IBM Support

Configuring a watchdog with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, Update 2 - IBM BladeCenter

Troubleshooting


Problem

Instructions for setting up a watchdog on the IBM BladeCenter QS22 and IBM BladeCenter QS21 blade servers are not available.

Resolving The Problem

Source

RETAIN tip: H193946

Issue

Below are instructions for setting up a watchdog timer on IBM blade systems with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (RHEL5).

Affected configurations

The system may be any of the following IBM Servers:

  • BladeCenter HS21 XM, type 1915, any model
  • BladeCenter HS21 XM, type 7995, any model
  • BladeCenter HS21, type 1885, any model
  • BladeCenter HS21, type 8853, any model
  • BladeCenter HS22, type 1936, any model
  • BladeCenter HS22, type 7870, any model
  • BladeCenter HS22V, type 1949, any model
  • BladeCenter HS22V, type 7871, any model
  • BladeCenter HX5, type 7872, any model
  • BladeCenter QS21, type 0792, any model
  • BladeCenter QS22, type 0793, any model

This tip is not option specific.

The system is configured with at least one of the following:

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, any update

This tip is not option specific.
The system has the symptom described above.

Note: This does not imply that the network operating system will work under all combinations of hardware and software.

Please see the compatibility page for more information:

Additional information

Complete the following steps to set up the watchdog:

  1. Ensure that the packages "OpenIPMI" and "watchdog" are installed. Install them if necessary.
  2. Open /etc/sysconfig/ipmi in the preferred editor to configure Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI).
  3. Set the following options as shown:

    IPMI_SI=yes
    DEV_IPMI=yes
    IPMI_WATCHDOG=yes
    IPMI_WATCHDOG_OPTIONS="timeout=60 start_now=1
    action=power_cycle"
    IPMI_POWEROFF=yes
    IPMI_POWERCYCLE=yes
    IPMI_IMB=no

    These settings configure a timeout of 60 seconds, start the watchdog immediately, and do a power cycle if the watchdog times out.

  4. Open /etc/watchdog.conf in the preferred editor to configure the watchdog.
  5. Set the following options as shown:

    file = /var/log/messages
    watchdog-device = /dev/watchdog
    realtime = yes
    priority = 1
    pidfile = /var/run/syslogd.pid


  6. Optional: The user can enable both IPMI and the watchdog at boot time, for example, by using ntsysv or chkconfig. To start IPMI and the watchdog from a terminal session enter these commands:

    service IPMI start
    service watchdog start

    Note: If the user kills the watchdog daemon, then the blade server is rebooted automatically after 60 seconds.

 

Document Location

Worldwide

Operating System

BladeCenter:Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5

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Document Information

Modified date:
18 April 2023

UID

ibm1MIGR-5077510

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