Documentation: kdump: update kdump guide

Some parts of the guide are aged, hence need be updated.

1) The backup area of the 1st 640K on X86_64 has been removed
   by below commits, update the description accordingly.

   commit 7c321eb2b8 ("x86/kdump: Remove the backup region handling")
   commit 6f599d8423 ("x86/kdump: Always reserve the low 1M when the crashkernel option is specified")

2) Sort out the descripiton of "crashkernel syntax" part.

3) And some other minor cleanups.

Signed-off-by: Baoquan He <bhe@redhat.com>
Acked-by: Dave Young <dyoung@redhat.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20210609083218.GB591017@MiWiFi-R3L-srv
[jc: added blank line to fix added build warning]
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Corbet <corbet@lwn.net>
This commit is contained in:
Baoquan He 2021-06-09 16:32:18 +08:00 committed by Jonathan Corbet
parent d7c176e9b5
commit b1f4c36366

View file

@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
Documentation for Kdump - The kexec-based Crash Dumping Solution
================================================================
This document includes overview, setup and installation, and analysis
This document includes overview, setup, installation, and analysis
information.
Overview
@ -13,9 +13,9 @@ dump of the system kernel's memory needs to be taken (for example, when
the system panics). The system kernel's memory image is preserved across
the reboot and is accessible to the dump-capture kernel.
You can use common commands, such as cp and scp, to copy the
memory image to a dump file on the local disk, or across the network to
a remote system.
You can use common commands, such as cp, scp or makedumpfile to copy
the memory image to a dump file on the local disk, or across the network
to a remote system.
Kdump and kexec are currently supported on the x86, x86_64, ppc64, ia64,
s390x, arm and arm64 architectures.
@ -26,13 +26,15 @@ the dump-capture kernel. This ensures that ongoing Direct Memory Access
The kexec -p command loads the dump-capture kernel into this reserved
memory.
On x86 machines, the first 640 KB of physical memory is needed to boot,
regardless of where the kernel loads. Therefore, kexec backs up this
region just before rebooting into the dump-capture kernel.
On x86 machines, the first 640 KB of physical memory is needed for boot,
regardless of where the kernel loads. For simpler handling, the whole
low 1M is reserved to avoid any later kernel or device driver writing
data into this area. Like this, the low 1M can be reused as system RAM
by kdump kernel without extra handling.
Similarly on PPC64 machines first 32KB of physical memory is needed for
booting regardless of where the kernel is loaded and to support 64K page
size kexec backs up the first 64KB memory.
On PPC64 machines first 32KB of physical memory is needed for booting
regardless of where the kernel is loaded and to support 64K page size
kexec backs up the first 64KB memory.
For s390x, when kdump is triggered, the crashkernel region is exchanged
with the region [0, crashkernel region size] and then the kdump kernel
@ -46,14 +48,14 @@ passed to the dump-capture kernel through the elfcorehdr= boot
parameter. Optionally the size of the ELF header can also be passed
when using the elfcorehdr=[size[KMG]@]offset[KMG] syntax.
With the dump-capture kernel, you can access the memory image through
/proc/vmcore. This exports the dump as an ELF-format file that you can
write out using file copy commands such as cp or scp. Further, you can
use analysis tools such as the GNU Debugger (GDB) and the Crash tool to
debug the dump file. This method ensures that the dump pages are correctly
ordered.
write out using file copy commands such as cp or scp. You can also use
makedumpfile utility to analyze and write out filtered contents with
options, e.g with '-d 31' it will only write out kernel data. Further,
you can use analysis tools such as the GNU Debugger (GDB) and the Crash
tool to debug the dump file. This method ensures that the dump pages are
correctly ordered.
Setup and Installation
======================
@ -125,9 +127,18 @@ dump-capture kernels for enabling kdump support.
System kernel config options
----------------------------
1) Enable "kexec system call" in "Processor type and features."::
1) Enable "kexec system call" or "kexec file based system call" in
"Processor type and features."::
CONFIG_KEXEC=y
CONFIG_KEXEC=y or CONFIG_KEXEC_FILE=y
And both of them will select KEXEC_CORE::
CONFIG_KEXEC_CORE=y
Subsequently, CRASH_CORE is selected by KEXEC_CORE::
CONFIG_CRASH_CORE=y
2) Enable "sysfs file system support" in "Filesystem" -> "Pseudo
filesystems." This is usually enabled by default::
@ -175,17 +186,19 @@ Dump-capture kernel config options (Arch Dependent, i386 and x86_64)
CONFIG_HIGHMEM4G
2) On i386 and x86_64, disable symmetric multi-processing support
under "Processor type and features"::
2) With CONFIG_SMP=y, usually nr_cpus=1 need specified on the kernel
command line when loading the dump-capture kernel because one
CPU is enough for kdump kernel to dump vmcore on most of systems.
CONFIG_SMP=n
However, you can also specify nr_cpus=X to enable multiple processors
in kdump kernel. In this case, "disable_cpu_apicid=" is needed to
tell kdump kernel which cpu is 1st kernel's BSP. Please refer to
admin-guide/kernel-parameters.txt for more details.
(If CONFIG_SMP=y, then specify maxcpus=1 on the kernel command line
when loading the dump-capture kernel, see section "Load the Dump-capture
Kernel".)
With CONFIG_SMP=n, the above things are not related.
3) If one wants to build and use a relocatable kernel,
Enable "Build a relocatable kernel" support under "Processor type and
3) A relocatable kernel is suggested to be built by default. If not yet,
enable "Build a relocatable kernel" support under "Processor type and
features"::
CONFIG_RELOCATABLE=y
@ -232,7 +245,7 @@ Dump-capture kernel config options (Arch Dependent, ia64)
as a dump-capture kernel if desired.
The crashkernel region can be automatically placed by the system
kernel at run time. This is done by specifying the base address as 0,
kernel at runtime. This is done by specifying the base address as 0,
or omitting it all together::
crashkernel=256M@0
@ -241,10 +254,6 @@ Dump-capture kernel config options (Arch Dependent, ia64)
crashkernel=256M
If the start address is specified, note that the start address of the
kernel will be aligned to 64Mb, so if the start address is not then
any space below the alignment point will be wasted.
Dump-capture kernel config options (Arch Dependent, arm)
----------------------------------------------------------
@ -260,46 +269,82 @@ Dump-capture kernel config options (Arch Dependent, arm64)
on non-VHE systems even if it is configured. This is because the CPU
will not be reset to EL2 on panic.
Extended crashkernel syntax
crashkernel syntax
===========================
1) crashkernel=size@offset
While the "crashkernel=size[@offset]" syntax is sufficient for most
configurations, sometimes it's handy to have the reserved memory dependent
on the value of System RAM -- that's mostly for distributors that pre-setup
the kernel command line to avoid a unbootable system after some memory has
been removed from the machine.
The syntax is::
crashkernel=<range1>:<size1>[,<range2>:<size2>,...][@offset]
range=start-[end]
For example::
crashkernel=512M-2G:64M,2G-:128M
This would mean:
1) if the RAM is smaller than 512M, then don't reserve anything
(this is the "rescue" case)
2) if the RAM size is between 512M and 2G (exclusive), then reserve 64M
3) if the RAM size is larger than 2G, then reserve 128M
Boot into System Kernel
=======================
1) Update the boot loader (such as grub, yaboot, or lilo) configuration
files as necessary.
2) Boot the system kernel with the boot parameter "crashkernel=Y@X",
where Y specifies how much memory to reserve for the dump-capture kernel
and X specifies the beginning of this reserved memory. For example,
Here 'size' specifies how much memory to reserve for the dump-capture kernel
and 'offset' specifies the beginning of this reserved memory. For example,
"crashkernel=64M@16M" tells the system kernel to reserve 64 MB of memory
starting at physical address 0x01000000 (16MB) for the dump-capture kernel.
On x86 and x86_64, use "crashkernel=64M@16M".
The crashkernel region can be automatically placed by the system
kernel at run time. This is done by specifying the base address as 0,
or omitting it all together::
crashkernel=256M@0
or::
crashkernel=256M
If the start address is specified, note that the start address of the
kernel will be aligned to a value (which is Arch dependent), so if the
start address is not then any space below the alignment point will be
wasted.
2) range1:size1[,range2:size2,...][@offset]
While the "crashkernel=size[@offset]" syntax is sufficient for most
configurations, sometimes it's handy to have the reserved memory dependent
on the value of System RAM -- that's mostly for distributors that pre-setup
the kernel command line to avoid a unbootable system after some memory has
been removed from the machine.
The syntax is::
crashkernel=<range1>:<size1>[,<range2>:<size2>,...][@offset]
range=start-[end]
For example::
crashkernel=512M-2G:64M,2G-:128M
This would mean:
1) if the RAM is smaller than 512M, then don't reserve anything
(this is the "rescue" case)
2) if the RAM size is between 512M and 2G (exclusive), then reserve 64M
3) if the RAM size is larger than 2G, then reserve 128M
3) crashkernel=size,high and crashkernel=size,low
If memory above 4G is preferred, crashkernel=size,high can be used to
fulfill that. With it, physical memory is allowed to be allocated from top,
so could be above 4G if system has more than 4G RAM installed. Otherwise,
memory region will be allocated below 4G if available.
When crashkernel=X,high is passed, kernel could allocate physical memory
region above 4G, low memory under 4G is needed in this case. There are
three ways to get low memory:
1) Kernel will allocate at least 256M memory below 4G automatically
if crashkernel=Y,low is not specified.
2) Let user specify low memory size instead.
3) Specified value 0 will disable low memory allocation::
crashkernel=0,low
Boot into System Kernel
-----------------------
1) Update the boot loader (such as grub, yaboot, or lilo) configuration
files as necessary.
2) Boot the system kernel with the boot parameter "crashkernel=Y@X".
On x86 and x86_64, use "crashkernel=Y[@X]". Most of the time, the
start address 'X' is not necessary, kernel will search a suitable
area. Unless an explicit start address is expected.
On ppc64, use "crashkernel=128M@32M".
@ -331,8 +376,8 @@ of dump-capture kernel. Following is the summary.
For i386 and x86_64:
- Use vmlinux if kernel is not relocatable.
- Use bzImage/vmlinuz if kernel is relocatable.
- Use vmlinux if kernel is not relocatable.
For ppc64:
@ -392,7 +437,7 @@ loading dump-capture kernel.
For i386, x86_64 and ia64:
"1 irqpoll maxcpus=1 reset_devices"
"1 irqpoll nr_cpus=1 reset_devices"
For ppc64:
@ -400,7 +445,7 @@ For ppc64:
For s390x:
"1 maxcpus=1 cgroup_disable=memory"
"1 nr_cpus=1 cgroup_disable=memory"
For arm:
@ -408,7 +453,7 @@ For arm:
For arm64:
"1 maxcpus=1 reset_devices"
"1 nr_cpus=1 reset_devices"
Notes on loading the dump-capture kernel:
@ -488,6 +533,10 @@ the following command::
cp /proc/vmcore <dump-file>
You can also use makedumpfile utility to write out the dump file
with specified options to filter out unwanted contents, e.g::
makedumpfile -l --message-level 1 -d 31 /proc/vmcore <dump-file>
Analysis
========
@ -535,8 +584,7 @@ This will cause a kdump to occur at the add_taint()->panic() call.
Contact
=======
- Vivek Goyal (vgoyal@redhat.com)
- Maneesh Soni (maneesh@in.ibm.com)
- kexec@lists.infradead.org
GDB macros
==========