RHBA-2013:1314 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated device-mapper-multipath packages that fix several bugs and add various
enhancements are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

Description

The device-mapper-multipath packages provide tools to manage multipath devices
using the device-mapper multipath kernel module.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• Multipath was not correctly getting the vendor, product, and revision strings

for certain devices. Consequently, users were unable to correctly configure or
use these devices with multipath. With this update, multipath now uses a SCSI
inquiry IOCTL request to correctly get this information, and multipath is now
able to configure and use these devices. (BZ#522108)

• When a partition was resized, kpartx reloaded the partition device with the

NOFLUSH flag enabled, which device-mapper does not allow, causing the device to
be left in a suspended state. Users had to manually resume the devices to
restore their use. However, this did not fix the partition device size, and the
partitioned device would become unusable again the next time kpartx was run on
the device. With this update, kpartx now checks if the partition has changed
size, and does not set the NOFLUSH flag when reloading a partitioned device with
a new size. Now, users can repartition devices with kpartx without those devices
becoming unusable. (BZ#855147)

• Previously, the multipathd daemon did not stop and wait for all of its threads

on shutdown, which caused multipathd to occasionally terminate unexpectedly with
a segmentation fault during shutdown. With this update, multipathd now correctly
stops and waits for its threads during shutdown, and crashes no longer occur in
the described scenario. (BZ#860185)

• Previously, the multipathd daemon terminated unexpectedly with a segmentation

fault on 32-bit systems with a cciss disk controller. This was caused by a stack
corruption in uev_discard() function. This update corrects the code in the
uev_discard() function, and crashes no longer occur in the
described scenario. (BZ#872439)

• If the /var/cache directory was a separate file system, the multipathd daemon

unmounted it in its private namespace on start up. However, multipath requires
the /var/cache directory to properly setup its private namespace. Consequently,
the multipathd daemon failed to start on machines where the
/var/cache directory was a separate file system. With this update, the
multipathd daemon no longer unmounts the /var/cache directory from its private
namespace, and multipathd will now correctly start up on machines where the
/var/cache directory is a separate file system. (BZ#910585)

• Multipath switched to use the cciss_id callout for HP P2000 G3 SAS storage

devices, which did not correctly provide the UUID. Consequently, multipath was
unable to correctly configure HP P2000 G3 SAS devices. With this update,
multipath switched back to using the scsi_id callout with the "-n" option to
enable it to function with cciss devices, and multipath can now correctly
configure HP P2000 G3 SAS devices. (BZ#948309)

In addition, this update adds the following enhancements:

• This update adds a built-in configuration for the IBM XIV Storage System.

(BZ#799907)

• With this update, when multipath is set to log level 3, it will now print

messages whenever it forks to execute a callout. This update helps debug a
segmentation fault with multipath on Xen setups. (BZ#839983)

• With this update, the default configuration for NetApp devices now includes

the "flush_on_last_del yes" parameter. With the default configuration, when all
path devices to a NetApp LUN have been removed from the system, the multipath
device for that LUN stops queuing I/O. (BZ#916630)

Users of device-mapper-multipath 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/site/articles/11258

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 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 Power, big endian 5 ppc
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 5 i386

Fixes

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)