Boot loop problem after changing sysctl values in RHEL 7

Solution In Progress - Updated -

Issue

  • After changing various sysctls and rebooting the server is stuck in a continuous boot loop. We can see a panic triggers kdump and writes a vmcore repeatedly.
  • These parameters were changed on a number of systems but only some become stuck in a loop. Others are performing normally.

  • The sysctls modified include "numa_balancing_scan_size_mb = 0"

  • The console shows a fatal divide error followed by a call trace:

[   86.645979] divide error: 0000 [#1] SMP

Environment

  • RHEL 7.2 (kernel-3.10.0-327.4.4.el7.x86_64)
    • Likely other RHEL 7 kernels are affected
  • VMWare guest
    • Likely physical servers are affected
  • Only servers with numa typologies are affected

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