My system always crashes down. So I decided to enable kdump to see the problem since I was not able to see possible errors on the log files.
I followed the steps to set up kdump from a site here. My server runs on CentOS 5.8 and 16GB RAM. Below are the steps I performed to configure kdump:
1. Install kexec-tools, `yum install kexec-tools` and follow the installation steps
2. Edit the /boot/grub/grub.conf to configure the kdump memory usage
3. Edit the /etc/kdump.cof to configure the target type to /var/crash/ and core_collector
4. Enable kdump through `chkconfig kdump on`.
5. Reboot the server
When I run service kdump status, it says Kdump is not operational.
What should I do make the kdump operational. Did i miss something to configure?
I included below the contents of my /boot/grub/grub.conf and /etc/kdump.conf
Bellow are the contents of the file /boot/grub/grub.conf
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda3
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title CentOS (2.6.18-308.el5)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-308.el5 ro root=LABEL=/
crashkernel=128M
initrd /initrd-2.6.18-308.el5.img
Below are the contents of the file /etc/kdump.conf
# Configures where to put the kdump /proc/vmcore files
#
# This file contains a series of commands to perform (in order) when a
# kernel crash has happened and the kdump kernel has been loaded. Directives in
# this file are only applicable to the kdump initramfs, and have no effect if
# the root filesystem is mounted and the normal init scripts are processed
#
# Currently only one dump target and path may be configured at once
# if the configured dump target fails, the default action will be preformed
# the default action may be configured with the default directive below. If the
# configured dump target succedes
#
# For filesystem based dump, it's recommended to use UUID and LABEL
# instead of device name in dump target.
#
# See the kdump.conf(5) man page for details of configuration directives
#raw /dev/sda5
#ext3 /dev/sda3
#ext3 LABEL=/boot
#ext3 UUID=03138356-5e61-4ab3-b58e-27507ac41937
#net my.server.com:/export/tmp
#net [email protected]
path /var/crash
core_collector makedumpfile -c --message-level 1
#core_collector cp --sparse=always
#link_delay 60
#kdump_post /var/crash/scripts/kdump-post.sh
#extra_bins /usr/bin/lftp
#disk_timeout 30
#extra_modules gfs2
#options modulename options
#default shell
#sshkey /root/.ssh/kdump_id_rsa
I also notice that my /boot/grub/grub.conf file differs from the sample grub.conf file from the tutorial. They differ in two lines:
From tutorial
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.32-220.el6.x86_64 ro root=/dev/sda3
initrd /initramfs-2.6.32-220.el6.x86_64.img
From own conf
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-308.el5 ro root=LABEL=/
initrd /initrd-2.6.18-308.el5.img
Could these lines cause the kdump not to start?
[EDIT 1] Content of /var/log/messages
Feb 25 02:18:28 61540 kernel: Command line: ro root=LABEL=/ crashkernel=128M
Feb 25 02:18:28 61540 kernel: BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
Feb 25 02:18:28 61540 kernel: BIOS-e820: 0000000000010000 - 000000000009a000 (usable)
Feb 25 02:18:28 61540 kernel: BIOS-e820: 000000000009f800 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
Feb 25 02:18:28 61540 kernel: BIOS-e820: 00000000000f0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
Feb 25 02:18:28 61540 kernel: BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 00000000cfda0000 (usable)
Feb 25 02:18:28 61540 kernel: BIOS-e820: 00000000cfda0000 - 00000000cfdd1000 (ACPI NVS)
Feb 25 02:18:28 61540 kernel: BIOS-e820: 00000000cfdd1000 - 00000000cfe00000 (ACPI data)
Feb 25 02:18:28 61540 kernel: BIOS-e820: 00000000cfe00000 - 00000000cff00000 (reserved)
Feb 25 02:18:28 61540 kernel: BIOS-e820: 00000000e0000000 - 00000000f0000000 (reserved)
Feb 25 02:18:28 61540 kernel: BIOS-e820: 00000000fec00000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
Feb 25 02:18:28 61540 kernel: BIOS-e820: 0000000100000000 - 000000042f000000 (usable)
Feb 25 02:18:28 61540 kernel: DMI 2.4 present.
Feb 25 02:18:28 61540 kernel: No NUMA configuration found
Feb 25 02:18:28 61540 kernel: Faking a node at 0000000000000000-000000042f000000
Feb 25 02:18:28 61540 kernel: Bootmem setup node 0 0000000000000000-000000042f000000
Feb 25 02:18:28 61540 kernel: Memory for crash kernel (0x0 to 0x0) notwithin permissible range
Feb 25 02:18:28 61540 kernel: disabling kdump
Feb 25 02:44:39 61540 kdump: No crashkernel parameter was specified or crashkernel memory reservation failed
Feb 25 02:44:39 61540 kdump: failed to start up
[EDIT 2] Or should I change the code ro root=LABEL= into ro root=/dev/sda3?
ro root=LABEL=/intoro root=/dev/sda3? --> DON'T do that without understanding.