Issued:
2013-02-20
Updated:
2013-02-20

RHBA-2013:0395 - s390utils bug fix and enhancement update

Synopsis

s390utils bug fix and enhancement update

Type/Severity

Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

Updated s390utils packages that fix several bugs and add two enhancements are now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Description

The s390utils packages contain a set of user space utilities for Linux on IBM system z achitecture.

This update fixes the following bugs:

  • The internal parsing logic of the ziomon utility previously relied on a Bash shell construct when identifying multipath devices. Changes in later versions of Bash caused the parsing logic to not work properly if the ziomon command was specified with more than one multipath device as an argument. Consequently, ziomon did not recognize all multipath devices and did not collect performance data for the respective devices. With this update, ziomon has been modified to use a bash-independent construct in the parsing logic. The ziomon utility now correctly recognizes all multipath devices and provides performance data as expected. (BZ#818599)

  • Previously, the /etc/zipl.conf configuration file did not belong to any RPM package. This update corrects this problem and the /etc/zipl.conf file is now owned by the s390utils-base package. (BZ#818877)

  • The "lsdasd -h" command always incorrectly returned an exit code of 1. Also, the lsdasd(8) man page was missing information about the "-b, --base" option. With this update, the lsdasd utility has been corrected to return the exit code 0 on success when issued to print help information. The lsdasd(8) man page has been updated and it now provides information on usage of the "-b" option as expected. (BZ#828145)

  • Previously, the lsluns utility performed a SCSI generic (sg) functionality test before scanning for available LUNs or showing the attached LUNs. Consequently, the lsluns command failed and did not display any available or attached LUNs if there was no SCSI device available. This update modifies lsluns to perform a LUN scan first and execute an sg functionality test only if at least one SCSI device is found. (BZ#828146)

  • The lsluns utility performed a SCSI registration test immediately after adding LUN0 and WLUN to the unit_add file. However, SCSI devices are not available immediately after adding LUNs to unit_add so lsluns did not recognize that LUN0 and WLUN are available. The lsluns command therefore failed with the "Cannot attach WLUN / LUN0 for scanning" error message. This update modifies lsluns so that the SCSI registration test is now performed several times allowing the SCSI mid-layer to complete SCSI device registration. The lsluns command now successfully displays LUNs as expected. (BZ#837311)

  • Due to the way the kernel maintains caches for block devices, running the zipl boot loader could, under certain circumstances, lead to inconsistent cache contents in the first 4096 bytes on an FBA DASD device (a direct-access storage device with a fixed block architecture). This update modifies zipl so that the boot loader flushes disk buffers before installing the initial program load (IPL), which prevents cache corruption from occurring on FBA DASD devices. (BZ#857815)

In addition, this update adds the following enhancements:

  • This update adds the necessary user space tools to allow Linux to access Storage Class Memory (SCM) as a block device on IBM System z systems using sub-channels of the Extended Asynchronous Data Mover (EADM) Facility. (BZ#847087)

  • The lszcrypt utility has been modified to support the IBM Crypto Express 4 feature. (BZ#847088)

All users of s390utils 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.

This update is available via the Red Hat Network. Details on how to use the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/articles/11258

Affected Products

ProductVersionArch
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems6s390x
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension (for IBM z Systems)6s390x
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support (for IBM z Systems)6s390x

Updated Packages

  • s390utils-devel-1.8.2-49.el6.s390x.rpm
  • s390utils-ziomon-1.8.2-49.el6.s390x.rpm
  • s390utils-mon_statd-1.8.2-49.el6.s390x.rpm
  • s390utils-libzfcphbaapi-1.8.2-49.el6.s390x.rpm
  • s390utils-devel-1.8.2-49.el6.s390.rpm
  • s390utils-cmsfs-1.8.2-49.el6.s390x.rpm
  • s390utils-cmsfs-fuse-1.8.2-49.el6.s390x.rpm
  • s390utils-debuginfo-1.8.2-49.el6.s390x.rpm
  • s390utils-1.8.2-49.el6.src.rpm
  • s390utils-base-1.8.2-49.el6.s390x.rpm
  • s390utils-cpuplugd-1.8.2-49.el6.s390x.rpm
  • s390utils-libzfcphbaapi-docs-1.8.2-49.el6.s390x.rpm
  • s390utils-iucvterm-1.8.2-49.el6.s390x.rpm
  • s390utils-osasnmpd-1.8.2-49.el6.s390x.rpm
  • s390utils-1.8.2-49.el6.s390x.rpm
  • s390utils-debuginfo-1.8.2-49.el6.s390.rpm

Fixes

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)

Additional information