RHEL 5.8 system on Oracle SunFire x4100M2 with 2 dual-core AMD processors shows 4 sockets in Certificate-based Management

Solution Verified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.8
  • Certificate-based Management

Issue

  • A RHEL 5.8 system on Oracle SunFire x4100M2 with 2 dual-core AMD processors shows 4 sockets in Certificate-based Management:
    Number of Sockets or LPARs: 4
    thereby not able to apply subscription (Red Hat Enterprise Linux up to 2 sockets).

    System was previously registered in RHN Classic using the subscription "Red Hat Enterprise Linux up to 2 sockets"

Resolution

  • Please note, this is Work in Progress with an open Bugzilla 844532:
subscription-manager register of a RHEL 5.8 Oracle SunFire x4100M2 shows 4 sockets instead of 2 in Certificate-based Management
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=844532
  • Workaround: use non-Xen kernel

Root Cause

  • XEN Kernel is not handling properly the number of sockets or LPARs

Diagnostic Steps

01)
subscription-manager register
Using kernel: 2.6.18-308.16.1.el5
Number of Sockets or LPARs: 2

02)
subscription-manager unregister
Installed the same kernel that customer is using: 2.6.18-238.5.1.el5xen
subscription-manager register
Number of Sockets or LPARs: 4

03)
subscription-manager unregister
Installed kernel: 2.6.18-308.11.1.el5xen
subscription-manager register
Number of Sockets or LPARs: 4

04)
subscription-manager unregister
Installed kernel: 2.6.18-308.16.1.el5xen
subscription-manager register
Number of Sockets or LPARs: 4

05)
Do not unregister
Booting back to kernel: 2.6.18-308.16.1.el5
Number of Sockets or LPARs: 2
Rebooting the machine using kernel: 2.6.18-308.16.1.el5xen
Number of Sockets or LPARs: 4
Rebooting back to kernel: 2.6.18-308.16.1.el5
Number of Sockets or LPARs: 2

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