RHBA-2009:1515 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated device-mapper-multipath packages that resolve an issue are now
available.

Description

The device-mapper multipath packages provide tools to manage multipath
devices by issuing instructions to the device-mapper multipath kernel
module, and by managing the creation and removal of partitions for
device-mapper devices.

These updated packages provide the following enhancement:

• with updated firmware from Sun, and with Automatic Volume Transfer (AVT)

enabled, the Sun StorageTek 6540 storage arrays can be made to work with
multipath but device-mapper-multipath did not auto-configure them. With
this update the necessary information was added to multipath.conf.defaults
and hwtable and device-mapper-multipath now auto-configures Sun StorageTek
6540 storage arrays. (BZ#523392)

Note: this new functionality will not be available unless the kernel
update, RHSA-2009:1455, has also been installed. For details regarding this
see http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2009-1455.html.

In addition, these updated packages fix the following bug:

• the kpartx utility creates device maps from partition tables.

Device-mapper devices with minor numbers greater than 255 caused kpartx to
use the UUID from the wrong device when trying to create partitions. If the
device had pre-existing partitions, kpartx would fail to create the new
partitions. With this update, kpartx is now able to handle device-mapper
devices with minor numbers greater than 255. (BZ#528132)

Multi-path users, especially those using Sun StorageTek 6540 storage
arrays, should install these updated packages, which add this enhancement
and fix this bug.

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/docs/DOC-11259

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 5.4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 5.4 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 5.4 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 5.4 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 5 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 5.4 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 i386

Fixes

• BZ - 523392 - Add support for Sun 6540 storage arrays.
• BZ - 528132 - kpartx does not create device maps from partition tables for some mpath devices

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)