RHBA-2010:0402 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated device-mapper-multipath packages that fix a bug which caused some
multipath devices to stall the system on boot 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.

This update addresses the following bug:

• during bootup, multipath was setting up queue_if_no_path on devices that

asked for it before multipathd was started. If paths to the device existed,
but were all unusable, multipath would queue all IO until multipathd
started up. This caused kpartx to hang when trying to read the partition
table off the device. The end result was that the entire machine would hang
during bootup. Multipath now includes an option to disable queueing on all
devices, -q. Multipath will be called with this option by the init scripts.
When multipathd is started, the multipath command is rerun without this
option to enable queueing on all devices. (BZ#584042)

Note: a related initscripts update (released as RHBA-2010:0405) that calls
multipath with the "-q" option, allowing multipathd to start up without
queueing I/O, must be installed as well to completely obviate this problem.
(Once multipathd is started, the multipath command is re-run without this
option to enable queueing on all devices.)

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

Solution

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

This update is available via the 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 4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 4 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 4 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 4.8 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 4.8 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 4.8 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4 ia64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 4 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 4 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 4 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 4 s390
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 4.8 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 4.8 s390
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 4 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 4.8 ppc

Fixes

• BZ - 584042 - System hangs on boot if multipath disks are in Not Ready state.

CVEs

(none)

References

• http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2010-0405.html