RHBA-2013:0395 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated s390utils packages that fix several bugs and add two enhancements are
now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Description

The s390utils packages contain a set of user space utilities for Linux on IBM
system z achitecture.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• The internal parsing logic of the ziomon utility previously relied on a Bash

shell construct when identifying multipath devices. Changes in later versions of
Bash caused the parsing logic to not work properly if the ziomon command was
specified with more than one multipath device as an argument. Consequently,
ziomon did not recognize all multipath devices and did not collect performance
data for the respective devices. With this update, ziomon has been modified to
use a bash-independent construct in the parsing logic. The ziomon utility now
correctly recognizes all multipath devices and provides performance data as
expected. (BZ#818599)

• Previously, the /etc/zipl.conf configuration file did not belong to any RPM

package. This update corrects this problem and the /etc/zipl.conf file is now
owned by the s390utils-base package. (BZ#818877)

• The "lsdasd -h" command always incorrectly returned an exit code of 1. Also,

the lsdasd(8) man page was missing information about the "-b, --base" option.
With this update, the lsdasd utility has been corrected to return the exit code
0 on success when issued to print help information. The lsdasd(8) man page has
been updated and it now provides information on usage of the "-b" option as
expected. (BZ#828145)

• Previously, the lsluns utility performed a SCSI generic (sg) functionality

test before scanning for available LUNs or showing the attached LUNs.
Consequently, the lsluns command failed and did not display any available or
attached LUNs if there was no SCSI device available. This update modifies lsluns
to perform a LUN scan first and execute an sg functionality test only if at
least one SCSI device is found. (BZ#828146)

• The lsluns utility performed a SCSI registration test immediately after adding

LUN0 and WLUN to the unit_add file. However, SCSI devices are not available
immediately after adding LUNs to unit_add so lsluns did not recognize that LUN0
and WLUN are available. The lsluns command therefore failed with the "Cannot
attach WLUN / LUN0 for scanning" error message. This update modifies lsluns so
that the SCSI registration test is now performed several times allowing the SCSI
mid-layer to complete SCSI device registration. The lsluns command now
successfully displays LUNs as expected. (BZ#837311)

• Due to the way the kernel maintains caches for block devices, running the zipl

boot loader could, under certain circumstances, lead to inconsistent cache
contents in the first 4096 bytes on an FBA DASD device (a direct-access storage
device with a fixed block architecture). This update modifies zipl so that the
boot loader flushes disk buffers before installing the initial program load
(IPL), which prevents cache corruption from occurring on FBA DASD devices.
(BZ#857815)

In addition, this update adds the following enhancements:

• This update adds the necessary user space tools to allow Linux to access

Storage Class Memory (SCM) as a block device on IBM System z systems using
sub-channels of the Extended Asynchronous Data Mover (EADM) Facility.
(BZ#847087)

• The lszcrypt utility has been modified to support the IBM Crypto Express 4

feature. (BZ#847088)

All users of s390utils 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 for IBM z Systems 6 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support (for IBM z Systems) 6 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension (for IBM z Systems) 6 s390x

Fixes

• BZ - 818877 - /etc/zipl.conf is not owned by any package

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)