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WARNING: The kernel was tainted before docker installation with status code 536870912

Troubleshooting


Problem

You installed Docker using the docker_redhat_install.sh script. You are installing on RHEL 7.4 and your kernel version is: 3.10.0-693.11.6.el7.x86_64 which is higher than 3.10.0-514 (as recommended in the documentation, see below). The Docker storage is overlay2.

From the documentation:

If you only specify an {INSTALL_PATH} value, for example docker_redhat_install.sh /ibm, then by default Watson Studio Local installs the docker with the overlay2 storage device (no raw disks needed). Ensure that you are using the proper kernel version before installing the docker with overlay2; otherwise, the overlay2 storage device might taint the kernel.

Recommendation: Use the overlay2 storage device for RHEL and CentOS operating systems with kernel versions higher than or equal to 3.10.0-514. For lower kernel versions, use the devicemapper storage device.

Also, you see from the Redhat page below that Overlay is a Technology Preview in Redhat 7.4.

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/7.4_release_notes/technology_previews_file_systems

And that "Technology Preview" message is the one you receive on the tainted kernel stuff. So question is, if Overlay2 is a TP on RHEL 7.4, is it safe to install Watson Studio Local on RHEL 7.4?

Diagnosing The Problem

Check the actual taint code as reported by the docker install script. You can also get it using the docker install script, see below example:

./docker_redhat_install.sh  /ibm check_kernel_taint

INFO: Docker is being installed with the overlay2 storage driver

====================================================================================

Running step: check_kernel_taint

WARNING: The kernel was tainted before docker installation with status code 536870912 and after docker installation with status code: 536870912. The following is a list of status codes and their descriptions:

1 – A module with a non-GPL license has been loaded, this includes modules with no license. Set by modutils >= 2.4.9 and module-init-tools.

2 – A module was force loaded by insmod -f. Set by modutils >= 2.4.9 and module-init-tools.

4 – Unsafe SMP processors: SMP with CPUs not designed for SMP.

8 – A module was forcibly unloaded from the system by rmmod -f.

16 – A hardware machine check error occurred on the system.

32 – A bad page was discovered on the system.

64 – The user has asked that the system be marked “tainted”. This could be because they are running software that directly modifies the hardware, or for other reasons.

128 – The system has died.

256 – The ACPI DSDT has been overridden with one supplied by the user instead of using the one provided by the hardware.

512 – A kernel warning has occurred.

1024 – A module from drivers/staging was loaded.

268435456 – Unsupported hardware

536870912 – Technology Preview code was loaded

====================================================================================

In our case we saw:

WARNING: The kernel was tainted before docker installation with status code 536870912 .

Resolving The Problem

You should use RHEL 7.5 or 7.6 when using overlay2 for docker. Installing docker using overlay2 docker storage driver will taint the kernel with 7.4, you should try devicemapper instead.
However, it should not be a problem having the kernel tainted.

Document Location

Worldwide

[{"Business Unit":{"code":"BU059","label":"IBM Software w\/o TPS"},"Product":{"code":"SSHGWL","label":"IBM Watson Studio Local"},"Component":"","Platform":[{"code":"PF016","label":"Linux"}],"Version":"All Versions","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB10","label":"Data and AI"}}]

Document Information

Modified date:
30 December 2019

UID

ibm10882896

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