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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/networking/netconsole.txt')
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diff --git a/Documentation/networking/netconsole.txt b/Documentation/networking/netconsole.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000..a5d574a9a --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/networking/netconsole.txt @@ -0,0 +1,177 @@ + +started by Ingo Molnar <mingo@redhat.com>, 2001.09.17 +2.6 port and netpoll api by Matt Mackall <mpm@selenic.com>, Sep 9 2003 +IPv6 support by Cong Wang <xiyou.wangcong@gmail.com>, Jan 1 2013 + +Please send bug reports to Matt Mackall <mpm@selenic.com> +Satyam Sharma <satyam.sharma@gmail.com>, and Cong Wang <xiyou.wangcong@gmail.com> + +Introduction: +============= + +This module logs kernel printk messages over UDP allowing debugging of +problem where disk logging fails and serial consoles are impractical. + +It can be used either built-in or as a module. As a built-in, +netconsole initializes immediately after NIC cards and will bring up +the specified interface as soon as possible. While this doesn't allow +capture of early kernel panics, it does capture most of the boot +process. + +Sender and receiver configuration: +================================== + +It takes a string configuration parameter "netconsole" in the +following format: + + netconsole=[src-port]@[src-ip]/[<dev>],[tgt-port]@<tgt-ip>/[tgt-macaddr] + + where + src-port source for UDP packets (defaults to 6665) + src-ip source IP to use (interface address) + dev network interface (eth0) + tgt-port port for logging agent (6666) + tgt-ip IP address for logging agent + tgt-macaddr ethernet MAC address for logging agent (broadcast) + +Examples: + + linux netconsole=4444@10.0.0.1/eth1,9353@10.0.0.2/12:34:56:78:9a:bc + + or + + insmod netconsole netconsole=@/,@10.0.0.2/ + + or using IPv6 + + insmod netconsole netconsole=@/,@fd00:1:2:3::1/ + +It also supports logging to multiple remote agents by specifying +parameters for the multiple agents separated by semicolons and the +complete string enclosed in "quotes", thusly: + + modprobe netconsole netconsole="@/,@10.0.0.2/;@/eth1,6892@10.0.0.3/" + +Built-in netconsole starts immediately after the TCP stack is +initialized and attempts to bring up the supplied dev at the supplied +address. + +The remote host has several options to receive the kernel messages, +for example: + +1) syslogd + +2) netcat + + On distributions using a BSD-based netcat version (e.g. Fedora, + openSUSE and Ubuntu) the listening port must be specified without + the -p switch: + + 'nc -u -l -p <port>' / 'nc -u -l <port>' or + 'netcat -u -l -p <port>' / 'netcat -u -l <port>' + +3) socat + + 'socat udp-recv:<port> -' + +Dynamic reconfiguration: +======================== + +Dynamic reconfigurability is a useful addition to netconsole that enables +remote logging targets to be dynamically added, removed, or have their +parameters reconfigured at runtime from a configfs-based userspace interface. +[ Note that the parameters of netconsole targets that were specified/created +from the boot/module option are not exposed via this interface, and hence +cannot be modified dynamically. ] + +To include this feature, select CONFIG_NETCONSOLE_DYNAMIC when building the +netconsole module (or kernel, if netconsole is built-in). + +Some examples follow (where configfs is mounted at the /sys/kernel/config +mountpoint). + +To add a remote logging target (target names can be arbitrary): + + cd /sys/kernel/config/netconsole/ + mkdir target1 + +Note that newly created targets have default parameter values (as mentioned +above) and are disabled by default -- they must first be enabled by writing +"1" to the "enabled" attribute (usually after setting parameters accordingly) +as described below. + +To remove a target: + + rmdir /sys/kernel/config/netconsole/othertarget/ + +The interface exposes these parameters of a netconsole target to userspace: + + enabled Is this target currently enabled? (read-write) + dev_name Local network interface name (read-write) + local_port Source UDP port to use (read-write) + remote_port Remote agent's UDP port (read-write) + local_ip Source IP address to use (read-write) + remote_ip Remote agent's IP address (read-write) + local_mac Local interface's MAC address (read-only) + remote_mac Remote agent's MAC address (read-write) + +The "enabled" attribute is also used to control whether the parameters of +a target can be updated or not -- you can modify the parameters of only +disabled targets (i.e. if "enabled" is 0). + +To update a target's parameters: + + cat enabled # check if enabled is 1 + echo 0 > enabled # disable the target (if required) + echo eth2 > dev_name # set local interface + echo 10.0.0.4 > remote_ip # update some parameter + echo cb:a9:87:65:43:21 > remote_mac # update more parameters + echo 1 > enabled # enable target again + +You can also update the local interface dynamically. This is especially +useful if you want to use interfaces that have newly come up (and may not +have existed when netconsole was loaded / initialized). + +Miscellaneous notes: +==================== + +WARNING: the default target ethernet setting uses the broadcast +ethernet address to send packets, which can cause increased load on +other systems on the same ethernet segment. + +TIP: some LAN switches may be configured to suppress ethernet broadcasts +so it is advised to explicitly specify the remote agents' MAC addresses +from the config parameters passed to netconsole. + +TIP: to find out the MAC address of, say, 10.0.0.2, you may try using: + + ping -c 1 10.0.0.2 ; /sbin/arp -n | grep 10.0.0.2 + +TIP: in case the remote logging agent is on a separate LAN subnet than +the sender, it is suggested to try specifying the MAC address of the +default gateway (you may use /sbin/route -n to find it out) as the +remote MAC address instead. + +NOTE: the network device (eth1 in the above case) can run any kind +of other network traffic, netconsole is not intrusive. Netconsole +might cause slight delays in other traffic if the volume of kernel +messages is high, but should have no other impact. + +NOTE: if you find that the remote logging agent is not receiving or +printing all messages from the sender, it is likely that you have set +the "console_loglevel" parameter (on the sender) to only send high +priority messages to the console. You can change this at runtime using: + + dmesg -n 8 + +or by specifying "debug" on the kernel command line at boot, to send +all kernel messages to the console. A specific value for this parameter +can also be set using the "loglevel" kernel boot option. See the +dmesg(8) man page and Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt for details. + +Netconsole was designed to be as instantaneous as possible, to +enable the logging of even the most critical kernel bugs. It works +from IRQ contexts as well, and does not enable interrupts while +sending packets. Due to these unique needs, configuration cannot +be more automatic, and some fundamental limitations will remain: +only IP networks, UDP packets and ethernet devices are supported. |