From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Mon, 6 May 2002 04:56:34 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Mon, 6 May 2002 04:56:33 -0400 Received: from basfegw1.basf-ag.de ([141.6.1.21]:26021 "EHLO basfegw1.basf-ag.de") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Mon, 6 May 2002 04:56:30 -0400 Subject: Review: Servercrash with kernel SuSE 2.4.16 To: chris.mason@suse.com, alessandro.suardi@oracle.com Cc: sbrand@mainz.ibm.com, reiser@namesys.com, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org X-Mailer: Lotus Notes Version 5.0 (Intl) 14. April 1999 Message-ID: From: Oliver.Schersand@BASF-IT-Services.com Date: Mon, 6 May 2002 10:57:15 +0200 X-MIMETrack: Serialize by Router on EUROPE-Gw03/EUROPE/BASF(Release 5.0.8 |June 18, 2001) at 06/05/2002 10:56:11 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Hi, This is the actual result of the analys of our oracle server crashes on linux servers with suse Enterprise Server 7 and Kernel 2.4.16 The reason for theses crashes where the compaq remote inside and compaq health drivers. These drivers are deliverd from compaq. On stardup of these agents, they load binary kernel modules, which are very version sensitive. This modules corrupt the virtual memory management of the server on heavy load This shows us a main problem of Linux in datacenter environment. The automatic guarding of the local attached storage and the hardware is very importend in this environments. In this environment we use expensive high performance hardware. These hardware is not good supported by the standard linux kernel. The companies which sell these hardware deliver not all features of these hardware to the community of linux. There drivers and guarding agents are not distributed under GPL. Here is the statement of Compaq ( HPQ) The new health driver that can be run on any re-compiled kernel is due out in the SmartStart 5.50 timeframe (3Q02). The reason for this is that it also provides support for new servers as well. The delivery method will be via the Compaq web site and the SmartStart Cd. The customer expectation is that it will work with any re-compiled kernel. Most likely that will be true however it will be impossible for us to validate it with every possibility due to the open source nature of Linux. Today, customers actually can run the existing health driver on re-compiled kernels by evoking a "fix-up" script that will be available on our website. This is not an ideal solution but it will work in a majority of the situations. Thank you very much for all the help with this problem Oliver Schersand