linux-kernel - RE: [V4 PATCH 4/4] x86/apic: Introduce noextnmi boot option

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Date:	Thu, 1 Oct 2015 02:33:18 +0000
From:	河合英宏 / KAWAI，HIDEHIRO 
	<hidehiro.kawai.ez@...achi.com>
To:	"'Peter Zijlstra'" <peterz@...radead.org>
CC:	Jonathan Corbet <corbet@....net>, Ingo Molnar <mingo@...nel.org>,
	"Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm@...ssion.com>,
	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
	Vivek Goyal <vgoyal@...hat.com>,
	"linux-doc@...r.kernel.org" <linux-doc@...r.kernel.org>,
	"x86@...nel.org" <x86@...nel.org>,
	"kexec@...ts.infradead.org" <kexec@...ts.infradead.org>,
	"linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	Michal Hocko <mhocko@...nel.org>,
	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>,
	平松雅巳 / HIRAMATU，MASAMI 
	<masami.hiramatsu.pt@...achi.com>
Subject: RE: [V4 PATCH 4/4] x86/apic: Introduce noextnmi boot option

> On Fri, Sep 25, 2015 at 08:28:11PM +0900, Hidehiro Kawai wrote:
> > This patch introduces new boot option "noextnmi" which disables
> > external NMI.  This option is useful for the dump capture kernel
> > so that an HA application or administrator wouldn't mistakenly
> > shoot down the kernel by NMI.
> 
> So that they can get really stuck when the crash kernel crashes, right?
> ;-)

No, it is different from my intention.

`mistakenly' in the above means; they issue NMI due to a misconception
that the monitored host is stuck in the 1st kernel while it is actually
taking a crash dump in the 2nd kernel.  To avoid this kind of accident,
there is a tool such as fence_kdump which notifies "I'm taking a crash
dump, so don't send NMI" to the HA clustering software.  However, there
is a time window between kernel panic and the notification.

"noextnmi" allows users to avoid this kind of accident all the time of
2nd kernel.

Regards,

Hidehiro Kawai
Hitachi, Ltd. Research & Development Group