[PATCH] kdump: Documentation for Kdump

This patch contains the documentation for the kexec based crash dump tool.

Quick kdump-howto
================================================================

1) Download and build kexec-tools.

2) Download and build the latest kexec/kdump (-mm) kernel patchset.
   Two kernels need to be built in order to get this feature working.

  A) First kernel:
   a) Enable "kexec system call" feature:
	CONFIG_KEXEC=y
   b) Physical load address (use default):
	CONFIG_PHYSICAL_START=0x100000
   c) Enable "sysfs file system support":
	CONFIG_SYSFS=y
   d) Boot into first kernel with the command line parameter "crashkernel=Y@X":
      For example: "crashkernel=64M@16M".

  B) Second kernel:
   a) Enable "kernel crash dumps" feature:
	CONFIG_CRASH_DUMP=y
   b) Physical load addreess, use same load address as X in "crashkernel"
      kernel parameter in d) above, e.g., 16 MB or 0x1000000.
	CONFIG_PHYSICAL_START=0x1000000
   c) Enable "/proc/vmcore support" (Optional, in Pseudo filesystems).
	CONFIG_PROC_VMCORE=y

3) Boot into the first kernel.

4) Load the second kernel to be booted using:

   kexec -p <second-kernel> --crash-dump --args-linux --append="root=<root-dev>
   maxcpus=1 init 1"

5) System reboots into the second kernel when a panic occurs. A module can be
   written to force the panic, for testing purposes.

6) See Documentation/kdump.txt for how to read the first kernel's
   memory image and how to analyze it.

Signed-off-by: Hariprasad Nellitheertha <hari@in.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Eric Biederman <ebiederm@xmission.com>
Signed-off-by: Vivek Goyal <vgoyal@in.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: randy_dunlap <rdunlap@xenotime.net>
Signed-off-by: Maneesh Soni <maneesh@in.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>
This commit is contained in:
Vivek Goyal 2005-06-25 14:58:15 -07:00 committed by Linus Torvalds
parent a3ea8ac846
commit b089f4a68e
3 changed files with 316 additions and 0 deletions

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@ -138,6 +138,8 @@ java.txt
- info on the in-kernel binary support for Java(tm).
kbuild/
- directory with info about the kernel build process.
kdumpt.txt
- mini HowTo on getting the crash dump code to work.
kernel-doc-nano-HOWTO.txt
- mini HowTo on generation and location of kernel documentation files.
kernel-docs.txt

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@ -0,0 +1,179 @@
#
# This file contains a few gdb macros (user defined commands) to extract
# useful information from kernel crashdump (kdump) like stack traces of
# all the processes or a particular process and trapinfo.
#
# These macros can be used by copying this file in .gdbinit (put in home
# directory or current directory) or by invoking gdb command with
# --command=<command-file-name> option
#
# Credits:
# Alexander Nyberg <alexn@telia.com>
# V Srivatsa <vatsa@in.ibm.com>
# Maneesh Soni <maneesh@in.ibm.com>
#
define bttnobp
set $tasks_off=((size_t)&((struct task_struct *)0)->tasks)
set $pid_off=((size_t)&((struct task_struct *)0)->pids[1].pid_list.next)
set $init_t=&init_task
set $next_t=(((char *)($init_t->tasks).next) - $tasks_off)
while ($next_t != $init_t)
set $next_t=(struct task_struct *)$next_t
printf "\npid %d; comm %s:\n", $next_t.pid, $next_t.comm
printf "===================\n"
set var $stackp = $next_t.thread.esp
set var $stack_top = ($stackp & ~4095) + 4096
while ($stackp < $stack_top)
if (*($stackp) > _stext && *($stackp) < _sinittext)
info symbol *($stackp)
end
set $stackp += 4
end
set $next_th=(((char *)$next_t->pids[1].pid_list.next) - $pid_off)
while ($next_th != $next_t)
set $next_th=(struct task_struct *)$next_th
printf "\npid %d; comm %s:\n", $next_t.pid, $next_t.comm
printf "===================\n"
set var $stackp = $next_t.thread.esp
set var $stack_top = ($stackp & ~4095) + 4096
while ($stackp < $stack_top)
if (*($stackp) > _stext && *($stackp) < _sinittext)
info symbol *($stackp)
end
set $stackp += 4
end
set $next_th=(((char *)$next_th->pids[1].pid_list.next) - $pid_off)
end
set $next_t=(char *)($next_t->tasks.next) - $tasks_off
end
end
document bttnobp
dump all thread stack traces on a kernel compiled with !CONFIG_FRAME_POINTER
end
define btt
set $tasks_off=((size_t)&((struct task_struct *)0)->tasks)
set $pid_off=((size_t)&((struct task_struct *)0)->pids[1].pid_list.next)
set $init_t=&init_task
set $next_t=(((char *)($init_t->tasks).next) - $tasks_off)
while ($next_t != $init_t)
set $next_t=(struct task_struct *)$next_t
printf "\npid %d; comm %s:\n", $next_t.pid, $next_t.comm
printf "===================\n"
set var $stackp = $next_t.thread.esp
set var $stack_top = ($stackp & ~4095) + 4096
set var $stack_bot = ($stackp & ~4095)
set $stackp = *($stackp)
while (($stackp < $stack_top) && ($stackp > $stack_bot))
set var $addr = *($stackp + 4)
info symbol $addr
set $stackp = *($stackp)
end
set $next_th=(((char *)$next_t->pids[1].pid_list.next) - $pid_off)
while ($next_th != $next_t)
set $next_th=(struct task_struct *)$next_th
printf "\npid %d; comm %s:\n", $next_t.pid, $next_t.comm
printf "===================\n"
set var $stackp = $next_t.thread.esp
set var $stack_top = ($stackp & ~4095) + 4096
set var $stack_bot = ($stackp & ~4095)
set $stackp = *($stackp)
while (($stackp < $stack_top) && ($stackp > $stack_bot))
set var $addr = *($stackp + 4)
info symbol $addr
set $stackp = *($stackp)
end
set $next_th=(((char *)$next_th->pids[1].pid_list.next) - $pid_off)
end
set $next_t=(char *)($next_t->tasks.next) - $tasks_off
end
end
document btt
dump all thread stack traces on a kernel compiled with CONFIG_FRAME_POINTER
end
define btpid
set var $pid = $arg0
set $tasks_off=((size_t)&((struct task_struct *)0)->tasks)
set $pid_off=((size_t)&((struct task_struct *)0)->pids[1].pid_list.next)
set $init_t=&init_task
set $next_t=(((char *)($init_t->tasks).next) - $tasks_off)
set var $pid_task = 0
while ($next_t != $init_t)
set $next_t=(struct task_struct *)$next_t
if ($next_t.pid == $pid)
set $pid_task = $next_t
end
set $next_th=(((char *)$next_t->pids[1].pid_list.next) - $pid_off)
while ($next_th != $next_t)
set $next_th=(struct task_struct *)$next_th
if ($next_th.pid == $pid)
set $pid_task = $next_th
end
set $next_th=(((char *)$next_th->pids[1].pid_list.next) - $pid_off)
end
set $next_t=(char *)($next_t->tasks.next) - $tasks_off
end
printf "\npid %d; comm %s:\n", $pid_task.pid, $pid_task.comm
printf "===================\n"
set var $stackp = $pid_task.thread.esp
set var $stack_top = ($stackp & ~4095) + 4096
set var $stack_bot = ($stackp & ~4095)
set $stackp = *($stackp)
while (($stackp < $stack_top) && ($stackp > $stack_bot))
set var $addr = *($stackp + 4)
info symbol $addr
set $stackp = *($stackp)
end
end
document btpid
backtrace of pid
end
define trapinfo
set var $pid = $arg0
set $tasks_off=((size_t)&((struct task_struct *)0)->tasks)
set $pid_off=((size_t)&((struct task_struct *)0)->pids[1].pid_list.next)
set $init_t=&init_task
set $next_t=(((char *)($init_t->tasks).next) - $tasks_off)
set var $pid_task = 0
while ($next_t != $init_t)
set $next_t=(struct task_struct *)$next_t
if ($next_t.pid == $pid)
set $pid_task = $next_t
end
set $next_th=(((char *)$next_t->pids[1].pid_list.next) - $pid_off)
while ($next_th != $next_t)
set $next_th=(struct task_struct *)$next_th
if ($next_th.pid == $pid)
set $pid_task = $next_th
end
set $next_th=(((char *)$next_th->pids[1].pid_list.next) - $pid_off)
end
set $next_t=(char *)($next_t->tasks.next) - $tasks_off
end
printf "Trapno %ld, cr2 0x%lx, error_code %ld\n", $pid_task.thread.trap_no, \
$pid_task.thread.cr2, $pid_task.thread.error_code
end
document trapinfo
Run info threads and lookup pid of thread #1
'trapinfo <pid>' will tell you by which trap & possibly
addresthe kernel paniced.
end

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@ -0,0 +1,135 @@
Documentation for kdump - the kexec-based crash dumping solution
================================================================
DESIGN
======
Kdump uses kexec to reboot to a second kernel whenever a dump needs to be taken.
This second kernel is booted with very little memory. The first kernel reserves
the section of memory that the second kernel uses. This ensures that on-going
DMA from the first kernel does not corrupt the second kernel.
All the necessary information about Core image is encoded in ELF format and
stored in reserved area of memory before crash. Physical address of start of
ELF header is passed to new kernel through command line parameter elfcorehdr=.
On i386, the first 640 KB of physical memory is needed to boot, irrespective
of where the kernel loads. Hence, this region is backed up by kexec just before
rebooting into the new kernel.
In the second kernel, "old memory" can be accessed in two ways.
- The first one is through a /dev/oldmem device interface. A capture utility
can read the device file and write out the memory in raw format. This is raw
dump of memory and analysis/capture tool should be intelligent enough to
determine where to look for the right information. ELF headers (elfcorehdr=)
can become handy here.
- The second interface is through /proc/vmcore. This exports the dump as an ELF
format file which can be written out using any file copy command
(cp, scp, etc). Further, gdb can be used to perform limited debugging on
the dump file. This method ensures methods ensure that there is correct
ordering of the dump pages (corresponding to the first 640 KB that has been
relocated).
SETUP
=====
1) Download http://www.xmission.com/~ebiederm/files/kexec/kexec-tools-1.101.tar.gz
and apply http://lse.sourceforge.net/kdump/patches/kexec-tools-1.101-kdump.patch
and after that build the source.
2) Download and build the appropriate (latest) kexec/kdump (-mm) kernel
patchset and apply it to the vanilla kernel tree.
Two kernels need to be built in order to get this feature working.
A) First kernel:
a) Enable "kexec system call" feature (in Processor type and features).
CONFIG_KEXEC=y
b) This kernel's physical load address should be the default value of
0x100000 (0x100000, 1 MB) (in Processor type and features).
CONFIG_PHYSICAL_START=0x100000
c) Enable "sysfs file system support" (in Pseudo filesystems).
CONFIG_SYSFS=y
d) Boot into first kernel with the command line parameter "crashkernel=Y@X".
Use appropriate values for X and Y. Y denotes how much memory to reserve
for the second kernel, and X denotes at what physical address the reserved
memory section starts. For example: "crashkernel=64M@16M".
B) Second kernel:
a) Enable "kernel crash dumps" feature (in Processor type and features).
CONFIG_CRASH_DUMP=y
b) Specify a suitable value for "Physical address where the kernel is
loaded" (in Processor type and features). Typically this value
should be same as X (See option d) above, e.g., 16 MB or 0x1000000.
CONFIG_PHYSICAL_START=0x1000000
c) Enable "/proc/vmcore support" (Optional, in Pseudo filesystems).
CONFIG_PROC_VMCORE=y
Note: Options a) and b) depend upon "Configure standard kernel features
(for small systems)" (under General setup).
Option a) also depends on CONFIG_HIGHMEM (under Processor
type and features).
Both option a) and b) are under "Processor type and features".
3) Boot into the first kernel. You are now ready to try out kexec-based crash
dumps.
4) Load the second kernel to be booted using:
kexec -p <second-kernel> --crash-dump --args-linux --append="root=<root-dev>
maxcpus=1 init 1"
Note: i) <second-kernel> has to be a vmlinux image. bzImage will not work,
as of now.
ii) By default ELF headers are stored in ELF32 format (for i386). This
is sufficient to represent the physical memory up to 4GB. To store
headers in ELF64 format, specifiy "--elf64-core-headers" on the
kexec command line additionally.
iii) For now (or until it is fixed), it's best to build the
second-kernel without multi-processor support, i.e., make it
a uniprocessor kernel.
5) System reboots into the second kernel when a panic occurs. A module can be
written to force the panic, for testing purposes.
6) Write out the dump file using
cp /proc/vmcore <dump-file>
Dump memory can also be accessed as a /dev/oldmem device for a linear/raw
view. To create the device, type:
mknod /dev/oldmem c 1 12
Use "dd" with suitable options for count, bs and skip to access specific
portions of the dump.
Entire memory: dd if=/dev/oldmem of=oldmem.001
ANALYSIS
========
Limited analysis can be done using gdb on the dump file copied out of
/proc/vmcore. Use vmlinux built with -g and run
gdb vmlinux <dump-file>
Stack trace for the task on processor 0, register display, memory display
work fine.
Note: gdb cannot analyse core files generated in ELF64 format for i386.
TODO
====
1) Provide a kernel pages filtering mechanism so that core file size is not
insane on systems having huge memory banks.
2) Modify "crash" tool to make it recognize this dump.
CONTACT
=======
Hariprasad Nellitheertha - hari at in dot ibm dot com
Vivek Goyal (vgoyal@in.ibm.com)