RHBA-2015:1271 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

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

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.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• Previously, when the HugePages feature was in use, the makedumpfile utility

was unable to exclude these pages based on page type specified with the "-d"
option. This led to a much longer dump collection time compared to the same
system with no HugePages in use. This bug has been fixed, and the dump
collection time is again optimal. (BZ#1068674)

• When setting up the kdump environment on a system with specific memory hotplug

regions and then starting kdump.service, the operating system previously ran out
of memory at boot time, and the booting process thus failed. This update adds a
parameter to disable memory hotplug for kexec-tools, and the system now boots
successfully in the described scenario. (BZ#1208490)

• Prior to this update, /sbin/mkdumprd was not handling the "blacklist

[directory]" statement in the /etc/kdump.conf file properly. As a consequence,
modules filtered out by "blacklist [directory]" were inserted into the kernel by
the initrd block device. The underlying source code has been patched, and
mkdumprd now handles the "blacklist [directory]" statement correctly.
(BZ#971017)

• When cluster ip address was specified as an ip address and not as a resolvable

host name, the kdump utility terminated unexpectedly returning error messages.
This bug has been fixed, and kdump no longer crashes in the aforementioned
situation. (BZ#1104837)

• Previously, the kdump service was not able to start on iSCSI boot devices

during boot because kdump tried to start before the file system was mounted. A
patch has been provided to fix this bug, and kdump now starts automatically
during boot. (BZ#1131945)

• When the kdump service was started and no kdump initial ramdisk was present,

kdump attempted to rebuild the ramdisk and called the mkdumprd script. As a
consequence, two error messages were returned within the "service kdump start"
command output. With this update, the user is informed that the FIPS mode will
not be enabled while rebuilding the ramdisk, and the error messages are no
longer returned. (BZ#1132300)

• Previously, the mlx4_core driver was excluded from initrd by default as

mlx4_core was consuming too much memory. Nevertheless, the absence of mlx4_core
led to problems in the ethernet driver. The fix allows modules that are listed
as extra_modules in the /etc/kdump.conf file to load, and the user can now use
mlx4_core. (BZ#1099589)

In addition, this update adds the following enhancements:

• The makedumpfile utility now supports the new sadump format that can represent

more than 16 TB of physical memory space. This allows users of makedumpfile to
read dump files over 16 TB in size, generated by sadump on certain upcoming
server models. (BZ#1195601)

• With this update, the kexec-tools-eppic package has been modified to create a

directory for eppic scripts in the /usr/share/ directory. Now, users of
kexec-tools-eppic can find some sample eppic scripts for reference though they
are contained in the kexec-tools packages. (BZ#1142666)

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 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 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 IBM z Systems 6 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 6 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Scientific Computing 6 x86_64
• 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 (for IBM z Systems) 6 s390x

Fixes

• BZ - 971017 - "/sbin/mkdumprd" is not handling "blacklist <directory>" statement in "/etc/kdump.conf" properly
• BZ - 1005141 - dumping to NFS fails when the netdev ifcfg name is not same as itself
• BZ - 1132300 - /sbin/mkdumprd: line 3923: [: : integer expression expected

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)