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1 | ================================================================ |
2 | Documentation for Kdump - The kexec-based Crash Dumping Solution | |
b089f4a6 VG |
3 | ================================================================ |
4 | ||
dc851a0f DW |
5 | This document includes overview, setup and installation, and analysis |
6 | information. | |
b089f4a6 | 7 | |
dc851a0f DW |
8 | Overview |
9 | ======== | |
b089f4a6 | 10 | |
dc851a0f DW |
11 | Kdump uses kexec to quickly boot to a dump-capture kernel whenever a |
12 | dump of the system kernel's memory needs to be taken (for example, when | |
13 | the system panics). The system kernel's memory image is preserved across | |
14 | the reboot and is accessible to the dump-capture kernel. | |
b089f4a6 | 15 | |
f4e87570 | 16 | You can use common commands, such as cp and scp, to copy the |
dc851a0f DW |
17 | memory image to a dump file on the local disk, or across the network to |
18 | a remote system. | |
b089f4a6 | 19 | |
ee8bb9ea | 20 | Kdump and kexec are currently supported on the x86, x86_64, ppc64 and ia64 |
dc851a0f | 21 | architectures. |
b089f4a6 | 22 | |
dc851a0f DW |
23 | When the system kernel boots, it reserves a small section of memory for |
24 | the dump-capture kernel. This ensures that ongoing Direct Memory Access | |
25 | (DMA) from the system kernel does not corrupt the dump-capture kernel. | |
26 | The kexec -p command loads the dump-capture kernel into this reserved | |
27 | memory. | |
b089f4a6 | 28 | |
dc851a0f DW |
29 | On x86 machines, the first 640 KB of physical memory is needed to boot, |
30 | regardless of where the kernel loads. Therefore, kexec backs up this | |
31 | region just before rebooting into the dump-capture kernel. | |
b089f4a6 | 32 | |
30430134 SH |
33 | Similarly on PPC64 machines first 32KB of physical memory is needed for |
34 | booting regardless of where the kernel is loaded and to support 64K page | |
35 | size kexec backs up the first 64KB memory. | |
36 | ||
dc851a0f DW |
37 | All of the necessary information about the system kernel's core image is |
38 | encoded in the ELF format, and stored in a reserved area of memory | |
39 | before a crash. The physical address of the start of the ELF header is | |
40 | passed to the dump-capture kernel through the elfcorehdr= boot | |
41 | parameter. | |
42 | ||
43 | With the dump-capture kernel, you can access the memory image, or "old | |
44 | memory," in two ways: | |
45 | ||
46 | - Through a /dev/oldmem device interface. A capture utility can read the | |
47 | device file and write out the memory in raw format. This is a raw dump | |
48 | of memory. Analysis and capture tools must be intelligent enough to | |
49 | determine where to look for the right information. | |
50 | ||
51 | - Through /proc/vmcore. This exports the dump as an ELF-format file that | |
52 | you can write out using file copy commands such as cp or scp. Further, | |
53 | you can use analysis tools such as the GNU Debugger (GDB) and the Crash | |
54 | tool to debug the dump file. This method ensures that the dump pages are | |
55 | correctly ordered. | |
56 | ||
57 | ||
58 | Setup and Installation | |
59 | ====================== | |
60 | ||
9c61a446 VG |
61 | Install kexec-tools |
62 | ------------------- | |
dc851a0f DW |
63 | |
64 | 1) Login as the root user. | |
65 | ||
66 | 2) Download the kexec-tools user-space package from the following URL: | |
67 | ||
d84a52f6 | 68 | http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/horms/kexec-tools/kexec-tools.tar.gz |
ea112bd5 | 69 | |
d84a52f6 | 70 | This is a symlink to the latest version. |
dc851a0f | 71 | |
d84a52f6 | 72 | The latest kexec-tools git tree is available at: |
dc851a0f | 73 | |
d84a52f6 | 74 | git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/horms/kexec-tools.git |
9c61a446 | 75 | or |
d84a52f6 SH |
76 | http://www.kernel.org/git/?p=linux/kernel/git/horms/kexec-tools.git |
77 | ||
78 | More information about kexec-tools can be found at | |
79 | http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/horms/kexec-tools/README.html | |
dc851a0f | 80 | |
9c61a446 | 81 | 3) Unpack the tarball with the tar command, as follows: |
dc851a0f | 82 | |
d84a52f6 | 83 | tar xvpzf kexec-tools.tar.gz |
dc851a0f | 84 | |
ea112bd5 | 85 | 4) Change to the kexec-tools directory, as follows: |
dc851a0f | 86 | |
d84a52f6 | 87 | cd kexec-tools-VERSION |
dc851a0f | 88 | |
9c61a446 | 89 | 5) Configure the package, as follows: |
dc851a0f DW |
90 | |
91 | ./configure | |
92 | ||
9c61a446 | 93 | 6) Compile the package, as follows: |
dc851a0f DW |
94 | |
95 | make | |
96 | ||
9c61a446 | 97 | 7) Install the package, as follows: |
dc851a0f DW |
98 | |
99 | make install | |
100 | ||
101 | ||
9c61a446 VG |
102 | Build the system and dump-capture kernels |
103 | ----------------------------------------- | |
104 | There are two possible methods of using Kdump. | |
105 | ||
106 | 1) Build a separate custom dump-capture kernel for capturing the | |
107 | kernel core dump. | |
108 | ||
109 | 2) Or use the system kernel binary itself as dump-capture kernel and there is | |
110 | no need to build a separate dump-capture kernel. This is possible | |
19f59460 | 111 | only with the architectures which support a relocatable kernel. As |
54622f10 MK |
112 | of today, i386, x86_64, ppc64 and ia64 architectures support relocatable |
113 | kernel. | |
9c61a446 VG |
114 | |
115 | Building a relocatable kernel is advantageous from the point of view that | |
116 | one does not have to build a second kernel for capturing the dump. But | |
117 | at the same time one might want to build a custom dump capture kernel | |
118 | suitable to his needs. | |
dc851a0f | 119 | |
9c61a446 VG |
120 | Following are the configuration setting required for system and |
121 | dump-capture kernels for enabling kdump support. | |
dc851a0f | 122 | |
9c61a446 VG |
123 | System kernel config options |
124 | ---------------------------- | |
dc851a0f DW |
125 | |
126 | 1) Enable "kexec system call" in "Processor type and features." | |
127 | ||
128 | CONFIG_KEXEC=y | |
129 | ||
130 | 2) Enable "sysfs file system support" in "Filesystem" -> "Pseudo | |
131 | filesystems." This is usually enabled by default. | |
132 | ||
133 | CONFIG_SYSFS=y | |
134 | ||
135 | Note that "sysfs file system support" might not appear in the "Pseudo | |
136 | filesystems" menu if "Configure standard kernel features (for small | |
137 | systems)" is not enabled in "General Setup." In this case, check the | |
138 | .config file itself to ensure that sysfs is turned on, as follows: | |
139 | ||
140 | grep 'CONFIG_SYSFS' .config | |
141 | ||
142 | 3) Enable "Compile the kernel with debug info" in "Kernel hacking." | |
143 | ||
144 | CONFIG_DEBUG_INFO=Y | |
145 | ||
146 | This causes the kernel to be built with debug symbols. The dump | |
147 | analysis tools require a vmlinux with debug symbols in order to read | |
148 | and analyze a dump file. | |
149 | ||
9c61a446 VG |
150 | Dump-capture kernel config options (Arch Independent) |
151 | ----------------------------------------------------- | |
dc851a0f | 152 | |
9c61a446 VG |
153 | 1) Enable "kernel crash dumps" support under "Processor type and |
154 | features": | |
dc851a0f | 155 | |
9c61a446 | 156 | CONFIG_CRASH_DUMP=y |
dc851a0f | 157 | |
9c61a446 | 158 | 2) Enable "/proc/vmcore support" under "Filesystems" -> "Pseudo filesystems". |
b089f4a6 | 159 | |
9c61a446 VG |
160 | CONFIG_PROC_VMCORE=y |
161 | (CONFIG_PROC_VMCORE is set by default when CONFIG_CRASH_DUMP is selected.) | |
dc851a0f | 162 | |
8bc9d422 BW |
163 | Dump-capture kernel config options (Arch Dependent, i386 and x86_64) |
164 | -------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
165 | ||
166 | 1) On i386, enable high memory support under "Processor type and | |
dc851a0f DW |
167 | features": |
168 | ||
169 | CONFIG_HIGHMEM64G=y | |
170 | or | |
171 | CONFIG_HIGHMEM4G | |
172 | ||
8bc9d422 | 173 | 2) On i386 and x86_64, disable symmetric multi-processing support |
dc851a0f DW |
174 | under "Processor type and features": |
175 | ||
176 | CONFIG_SMP=n | |
9c61a446 | 177 | |
dc851a0f DW |
178 | (If CONFIG_SMP=y, then specify maxcpus=1 on the kernel command line |
179 | when loading the dump-capture kernel, see section "Load the Dump-capture | |
180 | Kernel".) | |
181 | ||
9c61a446 VG |
182 | 3) If one wants to build and use a relocatable kernel, |
183 | Enable "Build a relocatable kernel" support under "Processor type and | |
184 | features" | |
dc851a0f | 185 | |
9c61a446 | 186 | CONFIG_RELOCATABLE=y |
dc851a0f | 187 | |
9c61a446 VG |
188 | 4) Use a suitable value for "Physical address where the kernel is |
189 | loaded" (under "Processor type and features"). This only appears when | |
190 | "kernel crash dumps" is enabled. A suitable value depends upon | |
191 | whether kernel is relocatable or not. | |
192 | ||
193 | If you are using a relocatable kernel use CONFIG_PHYSICAL_START=0x100000 | |
194 | This will compile the kernel for physical address 1MB, but given the fact | |
195 | kernel is relocatable, it can be run from any physical address hence | |
196 | kexec boot loader will load it in memory region reserved for dump-capture | |
197 | kernel. | |
198 | ||
199 | Otherwise it should be the start of memory region reserved for | |
200 | second kernel using boot parameter "crashkernel=Y@X". Here X is | |
201 | start of memory region reserved for dump-capture kernel. | |
202 | Generally X is 16MB (0x1000000). So you can set | |
203 | CONFIG_PHYSICAL_START=0x1000000 | |
204 | ||
205 | 5) Make and install the kernel and its modules. DO NOT add this kernel | |
206 | to the boot loader configuration files. | |
dc851a0f | 207 | |
9c61a446 VG |
208 | Dump-capture kernel config options (Arch Dependent, ppc64) |
209 | ---------------------------------------------------------- | |
dc851a0f | 210 | |
54622f10 MK |
211 | 1) Enable "Build a kdump crash kernel" support under "Kernel" options: |
212 | ||
213 | CONFIG_CRASH_DUMP=y | |
214 | ||
215 | 2) Enable "Build a relocatable kernel" support | |
216 | ||
217 | CONFIG_RELOCATABLE=y | |
218 | ||
219 | Make and install the kernel and its modules. | |
dc851a0f | 220 | |
9c61a446 VG |
221 | Dump-capture kernel config options (Arch Dependent, ia64) |
222 | ---------------------------------------------------------- | |
ee8bb9ea H |
223 | |
224 | - No specific options are required to create a dump-capture kernel | |
19f59460 | 225 | for ia64, other than those specified in the arch independent section |
ee8bb9ea H |
226 | above. This means that it is possible to use the system kernel |
227 | as a dump-capture kernel if desired. | |
228 | ||
229 | The crashkernel region can be automatically placed by the system | |
230 | kernel at run time. This is done by specifying the base address as 0, | |
231 | or omitting it all together. | |
232 | ||
233 | crashkernel=256M@0 | |
234 | or | |
235 | crashkernel=256M | |
236 | ||
237 | If the start address is specified, note that the start address of the | |
238 | kernel will be aligned to 64Mb, so if the start address is not then | |
239 | any space below the alignment point will be wasted. | |
9c61a446 VG |
240 | |
241 | ||
fb391599 BW |
242 | Extended crashkernel syntax |
243 | =========================== | |
244 | ||
245 | While the "crashkernel=size[@offset]" syntax is sufficient for most | |
246 | configurations, sometimes it's handy to have the reserved memory dependent | |
247 | on the value of System RAM -- that's mostly for distributors that pre-setup | |
248 | the kernel command line to avoid a unbootable system after some memory has | |
249 | been removed from the machine. | |
250 | ||
251 | The syntax is: | |
252 | ||
253 | crashkernel=<range1>:<size1>[,<range2>:<size2>,...][@offset] | |
254 | range=start-[end] | |
255 | ||
be089d79 ME |
256 | 'start' is inclusive and 'end' is exclusive. |
257 | ||
fb391599 BW |
258 | For example: |
259 | ||
260 | crashkernel=512M-2G:64M,2G-:128M | |
261 | ||
262 | This would mean: | |
263 | ||
264 | 1) if the RAM is smaller than 512M, then don't reserve anything | |
265 | (this is the "rescue" case) | |
be089d79 | 266 | 2) if the RAM size is between 512M and 2G (exclusive), then reserve 64M |
fb391599 BW |
267 | 3) if the RAM size is larger than 2G, then reserve 128M |
268 | ||
269 | ||
be089d79 | 270 | |
9c61a446 VG |
271 | Boot into System Kernel |
272 | ======================= | |
273 | ||
30430134 SH |
274 | 1) Update the boot loader (such as grub, yaboot, or lilo) configuration |
275 | files as necessary. | |
9c61a446 VG |
276 | |
277 | 2) Boot the system kernel with the boot parameter "crashkernel=Y@X", | |
278 | where Y specifies how much memory to reserve for the dump-capture kernel | |
279 | and X specifies the beginning of this reserved memory. For example, | |
280 | "crashkernel=64M@16M" tells the system kernel to reserve 64 MB of memory | |
281 | starting at physical address 0x01000000 (16MB) for the dump-capture kernel. | |
282 | ||
283 | On x86 and x86_64, use "crashkernel=64M@16M". | |
284 | ||
285 | On ppc64, use "crashkernel=128M@32M". | |
dc851a0f | 286 | |
ee8bb9ea H |
287 | On ia64, 256M@256M is a generous value that typically works. |
288 | The region may be automatically placed on ia64, see the | |
289 | dump-capture kernel config option notes above. | |
290 | ||
dc851a0f DW |
291 | Load the Dump-capture Kernel |
292 | ============================ | |
293 | ||
9c61a446 VG |
294 | After booting to the system kernel, dump-capture kernel needs to be |
295 | loaded. | |
296 | ||
297 | Based on the architecture and type of image (relocatable or not), one | |
298 | can choose to load the uncompressed vmlinux or compressed bzImage/vmlinuz | |
299 | of dump-capture kernel. Following is the summary. | |
300 | ||
8bc9d422 | 301 | For i386 and x86_64: |
9c61a446 VG |
302 | - Use vmlinux if kernel is not relocatable. |
303 | - Use bzImage/vmlinuz if kernel is relocatable. | |
9c61a446 VG |
304 | For ppc64: |
305 | - Use vmlinux | |
306 | For ia64: | |
ee8bb9ea H |
307 | - Use vmlinux or vmlinuz.gz |
308 | ||
9c61a446 VG |
309 | |
310 | If you are using a uncompressed vmlinux image then use following command | |
311 | to load dump-capture kernel. | |
dc851a0f | 312 | |
9c61a446 | 313 | kexec -p <dump-capture-kernel-vmlinux-image> \ |
dc851a0f | 314 | --initrd=<initrd-for-dump-capture-kernel> --args-linux \ |
9c61a446 | 315 | --append="root=<root-dev> <arch-specific-options>" |
dc851a0f | 316 | |
9c61a446 VG |
317 | If you are using a compressed bzImage/vmlinuz, then use following command |
318 | to load dump-capture kernel. | |
dc851a0f | 319 | |
9c61a446 VG |
320 | kexec -p <dump-capture-kernel-bzImage> \ |
321 | --initrd=<initrd-for-dump-capture-kernel> \ | |
322 | --append="root=<root-dev> <arch-specific-options>" | |
323 | ||
ee8bb9ea H |
324 | Please note, that --args-linux does not need to be specified for ia64. |
325 | It is planned to make this a no-op on that architecture, but for now | |
326 | it should be omitted | |
327 | ||
9c61a446 VG |
328 | Following are the arch specific command line options to be used while |
329 | loading dump-capture kernel. | |
330 | ||
ee8bb9ea | 331 | For i386, x86_64 and ia64: |
ac984abe | 332 | "1 irqpoll maxcpus=1 reset_devices" |
9c61a446 VG |
333 | |
334 | For ppc64: | |
ac984abe | 335 | "1 maxcpus=1 noirqdistrib reset_devices" |
dc851a0f | 336 | |
9c61a446 VG |
337 | |
338 | Notes on loading the dump-capture kernel: | |
dc851a0f DW |
339 | |
340 | * By default, the ELF headers are stored in ELF64 format to support | |
4fd45090 BW |
341 | systems with more than 4GB memory. On i386, kexec automatically checks if |
342 | the physical RAM size exceeds the 4 GB limit and if not, uses ELF32. | |
343 | So, on non-PAE systems, ELF32 is always used. | |
344 | ||
345 | The --elf32-core-headers option can be used to force the generation of ELF32 | |
346 | headers. This is necessary because GDB currently cannot open vmcore files | |
347 | with ELF64 headers on 32-bit systems. | |
dc851a0f DW |
348 | |
349 | * The "irqpoll" boot parameter reduces driver initialization failures | |
350 | due to shared interrupts in the dump-capture kernel. | |
351 | ||
352 | * You must specify <root-dev> in the format corresponding to the root | |
353 | device name in the output of mount command. | |
354 | ||
473e66fd H |
355 | * Boot parameter "1" boots the dump-capture kernel into single-user |
356 | mode without networking. If you want networking, use "3". | |
dc851a0f | 357 | |
9c61a446 VG |
358 | * We generally don' have to bring up a SMP kernel just to capture the |
359 | dump. Hence generally it is useful either to build a UP dump-capture | |
360 | kernel or specify maxcpus=1 option while loading dump-capture kernel. | |
dc851a0f DW |
361 | |
362 | Kernel Panic | |
363 | ============ | |
364 | ||
365 | After successfully loading the dump-capture kernel as previously | |
366 | described, the system will reboot into the dump-capture kernel if a | |
367 | system crash is triggered. Trigger points are located in panic(), | |
368 | die(), die_nmi() and in the sysrq handler (ALT-SysRq-c). | |
369 | ||
370 | The following conditions will execute a crash trigger point: | |
371 | ||
372 | If a hard lockup is detected and "NMI watchdog" is configured, the system | |
373 | will boot into the dump-capture kernel ( die_nmi() ). | |
374 | ||
375 | If die() is called, and it happens to be a thread with pid 0 or 1, or die() | |
376 | is called inside interrupt context or die() is called and panic_on_oops is set, | |
377 | the system will boot into the dump-capture kernel. | |
378 | ||
f4e87570 | 379 | On powerpc systems when a soft-reset is generated, die() is called by all cpus |
30430134 | 380 | and the system will boot into the dump-capture kernel. |
dc851a0f DW |
381 | |
382 | For testing purposes, you can trigger a crash by using "ALT-SysRq-c", | |
30430134 | 383 | "echo c > /proc/sysrq-trigger" or write a module to force the panic. |
dc851a0f DW |
384 | |
385 | Write Out the Dump File | |
386 | ======================= | |
387 | ||
388 | After the dump-capture kernel is booted, write out the dump file with | |
389 | the following command: | |
b089f4a6 VG |
390 | |
391 | cp /proc/vmcore <dump-file> | |
392 | ||
dc851a0f DW |
393 | You can also access dumped memory as a /dev/oldmem device for a linear |
394 | and raw view. To create the device, use the following command: | |
b089f4a6 | 395 | |
dc851a0f | 396 | mknod /dev/oldmem c 1 12 |
b089f4a6 | 397 | |
dc851a0f DW |
398 | Use the dd command with suitable options for count, bs, and skip to |
399 | access specific portions of the dump. | |
b089f4a6 | 400 | |
dc851a0f | 401 | To see the entire memory, use the following command: |
b089f4a6 | 402 | |
dc851a0f | 403 | dd if=/dev/oldmem of=oldmem.001 |
a7e670d8 | 404 | |
dc851a0f DW |
405 | |
406 | Analysis | |
b089f4a6 | 407 | ======== |
b089f4a6 | 408 | |
dc851a0f DW |
409 | Before analyzing the dump image, you should reboot into a stable kernel. |
410 | ||
411 | You can do limited analysis using GDB on the dump file copied out of | |
412 | /proc/vmcore. Use the debug vmlinux built with -g and run the following | |
413 | command: | |
414 | ||
415 | gdb vmlinux <dump-file> | |
b089f4a6 | 416 | |
dc851a0f DW |
417 | Stack trace for the task on processor 0, register display, and memory |
418 | display work fine. | |
b089f4a6 | 419 | |
dc851a0f DW |
420 | Note: GDB cannot analyze core files generated in ELF64 format for x86. |
421 | On systems with a maximum of 4GB of memory, you can generate | |
422 | ELF32-format headers using the --elf32-core-headers kernel option on the | |
423 | dump kernel. | |
b089f4a6 | 424 | |
dc851a0f DW |
425 | You can also use the Crash utility to analyze dump files in Kdump |
426 | format. Crash is available on Dave Anderson's site at the following URL: | |
a7e670d8 | 427 | |
dc851a0f DW |
428 | http://people.redhat.com/~anderson/ |
429 | ||
430 | ||
431 | To Do | |
432 | ===== | |
a7e670d8 | 433 | |
30430134 SH |
434 | 1) Provide relocatable kernels for all architectures to help in maintaining |
435 | multiple kernels for crash_dump, and the same kernel as the system kernel | |
436 | can be used to capture the dump. | |
b089f4a6 | 437 | |
dc851a0f DW |
438 | |
439 | Contact | |
b089f4a6 | 440 | ======= |
dc851a0f | 441 | |
b089f4a6 | 442 | Vivek Goyal (vgoyal@in.ibm.com) |
d58831e4 | 443 | Maneesh Soni (maneesh@in.ibm.com) |
dc851a0f | 444 |