RHBA-2015:0324 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated kexec-tools packages that fix multiple bugs and add various enhancements
are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.

Description

The kexec-tools packages contain the /sbin/kexec binary and utilities that
together form the user-space component of the kernel's kexec feature. The
/sbin/kexec binary facilitates a new kernel to boot using the kernel's kexec
feature either on a normal or a panic reboot. The kexec fastboot mechanism
allows booting a Linux kernel from the context of an already running kernel.

The kexec-tools packages have been upgraded to upstream version 2.0.7 and the
makedumpfile subpackage has been upgraded to upstream version 1.5.7. The
upstream versions provide a number of bug fixes and enhancements over the
previous versions. (BZ#1099753, BZ#1144217)

This update also fixes the following bugs:

• The IPADDR value in network configuration files located in the

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ directory is used to configure the IP address.
Previously, the kdump service could not recognize and handle IP addresses if
they were specified by the IPADDR[0~n] value. As a consequence, such an IP
address was ignored by kdump. With this update, the "ip addr show NIC permanent"
command is used to get the IP address, which avoids analyzing network
configuration files, and kdump now recognizes all IP addresses as expected.
(BZ#872013)

• When mounting a disk under the /var/ directory without specifying the path to

the disk in the /etc/kdump.conf file, the vmcore file was incorrectly located in
the disk's /var/crash/ directory instead of the /crash/ directory. The
underlying source code has been modified to fix this bug, and vmcore is now
located in the correct directory. (BZ#1173177)

In addition, this update adds the following enhancements:

• The firmware-assisted dump (fadump) is an alternative mechanism to the kdump

service. This update modifies the kdump init script to be aware of fadump. As a
result, the userspace utility works the same with kdump and fadump. (BZ#731491)

• This update adds an add-on to the Anaconda installer that allows the user to

select the firmware assisted dump (fadump) as a default dump mechanism on
systems with the 64-bit PowerPC architecture. (BZ#868341)

• With this enhancement, the makedumpfile utility is able to estimate the size

of a dumped vmcore file. (BZ#979473)

• The firstboot utility, which included the kdump setup, was replaced by the

Anaconda add-on, which is an extension of the framework provided by the Anaconda
installer. With this update, the kdump setup is integrated to Anaconda.
(BZ#1070558)

• With this update, the fence_kdump configuration for generic clusters is

supported. (BZ#1086988)

• This enhancement adds support for Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) runtime

services to the kdump service. (BZ#1099413)

• This update introduces a new kexec system call to support the kdump service on

machines with the secure boot enabled. (BZ#1138453)

• With this update, the kdump service is now supported on systems with the Red

Hat Enterprise Linux for POWER, little endian architecture. (BZ#1139864)

Users of kexec-tools 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.

For details on how to apply this update, refer to:

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

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 7.7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 7.6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 7.5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 7.4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Extended Update Support 7.3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 7.7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 7.6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 7.4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - AUS 7.3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support 7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 7 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 7.7 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 7.6 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 7.5 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 7.4 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems - Extended Update Support 7.3 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 7 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.7 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.6 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.5 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.4 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian - Extended Update Support 7.3 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Scientific Computing 7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - TUS 7.7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - TUS 7.6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - TUS 7.3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support (for IBM z Systems) 7 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.5 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux EUS Compute Node 7.3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.7 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.4 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for x86_64 - Update Services for SAP Solutions 7.3 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support for IBM Power, big endian 7 ppc64

Fixes

• BZ - 1116340 - Drop kdump script rhcrashkernel-param in kexec-tools repo
• BZ - 1116343 - Drop kdump firstboot module
• BZ - 1185460 - [atomic] kdump cant find kernel image on ostree-based systems

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)