Bug 436335
| Summary: | mkinitrd should not depend on device-mapper-multipath | ||||||||
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| Product: | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 | Reporter: | Bryn M. Reeves <bmr> | ||||||
| Component: | mkinitrd | Assignee: | Peter Jones <pjones> | ||||||
| Status: | CLOSED CANTFIX | QA Contact: | |||||||
| Severity: | medium | Docs Contact: | |||||||
| Priority: | high | ||||||||
| Version: | 5.1 | CC: | tao | ||||||
| Target Milestone: | rc | ||||||||
| Target Release: | --- | ||||||||
| Hardware: | All | ||||||||
| OS: | Linux | ||||||||
| Whiteboard: | |||||||||
| Fixed In Version: | Doc Type: | Bug Fix | |||||||
| Doc Text: | Story Points: | --- | |||||||
| Clone Of: | Environment: | ||||||||
| Last Closed: | 2008-07-15 17:33:33 UTC | Type: | --- | ||||||
| Regression: | --- | Mount Type: | --- | ||||||
| Documentation: | --- | CRM: | |||||||
| Verified Versions: | Category: | --- | |||||||
| oVirt Team: | --- | RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host: | |||||||
| Cloudforms Team: | --- | Target Upstream Version: | |||||||
| Embargoed: | |||||||||
| Attachments: |
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Created attachment 298386 [details]
Patch to check for static multipath tools & abort if not present
Add a runtime check to mkinitrd and abort if static multipath tools are not
present.
Created attachment 298387 [details]
Patch to check for static multipath tools & warn/fallback to single path if not present
Add a runtime check for static multipath tools to mkinitrd and warn but
continue to create a non-multipath image.
Although there are other fatal errors in mkinitrd that will abort the script they seem to be for somewhat less likely error cases; the patch in comment #2 will e.g. prevent automatic kernel updates from working (since building the image will abort when new-kernel-pkg runs mkinitrd). The second patch in comment #3 avoids this by issuing a warning & falling back to a non-multipath image (similar to the warning given when a module does not exist for the target kernel). This request was evaluated by Red Hat Product Management for inclusion in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux maintenance release. Product Management has requested further review of this request by Red Hat Engineering, for potential inclusion in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Update release for currently deployed products. This request is not yet committed for inclusion in an Update release. There's really no way to do this correctly until we can specify ordering constraints that /aren't/ dependencies in rpm packages. If we're /using/ multipath, then we need to have it installed before mkinitrd is. The only way to constrain that currently is to have the package require it. |
Description of problem: It is sometimes desirable to completely disable device-mapper-multipath on a system (for example when using a 3rd party multipathing solution, or when building a minimal system with no need for this functionality). The most straightforward and effective route to do this is to remove the entire device-mapper-multipath package from the system. This was possible in RHEL4 but is no longer simple in RHEL5 due to a mkinitrd dependency: # rpm -q --requires mkinitrd | grep multipath device-mapper-multipath >= 0.4.7-9 device-mapper-multipath >= 0.4.7-9 $ grep 'Requires.*multipath' mkinitrd.spec Requires: device-mapper-multipath >= 0.4.7-9, kpartx >= 0.4.7-9 This was introduced with the multipath-boot-from-SAN support in RHEL-5.1: * Tue Jun 19 2007 David Cantrell <dcantrell> - 5.1.19.6-6 - Require device-mapper-multipath and kpartx packages Related: rhbz#185852 This was added as a version-specific Requires in order to make sure that the *.static versions of the mpath_prio callouts & multipath itself. Older versions of the packages do not provide these and cannot be used in the RHEL5-style initramfs. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): 5.1.19.6-25.EL How reproducible: 100% Steps to Reproduce: 1. rpm -e device-mapper-multipath Actual results: # rpm -e device-mapper-multipath error: Failed dependencies: device-mapper-multipath >= 0.4.7-9 is needed by (installed) mkinitrd-5.1.19.6-19.x86_64 device-mapper-multipath >= 0.4.7-9 is needed by (installed) mkinitrd-5.1.19.6-19.i386 Expected results: # rpm -e device-mapper-multipath # Additional info: Changing this would seem to need a runtime check for the presence of the static versions of multipath-tools. This means either aborting a mkinitrd run or abandoning the attempt to make a multipath initramfs and continuing to build a non-mpath image.