Bug 672245

Summary: Upgrade to RHEL5.5 kernel missing mkinitrd dependency leads to multipath failure with EMC Clariion boot setup
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Reporter: Dave Wysochanski <dwysocha>
Component: kernelAssignee: Jarod Wilson <jarod>
Status: CLOSED NOTABUG QA Contact: Red Hat Kernel QE team <kernel-qe>
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: 5.5CC: bturner, jwest, mchristi
Target Milestone: rc   
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: Unspecified   
OS: Unspecified   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Clariion multipath boot
Last Closed: 2011-10-24 01:26:39 UTC Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:

Description Dave Wysochanski 2011-01-24 15:14:38 UTC 
Description of problem: RHEL5.5 kernel does not depend on mkinitrd RHEL5.5, leading to upgrade failure for EMC Clariion multipath boot.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
kernel-2.6.18-194.el5 kernel-2.6.18-194.26.1

How reproducible:
Only when upgrading kernel only, and only with storage that involves scsi_dh_emc (Clariion).

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install multipath boot with a Clariion storage, RHEL5.4
2. Update kernel to RHEL5.5 (either 2.6.18-194 or 2.6.18-194.26.1)
3. Observe that both dm-emc and scsi_dh_emc are loaded, and multipath unable to failover properly.
  
Actual results:
Both dm-emc or scsi_dh_emc modules are loaded, and multipath unable to failover properly.

Expected results:
Only one of dm-emc or scsi_dh_emc modules should be loaded.

Additional info:
Interestingly, the dependencies for kernel-2.6.18-194 lists mkinitrd 4.2.21-1, but RHEL5.x ships mkinitrd-5.1.19.x.  Seems odd.
$ rpm -q --requires -p kernel-2.6.18-194.el5.x86_64.rpm | grep mkinitrd
mkinitrd >= 4.2.21-1

Also, there is no mkinitrd dependency for 5.5.z:
[dwysocha-local@f12-work rpms]$ rpm -q --requires -p kernel-2.6.18-194.26.1.el5.src.rpm | grep mkinitrd
[dwysocha-local@f12-work rpms]$ 

This kbase describes how to update the RHEL kernel, and mentions that mkinitrd "might" need to be updated:
https://access.redhat.com/kb/docs/DOC-40469

However, why not add the dependency on mkinitrd for the RHEL version that is being released?  Are there more potential for upgrade bugs there, so our policy is to not add the dependency?
Comment 1 RHEL Program Management 2011-06-20 22:30:00 UTC 
This request was evaluated by Red Hat Product Management for inclusion in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.7 and Red Hat does not plan to fix this issue the currently developed update.

Contact your manager or support representative in case you need to escalate this bug.