed with "SyntaxError:

invalid syntax" errors.

• running "/sbin/fence_apc" may have caused a traceback and an

"ImportError: No module named pexpect" error. In this updated package, the
fence package has a dependency on the pexpect package, which resolves this
issue.

• fence_apc_snmp no longer reboots a node when given an invalid action.

Also, the maximum number of fence devices for a node has been increased
from 4 to 8.

All fence users are advised to upgrade to this updated package, which
resolves these issues and adds this enhancement.

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 High Availability for x86_64 4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux High Availability for x86_64 4 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux High Availability for x86_64 4 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux High Availability for x86_64 4 i386

Fixes

• BZ - 360681 - Remove use of IP address as basis for SCSI reservation keys
• BZ - 409391 - fence_scsi: Error message vauge, supply more info to user.
• BZ - 420651 - fence-scsi script should not be turned on by default.
• BZ - 428243 - fence_ilo can not recognize option="off" but fence_wti can
• BZ - 435955 - fence_bladecenter fails when blade is not physically present
• BZ - 444615 - RHEL5 fence_apc fails to work on 24 port fence device and success on 16 port.
• BZ - 446413 - Problem with python fencing agents
• BZ - 446418 - Different menu for user/admin in APC fencing agent
• BZ - 446432 - Fence rpm should have dependency on pexpect
• BZ - 446995 - Agent "fence_apc" reports: Parse error: Unknown option 'switch=3'
• BZ - 447411 - fence_wti fails with SyntaxError: invalid syntax
• BZ - 447414 - fence_apc_snmp failed to verify action string.
• BZ - 447432 - fence_bladecenter fails with SyntaxError: invalid syntax
• BZ - 447434 - fence_drac5 fails with SyntaxError: invalid syntax
• BZ - 447437 - fence_ilo fails with SyntaxError: invalid syntax

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)