RHBA-2013:0286 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated fence-agents packages that fix multiple bugs and add four enhancements
are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Description

The fence-agents packages provide the Red Hat fence agents to handle remote
power management for cluster devices. The fence-agents allow failed or
unreachable nodes to be forcibly restarted and removed from the cluster.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• The speed of fencing is critical because otherwise, broken nodes have more

time to corrupt data. Prior to this update, the operation of the
fence_vmware_soap fence agent was slower than expected when used on the VMWare
vSphere platform with hundreds of virtual machines. With this update, the
fencing process is faster and does not terminate if virtual machines without an
UID are encountered. (BZ#769798)

• Prior to this update, the attribute "unique" in XML metadata was set to TRUE

(1) by default. This update modifies the underlying code to use FALSE (0) as the
default value because fence agents do not use these attributes. (BZ#822507)

• Prior to this update, certain fence agents did not generate correct metadata

output. As a result, it was not possible to use the metadata for automatic
generation of manual pages and user interfaces. With this update, all fence
agents generate their metadata as expected. (BZ#825667)

• Prior to this update, the fence_apc script failed to log into APC power

switches where firmware changed the end-of-line marker from CR-LF to LF. This
update modifies the script to log into a fence device as expected. (BZ#842314)

• Prior to this update, the fence_rhevm agent failed to run the regular

expression get_id regex when using a new href attribute. As a consequence, the
plug status was not available. This update modifies the underlying code to show
the correct status either as ON or OFF. (BZ#863568)

This update also adds the following enhancements:

• This update adds the fence_ipdu agent to support IBM iPDU fence devices in Red

Hat Enterprise Linux 6. (BZ#740869)

• This update adds the fence_eaton agent to support Eaton ePDU (Enclosure Power

Distribution Unit) devices in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. (BZ#752449)

• This update adds symlinks for common fence types that utilize standards-based

agents in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6. (BZ#800650)

• This update adds the fence_bladecenter agent to the fence-agents packages in

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 to support the --missing-as-off feature for the HP
BladeSystem to handle missing nodes as switched off nodes so that fencing can
end successfully even if a blade is missing. (BZ#818337)

• This update supports action=metadata via standard input for all fence agents.

(BZ#837174)

All users of fence-agents are advised to upgrade to these updated packages,
which fix these bugs and add these enhancements.

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
https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/articles/11258

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Scientific Computing 6 x86_64

Fixes

• BZ - 769798 - fence_vmare_soap is slower than fence_vmware
• BZ - 800650 - Add symlinks for common fence types that utilize standards based agents
• BZ - 822507 - Attribute unique in XML metadata

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)