173 lines
6.4 KiB
Plaintext
173 lines
6.4 KiB
Plaintext
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started by Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>, 2001.09.17
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2.6 port and netpoll api by Matt Mackall <mpm@selenic.com>, Sep 9 2003
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Please send bug reports to Matt Mackall <mpm@selenic.com>
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and Satyam Sharma <satyam.sharma@gmail.com>
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Introduction:
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=============
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This module logs kernel printk messages over UDP allowing debugging of
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problem where disk logging fails and serial consoles are impractical.
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It can be used either built-in or as a module. As a built-in,
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netconsole initializes immediately after NIC cards and will bring up
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the specified interface as soon as possible. While this doesn't allow
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capture of early kernel panics, it does capture most of the boot
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process.
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Sender and receiver configuration:
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==================================
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It takes a string configuration parameter "netconsole" in the
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following format:
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netconsole=[src-port]@[src-ip]/[<dev>],[tgt-port]@<tgt-ip>/[tgt-macaddr]
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where
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src-port source for UDP packets (defaults to 6665)
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src-ip source IP to use (interface address)
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dev network interface (eth0)
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tgt-port port for logging agent (6666)
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tgt-ip IP address for logging agent
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tgt-macaddr ethernet MAC address for logging agent (broadcast)
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Examples:
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linux netconsole=4444@10.0.0.1/eth1,9353@10.0.0.2/12:34:56:78:9a:bc
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or
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insmod netconsole netconsole=@/,@10.0.0.2/
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It also supports logging to multiple remote agents by specifying
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parameters for the multiple agents separated by semicolons and the
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complete string enclosed in "quotes", thusly:
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modprobe netconsole netconsole="@/,@10.0.0.2/;@/eth1,6892@10.0.0.3/"
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Built-in netconsole starts immediately after the TCP stack is
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initialized and attempts to bring up the supplied dev at the supplied
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address.
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The remote host has several options to receive the kernel messages,
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for example:
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1) syslogd
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2) netcat
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On distributions using a BSD-based netcat version (e.g. Fedora,
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openSUSE and Ubuntu) the listening port must be specified without
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the -p switch:
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'nc -u -l -p <port>' / 'nc -u -l <port>' or
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'netcat -u -l -p <port>' / 'netcat -u -l <port>'
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3) socat
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'socat udp-recv:<port> -'
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Dynamic reconfiguration:
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========================
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Dynamic reconfigurability is a useful addition to netconsole that enables
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remote logging targets to be dynamically added, removed, or have their
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parameters reconfigured at runtime from a configfs-based userspace interface.
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[ Note that the parameters of netconsole targets that were specified/created
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from the boot/module option are not exposed via this interface, and hence
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cannot be modified dynamically. ]
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To include this feature, select CONFIG_NETCONSOLE_DYNAMIC when building the
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netconsole module (or kernel, if netconsole is built-in).
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Some examples follow (where configfs is mounted at the /sys/kernel/config
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mountpoint).
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To add a remote logging target (target names can be arbitrary):
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cd /sys/kernel/config/netconsole/
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mkdir target1
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Note that newly created targets have default parameter values (as mentioned
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above) and are disabled by default -- they must first be enabled by writing
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"1" to the "enabled" attribute (usually after setting parameters accordingly)
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as described below.
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To remove a target:
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rmdir /sys/kernel/config/netconsole/othertarget/
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The interface exposes these parameters of a netconsole target to userspace:
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enabled Is this target currently enabled? (read-write)
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dev_name Local network interface name (read-write)
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local_port Source UDP port to use (read-write)
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remote_port Remote agent's UDP port (read-write)
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local_ip Source IP address to use (read-write)
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remote_ip Remote agent's IP address (read-write)
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local_mac Local interface's MAC address (read-only)
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remote_mac Remote agent's MAC address (read-write)
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The "enabled" attribute is also used to control whether the parameters of
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a target can be updated or not -- you can modify the parameters of only
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disabled targets (i.e. if "enabled" is 0).
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To update a target's parameters:
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cat enabled # check if enabled is 1
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echo 0 > enabled # disable the target (if required)
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echo eth2 > dev_name # set local interface
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echo 10.0.0.4 > remote_ip # update some parameter
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echo cb:a9:87:65:43:21 > remote_mac # update more parameters
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echo 1 > enabled # enable target again
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You can also update the local interface dynamically. This is especially
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useful if you want to use interfaces that have newly come up (and may not
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have existed when netconsole was loaded / initialized).
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Miscellaneous notes:
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====================
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WARNING: the default target ethernet setting uses the broadcast
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ethernet address to send packets, which can cause increased load on
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other systems on the same ethernet segment.
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TIP: some LAN switches may be configured to suppress ethernet broadcasts
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so it is advised to explicitly specify the remote agents' MAC addresses
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from the config parameters passed to netconsole.
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TIP: to find out the MAC address of, say, 10.0.0.2, you may try using:
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ping -c 1 10.0.0.2 ; /sbin/arp -n | grep 10.0.0.2
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TIP: in case the remote logging agent is on a separate LAN subnet than
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the sender, it is suggested to try specifying the MAC address of the
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default gateway (you may use /sbin/route -n to find it out) as the
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remote MAC address instead.
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NOTE: the network device (eth1 in the above case) can run any kind
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of other network traffic, netconsole is not intrusive. Netconsole
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might cause slight delays in other traffic if the volume of kernel
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messages is high, but should have no other impact.
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NOTE: if you find that the remote logging agent is not receiving or
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printing all messages from the sender, it is likely that you have set
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the "console_loglevel" parameter (on the sender) to only send high
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priority messages to the console. You can change this at runtime using:
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dmesg -n 8
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or by specifying "debug" on the kernel command line at boot, to send
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all kernel messages to the console. A specific value for this parameter
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can also be set using the "loglevel" kernel boot option. See the
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dmesg(8) man page and Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt for details.
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Netconsole was designed to be as instantaneous as possible, to
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enable the logging of even the most critical kernel bugs. It works
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from IRQ contexts as well, and does not enable interrupts while
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sending packets. Due to these unique needs, configuration cannot
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be more automatic, and some fundamental limitations will remain:
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only IP networks, UDP packets and ethernet devices are supported.
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