From f544a12e78efe2bf12d04bbe1964d2594e0b0b4a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Kairui Song Date: Fri, 10 May 2019 15:09:44 +0800 Subject: [PATCH] kexec-kdump-howto.txt: Add document about initramfs rebiuld Add some note about the limitation of kdumpctl's auto detect and rebuild feature, and suggest the user to rebuild the initramfs manually on major system change, and don't include the initramfs in disk images. Put the note about system change in front part of the document so user will less likely to miss it. Signed-off-by: Kairui Song Acked-by: Dave Young --- kexec-kdump-howto.txt | 30 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 30 insertions(+) diff --git a/kexec-kdump-howto.txt b/kexec-kdump-howto.txt index 12a9450..fa01a3d 100644 --- a/kexec-kdump-howto.txt +++ b/kexec-kdump-howto.txt @@ -136,6 +136,22 @@ perform postmortem analysis: and so on... +Notes: + +When kdump starts, the kdump kernel is loaded together with the kdump +initramfs. To save memory usage and disk space, the kdump initramfs is +generated strictly against the system it will run on, and contains the +minimum set of kernel modules and utilities to boot the machine to a stage +where the dump target could be mounted. + +With kdump service enabled, kdumpctl will try to detect possible system +change and rebuild the kdump initramfs if needed. But it can not guarantee +to cover every possible case. So after a hardware change, disk migration, +storage setup update or any similar system level changes, it's highly +recommended to rebuild the initramfs manually with following command: + + # kdumpctl rebuild + Saving vmcore-dmesg.txt ---------------------- Kernel log bufferes are one of the most important information available @@ -654,6 +670,20 @@ not been written in watchdog-core framework then this option will not have any effect and module will not be added. Please note that only systemd watchdog daemon is supported as watchdog kick application. +Notes for disk images: + +Kdump initramfs is a critical component for capturing the crash dump. +But it's strictly generated for the machine it will run on, and have +no generality. If you install a new machine with a previous disk image +(eg. VMs created with disk image or snapshot), kdump could be broken +easily due to hardware changes or disk ID changes. So it's strongly +recommended to not include the kdump initramfs in the disk image in the +first place, this helps to save space, and kdumpctl will build the +initramfs automatically if it's missing. If you have already installed +a machine with a disk image which have kdump initramfs embedded, you +should rebuild the initramfs using "kdumpctl rebuild" command manually, +or else kdump may not work as expeceted. + Parallel Dumping Operation ========================== Kexec allows kdump using multiple cpus. So parallel feature can accelerate