Issued:

2015-07-22

Updated:

2015-07-22

RHBA-2015:1271 - kexec-tools bug fix and enhancement update

Synopsis

kexec-tools bug fix and enhancement update

Type/Severity

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

Updated Packages

• kexec-tools-eppic-2.0.0-286.el6.ppc64.rpm
• kexec-tools-2.0.0-286.el6.src.rpm
• kexec-tools-debuginfo-2.0.0-286.el6.s390x.rpm
• kexec-tools-eppic-2.0.0-286.el6.s390x.rpm
• kexec-tools-eppic-2.0.0-286.el6.x86_64.rpm
• kexec-tools-2.0.0-286.el6.i686.rpm
• kexec-tools-debuginfo-2.0.0-286.el6.i686.rpm
• kexec-tools-debuginfo-2.0.0-286.el6.x86_64.rpm
• kexec-tools-eppic-2.0.0-286.el6.i686.rpm
• kexec-tools-debuginfo-2.0.0-286.el6.ppc64.rpm
• kexec-tools-2.0.0-286.el6.ppc64.rpm
• kexec-tools-2.0.0-286.el6.s390x.rpm
• kexec-tools-2.0.0-286.el6.x86_64.rpm

Fixes

• This content is not included.BZ - 971017
• This content is not included.BZ - 1005141
• This content is not included.BZ - 1132300

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)

Additional information

• The Red Hat security contact is This content is not included.secalert@redhat.com. More contact details at https://access.redhat.com/security/team/contact/.
• Offline Security Data data is available for integration with other systems. See Offline Security Data API to get started.