After updating the kernel to 2.6.18-238.1.1.el5, Oracle DB does not work any more

Solution Verified - Updated -

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.6
  • Oracle / ocfs2
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5 (2.6.18-194.el5) does not exhibit this problem

Issue

  • The kernel on a Oracle DB server has been updated to the version 2.6.18-238.1.1.el5 from the version 2.6.18-194.el5. After this upgrade, the Oracle Grid infrastructure could not start any more.
  • Oracle Doc ID 1321757.1 refers to an "unpublished Linux bug 10365195", "missing aio_complete() in end_io()". Does Red Hat provide a fix for this issue?

Resolution

NOTE: Before updating, be sure Oracle supports the kernel version you plan to use.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.7.z
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.6 Extended Update Support and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.6 Long Life
  • Update to kernel kernel 2.6.18-238.28.1.el5 (from RHSA-2011:1419) or later for a fix for this issue:

  • A previously applied patch introduced a regression for third-party file systems that do not set the FS_HAS_IODONE2 flag, specifically, Oracle Cluster File System 2 (OCFS2). The patch removed a call to the aio_complete function, resulting in no completion events being processed, causing user-space applications to become unresponsive. This update reintroduces the aio_complete function call, fixing this issue. (BZ#734156)

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5
  • Downgrade to kernel 2.6.18-194.el5.

Root Cause

  • The semantics of the async+direct-io completion path had changed.

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