| .. include:: <isonum.txt> |
| |
| ============================================ |
| Reliability, Availability and Serviceability |
| ============================================ |
| |
| RAS concepts |
| ************ |
| |
| Reliability, Availability and Serviceability (RAS) is a concept used on |
| servers meant to measure their robusteness. |
| |
| Reliability |
| is the probability that a system will produce correct outputs. |
| |
| * Generally measured as Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) |
| * Enhanced by features that help to avoid, detect and repair hardware faults |
| |
| Availability |
| is the probability that a system is operational at a given time |
| |
| * Generally measured as a percentage of downtime per a period of time |
| * Often uses mechanisms to detect and correct hardware faults in |
| runtime; |
| |
| Serviceability (or maintainability) |
| is the simplicity and speed with which a system can be repaired or |
| maintained |
| |
| * Generally measured on Mean Time Between Repair (MTBR) |
| |
| Improving RAS |
| ------------- |
| |
| In order to reduce systems downtime, a system should be capable of detecting |
| hardware errors, and, when possible correcting them in runtime. It should |
| also provide mechanisms to detect hardware degradation, in order to warn |
| the system administrator to take the action of replacing a component before |
| it causes data loss or system downtime. |
| |
| Among the monitoring measures, the most usual ones include: |
| |
| * CPU – detect errors at instruction execution and at L1/L2/L3 caches; |
| * Memory – add error correction logic (ECC) to detect and correct errors; |
| * I/O – add CRC checksums for tranfered data; |
| * Storage – RAID, journal file systems, checksums, |
| Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology (SMART). |
| |
| By monitoring the number of occurrences of error detections, it is possible |
| to identify if the probability of hardware errors is increasing, and, on such |
| case, do a preventive maintainance to replace a degrated component while |
| those errors are correctable. |
| |
| Types of errors |
| --------------- |
| |
| Most mechanisms used on modern systems use use technologies like Hamming |
| Codes that allow error correction when the number of errors on a bit packet |
| is below a threshold. If the number of errors is above, those mechanisms |
| can indicate with a high degree of confidence that an error happened, but |
| they can't correct. |
| |
| Also, sometimes an error occur on a component that it is not used. For |
| example, a part of the memory that it is not currently allocated. |
| |
| That defines some categories of errors: |
| |
| * **Correctable Error (CE)** - the error detection mechanism detected and |
| corrected the error. Such errors are usually not fatal, although some |
| Kernel mechanisms allow the system administrator to consider them as fatal. |
| |
| * **Uncorrected Error (UE)** - the amount of errors happened above the error |
| correction threshold, and the system was unable to auto-correct. |
| |
| * **Fatal Error** - when an UE error happens on a critical component of the |
| system (for example, a piece of the Kernel got corrupted by an UE), the |
| only reliable way to avoid data corruption is to hang or reboot the machine. |
| |
| * **Non-fatal Error** - when an UE error happens on an unused component, |
| like a CPU in power down state or an unused memory bank, the system may |
| still run, eventually replacing the affected hardware by a hot spare, |
| if available. |
| |
| Also, when an error happens on a userspace process, it is also possible to |
| kill such process and let userspace restart it. |
| |
| The mechanism for handling non-fatal errors is usually complex and may |
| require the help of some userspace application, in order to apply the |
| policy desired by the system administrator. |
| |
| Identifying a bad hardware component |
| ------------------------------------ |
| |
| Just detecting a hardware flaw is usually not enough, as the system needs |
| to pinpoint to the minimal replaceable unit (MRU) that should be exchanged |
| to make the hardware reliable again. |
| |
| So, it requires not only error logging facilities, but also mechanisms that |
| will translate the error message to the silkscreen or component label for |
| the MRU. |
| |
| Typically, it is very complex for memory, as modern CPUs interlace memory |
| from different memory modules, in order to provide a better performance. The |
| DMI BIOS usually have a list of memory module labels, with can be obtained |
| using the ``dmidecode`` tool. For example, on a desktop machine, it shows:: |
| |
| Memory Device |
| Total Width: 64 bits |
| Data Width: 64 bits |
| Size: 16384 MB |
| Form Factor: SODIMM |
| Set: None |
| Locator: ChannelA-DIMM0 |
| Bank Locator: BANK 0 |
| Type: DDR4 |
| Type Detail: Synchronous |
| Speed: 2133 MHz |
| Rank: 2 |
| Configured Clock Speed: 2133 MHz |
| |
| On the above example, a DDR4 SO-DIMM memory module is located at the |
| system's memory labeled as "BANK 0", as given by the *bank locator* field. |
| Please notice that, on such system, the *total width* is equal to the |
| *data witdh*. It means that such memory module doesn't have error |
| detection/correction mechanisms. |
| |
| Unfortunately, not all systems use the same field to specify the memory |
| bank. On this example, from an older server, ``dmidecode`` shows:: |
| |
| Memory Device |
| Array Handle: 0x1000 |
| Error Information Handle: Not Provided |
| Total Width: 72 bits |
| Data Width: 64 bits |
| Size: 8192 MB |
| Form Factor: DIMM |
| Set: 1 |
| Locator: DIMM_A1 |
| Bank Locator: Not Specified |
| Type: DDR3 |
| Type Detail: Synchronous Registered (Buffered) |
| Speed: 1600 MHz |
| Rank: 2 |
| Configured Clock Speed: 1600 MHz |
| |
| There, the DDR3 RDIMM memory module is located at the system's memory labeled |
| as "DIMM_A1", as given by the *locator* field. Please notice that this |
| memory module has 64 bits of *data witdh* and 72 bits of *total width*. So, |
| it has 8 extra bits to be used by error detection and correction mechanisms. |
| Such kind of memory is called Error-correcting code memory (ECC memory). |
| |
| To make things even worse, it is not uncommon that systems with different |
| labels on their system's board to use exactly the same BIOS, meaning that |
| the labels provided by the BIOS won't match the real ones. |
| |
| ECC memory |
| ---------- |
| |
| As mentioned on the previous section, ECC memory has extra bits to be |
| used for error correction. So, on 64 bit systems, a memory module |
| has 64 bits of *data width*, and 74 bits of *total width*. So, there are |
| 8 bits extra bits to be used for the error detection and correction |
| mechanisms. Those extra bits are called *syndrome*\ [#f1]_\ [#f2]_. |
| |
| So, when the cpu requests the memory controller to write a word with |
| *data width*, the memory controller calculates the *syndrome* in real time, |
| using Hamming code, or some other error correction code, like SECDED+, |
| producing a code with *total width* size. Such code is then written |
| on the memory modules. |
| |
| At read, the *total width* bits code is converted back, using the same |
| ECC code used on write, producing a word with *data width* and a *syndrome*. |
| The word with *data width* is sent to the CPU, even when errors happen. |
| |
| The memory controller also looks at the *syndrome* in order to check if |
| there was an error, and if the ECC code was able to fix such error. |
| If the error was corrected, a Corrected Error (CE) happened. If not, an |
| Uncorrected Error (UE) happened. |
| |
| The information about the CE/UE errors is stored on some special registers |
| at the memory controller and can be accessed by reading such registers, |
| either by BIOS, by some special CPUs or by Linux EDAC driver. On x86 64 |
| bit CPUs, such errors can also be retrieved via the Machine Check |
| Architecture (MCA)\ [#f3]_. |
| |
| .. [#f1] Please notice that several memory controllers allow operation on a |
| mode called "Lock-Step", where it groups two memory modules together, |
| doing 128-bit reads/writes. That gives 16 bits for error correction, with |
| significatively improves the error correction mechanism, at the expense |
| that, when an error happens, there's no way to know what memory module is |
| to blame. So, it has to blame both memory modules. |
| |
| .. [#f2] Some memory controllers also allow using memory in mirror mode. |
| On such mode, the same data is written to two memory modules. At read, |
| the system checks both memory modules, in order to check if both provide |
| identical data. On such configuration, when an error happens, there's no |
| way to know what memory module is to blame. So, it has to blame both |
| memory modules (or 4 memory modules, if the system is also on Lock-step |
| mode). |
| |
| .. [#f3] For more details about the Machine Check Architecture (MCA), |
| please read Documentation/x86/x86_64/machinecheck at the Kernel tree. |
| |
| EDAC - Error Detection And Correction |
| ************************************* |
| |
| .. note:: |
| |
| "bluesmoke" was the name for this device driver subsystem when it |
| was "out-of-tree" and maintained at http://bluesmoke.sourceforge.net. |
| That site is mostly archaic now and can be used only for historical |
| purposes. |
| |
| When the subsystem was pushed upstream for the first time, on |
| Kernel 2.6.16, for the first time, it was renamed to ``EDAC``. |
| |
| Purpose |
| ------- |
| |
| The ``edac`` kernel module's goal is to detect and report hardware errors |
| that occur within the computer system running under linux. |
| |
| Memory |
| ------ |
| |
| Memory Correctable Errors (CE) and Uncorrectable Errors (UE) are the |
| primary errors being harvested. These types of errors are harvested by |
| the ``edac_mc`` device. |
| |
| Detecting CE events, then harvesting those events and reporting them, |
| **can** but must not necessarily be a predictor of future UE events. With |
| CE events only, the system can and will continue to operate as no data |
| has been damaged yet. |
| |
| However, preventive maintenance and proactive part replacement of memory |
| modules exhibiting CEs can reduce the likelihood of the dreaded UE events |
| and system panics. |
| |
| Other hardware elements |
| ----------------------- |
| |
| A new feature for EDAC, the ``edac_device`` class of device, was added in |
| the 2.6.23 version of the kernel. |
| |
| This new device type allows for non-memory type of ECC hardware detectors |
| to have their states harvested and presented to userspace via the sysfs |
| interface. |
| |
| Some architectures have ECC detectors for L1, L2 and L3 caches, |
| along with DMA engines, fabric switches, main data path switches, |
| interconnections, and various other hardware data paths. If the hardware |
| reports it, then a edac_device device probably can be constructed to |
| harvest and present that to userspace. |
| |
| |
| PCI bus scanning |
| ---------------- |
| |
| In addition, PCI devices are scanned for PCI Bus Parity and SERR Errors |
| in order to determine if errors are occurring during data transfers. |
| |
| The presence of PCI Parity errors must be examined with a grain of salt. |
| There are several add-in adapters that do **not** follow the PCI specification |
| with regards to Parity generation and reporting. The specification says |
| the vendor should tie the parity status bits to 0 if they do not intend |
| to generate parity. Some vendors do not do this, and thus the parity bit |
| can "float" giving false positives. |
| |
| There is a PCI device attribute located in sysfs that is checked by |
| the EDAC PCI scanning code. If that attribute is set, PCI parity/error |
| scanning is skipped for that device. The attribute is:: |
| |
| broken_parity_status |
| |
| and is located in ``/sys/devices/pci<XXX>/0000:XX:YY.Z`` directories for |
| PCI devices. |
| |
| |
| Versioning |
| ---------- |
| |
| EDAC is composed of a "core" module (``edac_core.ko``) and several Memory |
| Controller (MC) driver modules. On a given system, the CORE is loaded |
| and one MC driver will be loaded. Both the CORE and the MC driver (or |
| ``edac_device`` driver) have individual versions that reflect current |
| release level of their respective modules. |
| |
| Thus, to "report" on what version a system is running, one must report |
| both the CORE's and the MC driver's versions. |
| |
| |
| Loading |
| ------- |
| |
| If ``edac`` was statically linked with the kernel then no loading |
| is necessary. If ``edac`` was built as modules then simply modprobe |
| the ``edac`` pieces that you need. You should be able to modprobe |
| hardware-specific modules and have the dependencies load the necessary |
| core modules. |
| |
| Example:: |
| |
| $ modprobe amd76x_edac |
| |
| loads both the ``amd76x_edac.ko`` memory controller module and the |
| ``edac_mc.ko`` core module. |
| |
| |
| Sysfs interface |
| --------------- |
| |
| EDAC presents a ``sysfs`` interface for control and reporting purposes. It |
| lives in the /sys/devices/system/edac directory. |
| |
| Within this directory there currently reside 2 components: |
| |
| ======= ============================== |
| mc memory controller(s) system |
| pci PCI control and status system |
| ======= ============================== |
| |
| |
| |
| Memory Controller (mc) Model |
| ---------------------------- |
| |
| Each ``mc`` device controls a set of memory modules [#f4]_. These modules |
| are laid out in a Chip-Select Row (``csrowX``) and Channel table (``chX``). |
| There can be multiple csrows and multiple channels. |
| |
| .. [#f4] Nowadays, the term DIMM (Dual In-line Memory Module) is widely |
| used to refer to a memory module, although there are other memory |
| packaging alternatives, like SO-DIMM, SIMM, etc. Along this document, |
| and inside the EDAC system, the term "dimm" is used for all memory |
| modules, even when they use a different kind of packaging. |
| |
| Memory controllers allow for several csrows, with 8 csrows being a |
| typical value. Yet, the actual number of csrows depends on the layout of |
| a given motherboard, memory controller and memory module characteristics. |
| |
| Dual channels allow for dual data length (e. g. 128 bits, on 64 bit systems) |
| data transfers to/from the CPU from/to memory. Some newer chipsets allow |
| for more than 2 channels, like Fully Buffered DIMMs (FB-DIMMs) memory |
| controllers. The following example will assume 2 channels: |
| |
| +------------+-----------------------+ |
| | Chip | Channels | |
| | Select +-----------+-----------+ |
| | rows | ``ch0`` | ``ch1`` | |
| +============+===========+===========+ |
| | ``csrow0`` | DIMM_A0 | DIMM_B0 | |
| +------------+ | | |
| | ``csrow1`` | | | |
| +------------+-----------+-----------+ |
| | ``csrow2`` | DIMM_A1 | DIMM_B1 | |
| +------------+ | | |
| | ``csrow3`` | | | |
| +------------+-----------+-----------+ |
| |
| In the above example, there are 4 physical slots on the motherboard |
| for memory DIMMs: |
| |
| +---------+---------+ |
| | DIMM_A0 | DIMM_B0 | |
| +---------+---------+ |
| | DIMM_A1 | DIMM_B1 | |
| +---------+---------+ |
| |
| Labels for these slots are usually silk-screened on the motherboard. |
| Slots labeled ``A`` are channel 0 in this example. Slots labeled ``B`` are |
| channel 1. Notice that there are two csrows possible on a physical DIMM. |
| These csrows are allocated their csrow assignment based on the slot into |
| which the memory DIMM is placed. Thus, when 1 DIMM is placed in each |
| Channel, the csrows cross both DIMMs. |
| |
| Memory DIMMs come single or dual "ranked". A rank is a populated csrow. |
| Thus, 2 single ranked DIMMs, placed in slots DIMM_A0 and DIMM_B0 above |
| will have just one csrow (csrow0). csrow1 will be empty. On the other |
| hand, when 2 dual ranked DIMMs are similarly placed, then both csrow0 |
| and csrow1 will be populated. The pattern repeats itself for csrow2 and |
| csrow3. |
| |
| The representation of the above is reflected in the directory |
| tree in EDAC's sysfs interface. Starting in directory |
| ``/sys/devices/system/edac/mc``, each memory controller will be |
| represented by its own ``mcX`` directory, where ``X`` is the |
| index of the MC:: |
| |
| ..../edac/mc/ |
| | |
| |->mc0 |
| |->mc1 |
| |->mc2 |
| .... |
| |
| Under each ``mcX`` directory each ``csrowX`` is again represented by a |
| ``csrowX``, where ``X`` is the csrow index:: |
| |
| .../mc/mc0/ |
| | |
| |->csrow0 |
| |->csrow2 |
| |->csrow3 |
| .... |
| |
| Notice that there is no csrow1, which indicates that csrow0 is composed |
| of a single ranked DIMMs. This should also apply in both Channels, in |
| order to have dual-channel mode be operational. Since both csrow2 and |
| csrow3 are populated, this indicates a dual ranked set of DIMMs for |
| channels 0 and 1. |
| |
| Within each of the ``mcX`` and ``csrowX`` directories are several EDAC |
| control and attribute files. |
| |
| ``mcX`` directories |
| ------------------- |
| |
| In ``mcX`` directories are EDAC control and attribute files for |
| this ``X`` instance of the memory controllers. |
| |
| For a description of the sysfs API, please see: |
| |
| Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-devices-edac |
| |
| |
| ``dimmX`` or ``rankX`` directories |
| ---------------------------------- |
| |
| The recommended way to use the EDAC subsystem is to look at the information |
| provided by the ``dimmX`` or ``rankX`` directories [#f5]_. |
| |
| A typical EDAC system has the following structure under |
| ``/sys/devices/system/edac/``\ [#f6]_:: |
| |
| /sys/devices/system/edac/ |
| ├── mc |
| │ ├── mc0 |
| │ │ ├── ce_count |
| │ │ ├── ce_noinfo_count |
| │ │ ├── dimm0 |
| │ │ │ ├── dimm_ce_count |
| │ │ │ ├── dimm_dev_type |
| │ │ │ ├── dimm_edac_mode |
| │ │ │ ├── dimm_label |
| │ │ │ ├── dimm_location |
| │ │ │ ├── dimm_mem_type |
| │ │ │ ├── dimm_ue_count |
| │ │ │ ├── size |
| │ │ │ └── uevent |
| │ │ ├── max_location |
| │ │ ├── mc_name |
| │ │ ├── reset_counters |
| │ │ ├── seconds_since_reset |
| │ │ ├── size_mb |
| │ │ ├── ue_count |
| │ │ ├── ue_noinfo_count |
| │ │ └── uevent |
| │ ├── mc1 |
| │ │ ├── ce_count |
| │ │ ├── ce_noinfo_count |
| │ │ ├── dimm0 |
| │ │ │ ├── dimm_ce_count |
| │ │ │ ├── dimm_dev_type |
| │ │ │ ├── dimm_edac_mode |
| │ │ │ ├── dimm_label |
| │ │ │ ├── dimm_location |
| │ │ │ ├── dimm_mem_type |
| │ │ │ ├── dimm_ue_count |
| │ │ │ ├── size |
| │ │ │ └── uevent |
| │ │ ├── max_location |
| │ │ ├── mc_name |
| │ │ ├── reset_counters |
| │ │ ├── seconds_since_reset |
| │ │ ├── size_mb |
| │ │ ├── ue_count |
| │ │ ├── ue_noinfo_count |
| │ │ └── uevent |
| │ └── uevent |
| └── uevent |
| |
| In the ``dimmX`` directories are EDAC control and attribute files for |
| this ``X`` memory module: |
| |
| - ``size`` - Total memory managed by this csrow attribute file |
| |
| This attribute file displays, in count of megabytes, the memory |
| that this csrow contains. |
| |
| - ``dimm_ue_count`` - Uncorrectable Errors count attribute file |
| |
| This attribute file displays the total count of uncorrectable |
| errors that have occurred on this DIMM. If panic_on_ue is set |
| this counter will not have a chance to increment, since EDAC |
| will panic the system. |
| |
| - ``dimm_ce_count`` - Correctable Errors count attribute file |
| |
| This attribute file displays the total count of correctable |
| errors that have occurred on this DIMM. This count is very |
| important to examine. CEs provide early indications that a |
| DIMM is beginning to fail. This count field should be |
| monitored for non-zero values and report such information |
| to the system administrator. |
| |
| - ``dimm_dev_type`` - Device type attribute file |
| |
| This attribute file will display what type of DRAM device is |
| being utilized on this DIMM. |
| Examples: |
| |
| - x1 |
| - x2 |
| - x4 |
| - x8 |
| |
| - ``dimm_edac_mode`` - EDAC Mode of operation attribute file |
| |
| This attribute file will display what type of Error detection |
| and correction is being utilized. |
| |
| - ``dimm_label`` - memory module label control file |
| |
| This control file allows this DIMM to have a label assigned |
| to it. With this label in the module, when errors occur |
| the output can provide the DIMM label in the system log. |
| This becomes vital for panic events to isolate the |
| cause of the UE event. |
| |
| DIMM Labels must be assigned after booting, with information |
| that correctly identifies the physical slot with its |
| silk screen label. This information is currently very |
| motherboard specific and determination of this information |
| must occur in userland at this time. |
| |
| - ``dimm_location`` - location of the memory module |
| |
| The location can have up to 3 levels, and describe how the |
| memory controller identifies the location of a memory module. |
| Depending on the type of memory and memory controller, it |
| can be: |
| |
| - *csrow* and *channel* - used when the memory controller |
| doesn't identify a single DIMM - e. g. in ``rankX`` dir; |
| - *branch*, *channel*, *slot* - typically used on FB-DIMM memory |
| controllers; |
| - *channel*, *slot* - used on Nehalem and newer Intel drivers. |
| |
| - ``dimm_mem_type`` - Memory Type attribute file |
| |
| This attribute file will display what type of memory is currently |
| on this csrow. Normally, either buffered or unbuffered memory. |
| Examples: |
| |
| - Registered-DDR |
| - Unbuffered-DDR |
| |
| .. [#f5] On some systems, the memory controller doesn't have any logic |
| to identify the memory module. On such systems, the directory is called ``rankX`` and works on a similar way as the ``csrowX`` directories. |
| On modern Intel memory controllers, the memory controller identifies the |
| memory modules directly. On such systems, the directory is called ``dimmX``. |
| |
| .. [#f6] There are also some ``power`` directories and ``subsystem`` |
| symlinks inside the sysfs mapping that are automatically created by |
| the sysfs subsystem. Currently, they serve no purpose. |
| |
| ``csrowX`` directories |
| ---------------------- |
| |
| When CONFIG_EDAC_LEGACY_SYSFS is enabled, sysfs will contain the ``csrowX`` |
| directories. As this API doesn't work properly for Rambus, FB-DIMMs and |
| modern Intel Memory Controllers, this is being deprecated in favor of |
| ``dimmX`` directories. |
| |
| In the ``csrowX`` directories are EDAC control and attribute files for |
| this ``X`` instance of csrow: |
| |
| |
| - ``ue_count`` - Total Uncorrectable Errors count attribute file |
| |
| This attribute file displays the total count of uncorrectable |
| errors that have occurred on this csrow. If panic_on_ue is set |
| this counter will not have a chance to increment, since EDAC |
| will panic the system. |
| |
| |
| - ``ce_count`` - Total Correctable Errors count attribute file |
| |
| This attribute file displays the total count of correctable |
| errors that have occurred on this csrow. This count is very |
| important to examine. CEs provide early indications that a |
| DIMM is beginning to fail. This count field should be |
| monitored for non-zero values and report such information |
| to the system administrator. |
| |
| |
| - ``size_mb`` - Total memory managed by this csrow attribute file |
| |
| This attribute file displays, in count of megabytes, the memory |
| that this csrow contains. |
| |
| |
| - ``mem_type`` - Memory Type attribute file |
| |
| This attribute file will display what type of memory is currently |
| on this csrow. Normally, either buffered or unbuffered memory. |
| Examples: |
| |
| - Registered-DDR |
| - Unbuffered-DDR |
| |
| |
| - ``edac_mode`` - EDAC Mode of operation attribute file |
| |
| This attribute file will display what type of Error detection |
| and correction is being utilized. |
| |
| |
| - ``dev_type`` - Device type attribute file |
| |
| This attribute file will display what type of DRAM device is |
| being utilized on this DIMM. |
| Examples: |
| |
| - x1 |
| - x2 |
| - x4 |
| - x8 |
| |
| |
| - ``ch0_ce_count`` - Channel 0 CE Count attribute file |
| |
| This attribute file will display the count of CEs on this |
| DIMM located in channel 0. |
| |
| |
| - ``ch0_ue_count`` - Channel 0 UE Count attribute file |
| |
| This attribute file will display the count of UEs on this |
| DIMM located in channel 0. |
| |
| |
| - ``ch0_dimm_label`` - Channel 0 DIMM Label control file |
| |
| |
| This control file allows this DIMM to have a label assigned |
| to it. With this label in the module, when errors occur |
| the output can provide the DIMM label in the system log. |
| This becomes vital for panic events to isolate the |
| cause of the UE event. |
| |
| DIMM Labels must be assigned after booting, with information |
| that correctly identifies the physical slot with its |
| silk screen label. This information is currently very |
| motherboard specific and determination of this information |
| must occur in userland at this time. |
| |
| |
| - ``ch1_ce_count`` - Channel 1 CE Count attribute file |
| |
| |
| This attribute file will display the count of CEs on this |
| DIMM located in channel 1. |
| |
| |
| - ``ch1_ue_count`` - Channel 1 UE Count attribute file |
| |
| |
| This attribute file will display the count of UEs on this |
| DIMM located in channel 0. |
| |
| |
| - ``ch1_dimm_label`` - Channel 1 DIMM Label control file |
| |
| This control file allows this DIMM to have a label assigned |
| to it. With this label in the module, when errors occur |
| the output can provide the DIMM label in the system log. |
| This becomes vital for panic events to isolate the |
| cause of the UE event. |
| |
| DIMM Labels must be assigned after booting, with information |
| that correctly identifies the physical slot with its |
| silk screen label. This information is currently very |
| motherboard specific and determination of this information |
| must occur in userland at this time. |
| |
| |
| System Logging |
| -------------- |
| |
| If logging for UEs and CEs is enabled, then system logs will contain |
| information indicating that errors have been detected:: |
| |
| EDAC MC0: CE page 0x283, offset 0xce0, grain 8, syndrome 0x6ec3, row 0, channel 1 "DIMM_B1": amd76x_edac |
| EDAC MC0: CE page 0x1e5, offset 0xfb0, grain 8, syndrome 0xb741, row 0, channel 1 "DIMM_B1": amd76x_edac |
| |
| |
| The structure of the message is: |
| |
| +---------------------------------------+-------------+ |
| | Content + Example | |
| +=======================================+=============+ |
| | The memory controller | MC0 | |
| +---------------------------------------+-------------+ |
| | Error type | CE | |
| +---------------------------------------+-------------+ |
| | Memory page | 0x283 | |
| +---------------------------------------+-------------+ |
| | Offset in the page | 0xce0 | |
| +---------------------------------------+-------------+ |
| | The byte granularity | grain 8 | |
| | or resolution of the error | | |
| +---------------------------------------+-------------+ |
| | The error syndrome | 0xb741 | |
| +---------------------------------------+-------------+ |
| | Memory row | row 0 + |
| +---------------------------------------+-------------+ |
| | Memory channel | channel 1 | |
| +---------------------------------------+-------------+ |
| | DIMM label, if set prior | DIMM B1 | |
| +---------------------------------------+-------------+ |
| | And then an optional, driver-specific | | |
| | message that may have additional | | |
| | information. | | |
| +---------------------------------------+-------------+ |
| |
| Both UEs and CEs with no info will lack all but memory controller, error |
| type, a notice of "no info" and then an optional, driver-specific error |
| message. |
| |
| |
| PCI Bus Parity Detection |
| ------------------------ |
| |
| On Header Type 00 devices, the primary status is looked at for any |
| parity error regardless of whether parity is enabled on the device or |
| not. (The spec indicates parity is generated in some cases). On Header |
| Type 01 bridges, the secondary status register is also looked at to see |
| if parity occurred on the bus on the other side of the bridge. |
| |
| |
| Sysfs configuration |
| ------------------- |
| |
| Under ``/sys/devices/system/edac/pci`` are control and attribute files as |
| follows: |
| |
| |
| - ``check_pci_parity`` - Enable/Disable PCI Parity checking control file |
| |
| This control file enables or disables the PCI Bus Parity scanning |
| operation. Writing a 1 to this file enables the scanning. Writing |
| a 0 to this file disables the scanning. |
| |
| Enable:: |
| |
| echo "1" >/sys/devices/system/edac/pci/check_pci_parity |
| |
| Disable:: |
| |
| echo "0" >/sys/devices/system/edac/pci/check_pci_parity |
| |
| |
| - ``pci_parity_count`` - Parity Count |
| |
| This attribute file will display the number of parity errors that |
| have been detected. |
| |
| |
| Module parameters |
| ----------------- |
| |
| - ``edac_mc_panic_on_ue`` - Panic on UE control file |
| |
| An uncorrectable error will cause a machine panic. This is usually |
| desirable. It is a bad idea to continue when an uncorrectable error |
| occurs - it is indeterminate what was uncorrected and the operating |
| system context might be so mangled that continuing will lead to further |
| corruption. If the kernel has MCE configured, then EDAC will never |
| notice the UE. |
| |
| LOAD TIME:: |
| |
| module/kernel parameter: edac_mc_panic_on_ue=[0|1] |
| |
| RUN TIME:: |
| |
| echo "1" > /sys/module/edac_core/parameters/edac_mc_panic_on_ue |
| |
| |
| - ``edac_mc_log_ue`` - Log UE control file |
| |
| |
| Generate kernel messages describing uncorrectable errors. These errors |
| are reported through the system message log system. UE statistics |
| will be accumulated even when UE logging is disabled. |
| |
| LOAD TIME:: |
| |
| module/kernel parameter: edac_mc_log_ue=[0|1] |
| |
| RUN TIME:: |
| |
| echo "1" > /sys/module/edac_core/parameters/edac_mc_log_ue |
| |
| |
| - ``edac_mc_log_ce`` - Log CE control file |
| |
| |
| Generate kernel messages describing correctable errors. These |
| errors are reported through the system message log system. |
| CE statistics will be accumulated even when CE logging is disabled. |
| |
| LOAD TIME:: |
| |
| module/kernel parameter: edac_mc_log_ce=[0|1] |
| |
| RUN TIME:: |
| |
| echo "1" > /sys/module/edac_core/parameters/edac_mc_log_ce |
| |
| |
| - ``edac_mc_poll_msec`` - Polling period control file |
| |
| |
| The time period, in milliseconds, for polling for error information. |
| Too small a value wastes resources. Too large a value might delay |
| necessary handling of errors and might loose valuable information for |
| locating the error. 1000 milliseconds (once each second) is the current |
| default. Systems which require all the bandwidth they can get, may |
| increase this. |
| |
| LOAD TIME:: |
| |
| module/kernel parameter: edac_mc_poll_msec=[0|1] |
| |
| RUN TIME:: |
| |
| echo "1000" > /sys/module/edac_core/parameters/edac_mc_poll_msec |
| |
| |
| - ``panic_on_pci_parity`` - Panic on PCI PARITY Error |
| |
| |
| This control file enables or disables panicking when a parity |
| error has been detected. |
| |
| |
| module/kernel parameter:: |
| |
| edac_panic_on_pci_pe=[0|1] |
| |
| Enable:: |
| |
| echo "1" > /sys/module/edac_core/parameters/edac_panic_on_pci_pe |
| |
| Disable:: |
| |
| echo "0" > /sys/module/edac_core/parameters/edac_panic_on_pci_pe |
| |
| |
| |
| EDAC device type |
| ---------------- |
| |
| In the header file, edac_pci.h, there is a series of edac_device structures |
| and APIs for the EDAC_DEVICE. |
| |
| User space access to an edac_device is through the sysfs interface. |
| |
| At the location ``/sys/devices/system/edac`` (sysfs) new edac_device devices |
| will appear. |
| |
| There is a three level tree beneath the above ``edac`` directory. For example, |
| the ``test_device_edac`` device (found at the http://bluesmoke.sourceforget.net |
| website) installs itself as:: |
| |
| /sys/devices/system/edac/test-instance |
| |
| in this directory are various controls, a symlink and one or more ``instance`` |
| directories. |
| |
| The standard default controls are: |
| |
| ============== ======================================================= |
| log_ce boolean to log CE events |
| log_ue boolean to log UE events |
| panic_on_ue boolean to ``panic`` the system if an UE is encountered |
| (default off, can be set true via startup script) |
| poll_msec time period between POLL cycles for events |
| ============== ======================================================= |
| |
| The test_device_edac device adds at least one of its own custom control: |
| |
| ============== ================================================== |
| test_bits which in the current test driver does nothing but |
| show how it is installed. A ported driver can |
| add one or more such controls and/or attributes |
| for specific uses. |
| One out-of-tree driver uses controls here to allow |
| for ERROR INJECTION operations to hardware |
| injection registers |
| ============== ================================================== |
| |
| The symlink points to the 'struct dev' that is registered for this edac_device. |
| |
| Instances |
| --------- |
| |
| One or more instance directories are present. For the ``test_device_edac`` |
| case: |
| |
| +----------------+ |
| | test-instance0 | |
| +----------------+ |
| |
| |
| In this directory there are two default counter attributes, which are totals of |
| counter in deeper subdirectories. |
| |
| ============== ==================================== |
| ce_count total of CE events of subdirectories |
| ue_count total of UE events of subdirectories |
| ============== ==================================== |
| |
| Blocks |
| ------ |
| |
| At the lowest directory level is the ``block`` directory. There can be 0, 1 |
| or more blocks specified in each instance: |
| |
| +-------------+ |
| | test-block0 | |
| +-------------+ |
| |
| In this directory the default attributes are: |
| |
| ============== ================================================ |
| ce_count which is counter of CE events for this ``block`` |
| of hardware being monitored |
| ue_count which is counter of UE events for this ``block`` |
| of hardware being monitored |
| ============== ================================================ |
| |
| |
| The ``test_device_edac`` device adds 4 attributes and 1 control: |
| |
| ================== ==================================================== |
| test-block-bits-0 for every POLL cycle this counter |
| is incremented |
| test-block-bits-1 every 10 cycles, this counter is bumped once, |
| and test-block-bits-0 is set to 0 |
| test-block-bits-2 every 100 cycles, this counter is bumped once, |
| and test-block-bits-1 is set to 0 |
| test-block-bits-3 every 1000 cycles, this counter is bumped once, |
| and test-block-bits-2 is set to 0 |
| ================== ==================================================== |
| |
| |
| ================== ==================================================== |
| reset-counters writing ANY thing to this control will |
| reset all the above counters. |
| ================== ==================================================== |
| |
| |
| Use of the ``test_device_edac`` driver should enable any others to create their own |
| unique drivers for their hardware systems. |
| |
| The ``test_device_edac`` sample driver is located at the |
| http://bluesmoke.sourceforge.net project site for EDAC. |
| |
| |
| Usage of EDAC APIs on Nehalem and newer Intel CPUs |
| -------------------------------------------------- |
| |
| On older Intel architectures, the memory controller was part of the North |
| Bridge chipset. Nehalem, Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge, Haswell, Sky Lake and |
| newer Intel architectures integrated an enhanced version of the memory |
| controller (MC) inside the CPUs. |
| |
| This chapter will cover the differences of the enhanced memory controllers |
| found on newer Intel CPUs, such as ``i7core_edac``, ``sb_edac`` and |
| ``sbx_edac`` drivers. |
| |
| .. note:: |
| |
| The Xeon E7 processor families use a separate chip for the memory |
| controller, called Intel Scalable Memory Buffer. This section doesn't |
| apply for such families. |
| |
| 1) There is one Memory Controller per Quick Patch Interconnect |
| (QPI). At the driver, the term "socket" means one QPI. This is |
| associated with a physical CPU socket. |
| |
| Each MC have 3 physical read channels, 3 physical write channels and |
| 3 logic channels. The driver currently sees it as just 3 channels. |
| Each channel can have up to 3 DIMMs. |
| |
| The minimum known unity is DIMMs. There are no information about csrows. |
| As EDAC API maps the minimum unity is csrows, the driver sequentially |
| maps channel/DIMM into different csrows. |
| |
| For example, supposing the following layout:: |
| |
| Ch0 phy rd0, wr0 (0x063f4031): 2 ranks, UDIMMs |
| dimm 0 1024 Mb offset: 0, bank: 8, rank: 1, row: 0x4000, col: 0x400 |
| dimm 1 1024 Mb offset: 4, bank: 8, rank: 1, row: 0x4000, col: 0x400 |
| Ch1 phy rd1, wr1 (0x063f4031): 2 ranks, UDIMMs |
| dimm 0 1024 Mb offset: 0, bank: 8, rank: 1, row: 0x4000, col: 0x400 |
| Ch2 phy rd3, wr3 (0x063f4031): 2 ranks, UDIMMs |
| dimm 0 1024 Mb offset: 0, bank: 8, rank: 1, row: 0x4000, col: 0x400 |
| |
| The driver will map it as:: |
| |
| csrow0: channel 0, dimm0 |
| csrow1: channel 0, dimm1 |
| csrow2: channel 1, dimm0 |
| csrow3: channel 2, dimm0 |
| |
| exports one DIMM per csrow. |
| |
| Each QPI is exported as a different memory controller. |
| |
| 2) The MC has the ability to inject errors to test drivers. The drivers |
| implement this functionality via some error injection nodes: |
| |
| For injecting a memory error, there are some sysfs nodes, under |
| ``/sys/devices/system/edac/mc/mc?/``: |
| |
| - ``inject_addrmatch/*``: |
| Controls the error injection mask register. It is possible to specify |
| several characteristics of the address to match an error code:: |
| |
| dimm = the affected dimm. Numbers are relative to a channel; |
| rank = the memory rank; |
| channel = the channel that will generate an error; |
| bank = the affected bank; |
| page = the page address; |
| column (or col) = the address column. |
| |
| each of the above values can be set to "any" to match any valid value. |
| |
| At driver init, all values are set to any. |
| |
| For example, to generate an error at rank 1 of dimm 2, for any channel, |
| any bank, any page, any column:: |
| |
| echo 2 >/sys/devices/system/edac/mc/mc0/inject_addrmatch/dimm |
| echo 1 >/sys/devices/system/edac/mc/mc0/inject_addrmatch/rank |
| |
| To return to the default behaviour of matching any, you can do:: |
| |
| echo any >/sys/devices/system/edac/mc/mc0/inject_addrmatch/dimm |
| echo any >/sys/devices/system/edac/mc/mc0/inject_addrmatch/rank |
| |
| - ``inject_eccmask``: |
| specifies what bits will have troubles, |
| |
| - ``inject_section``: |
| specifies what ECC cache section will get the error:: |
| |
| 3 for both |
| 2 for the highest |
| 1 for the lowest |
| |
| - ``inject_type``: |
| specifies the type of error, being a combination of the following bits:: |
| |
| bit 0 - repeat |
| bit 1 - ecc |
| bit 2 - parity |
| |
| - ``inject_enable``: |
| starts the error generation when something different than 0 is written. |
| |
| All inject vars can be read. root permission is needed for write. |
| |
| Datasheet states that the error will only be generated after a write on an |
| address that matches inject_addrmatch. It seems, however, that reading will |
| also produce an error. |
| |
| For example, the following code will generate an error for any write access |
| at socket 0, on any DIMM/address on channel 2:: |
| |
| echo 2 >/sys/devices/system/edac/mc/mc0/inject_addrmatch/channel |
| echo 2 >/sys/devices/system/edac/mc/mc0/inject_type |
| echo 64 >/sys/devices/system/edac/mc/mc0/inject_eccmask |
| echo 3 >/sys/devices/system/edac/mc/mc0/inject_section |
| echo 1 >/sys/devices/system/edac/mc/mc0/inject_enable |
| dd if=/dev/mem of=/dev/null seek=16k bs=4k count=1 >& /dev/null |
| |
| For socket 1, it is needed to replace "mc0" by "mc1" at the above |
| commands. |
| |
| The generated error message will look like:: |
| |
| EDAC MC0: UE row 0, channel-a= 0 channel-b= 0 labels "-": NON_FATAL (addr = 0x0075b980, socket=0, Dimm=0, Channel=2, syndrome=0x00000040, count=1, Err=8c0000400001009f:4000080482 (read error: read ECC error)) |
| |
| 3) Corrected Error memory register counters |
| |
| Those newer MCs have some registers to count memory errors. The driver |
| uses those registers to report Corrected Errors on devices with Registered |
| DIMMs. |
| |
| However, those counters don't work with Unregistered DIMM. As the chipset |
| offers some counters that also work with UDIMMs (but with a worse level of |
| granularity than the default ones), the driver exposes those registers for |
| UDIMM memories. |
| |
| They can be read by looking at the contents of ``all_channel_counts/``:: |
| |
| $ for i in /sys/devices/system/edac/mc/mc0/all_channel_counts/*; do echo $i; cat $i; done |
| /sys/devices/system/edac/mc/mc0/all_channel_counts/udimm0 |
| 0 |
| /sys/devices/system/edac/mc/mc0/all_channel_counts/udimm1 |
| 0 |
| /sys/devices/system/edac/mc/mc0/all_channel_counts/udimm2 |
| 0 |
| |
| What happens here is that errors on different csrows, but at the same |
| dimm number will increment the same counter. |
| So, in this memory mapping:: |
| |
| csrow0: channel 0, dimm0 |
| csrow1: channel 0, dimm1 |
| csrow2: channel 1, dimm0 |
| csrow3: channel 2, dimm0 |
| |
| The hardware will increment udimm0 for an error at the first dimm at either |
| csrow0, csrow2 or csrow3; |
| |
| The hardware will increment udimm1 for an error at the second dimm at either |
| csrow0, csrow2 or csrow3; |
| |
| The hardware will increment udimm2 for an error at the third dimm at either |
| csrow0, csrow2 or csrow3; |
| |
| 4) Standard error counters |
| |
| The standard error counters are generated when an mcelog error is received |
| by the driver. Since, with UDIMM, this is counted by software, it is |
| possible that some errors could be lost. With RDIMM's, they display the |
| contents of the registers |
| |
| Reference documents used on ``amd64_edac`` |
| ------------------------------------------ |
| |
| ``amd64_edac`` module is based on the following documents |
| (available from http://support.amd.com/en-us/search/tech-docs): |
| |
| 1. :Title: BIOS and Kernel Developer's Guide for AMD Athlon 64 and AMD |
| Opteron Processors |
| :AMD publication #: 26094 |
| :Revision: 3.26 |
| :Link: http://support.amd.com/TechDocs/26094.PDF |
| |
| 2. :Title: BIOS and Kernel Developer's Guide for AMD NPT Family 0Fh |
| Processors |
| :AMD publication #: 32559 |
| :Revision: 3.00 |
| :Issue Date: May 2006 |
| :Link: http://support.amd.com/TechDocs/32559.pdf |
| |
| 3. :Title: BIOS and Kernel Developer's Guide (BKDG) For AMD Family 10h |
| Processors |
| :AMD publication #: 31116 |
| :Revision: 3.00 |
| :Issue Date: September 07, 2007 |
| :Link: http://support.amd.com/TechDocs/31116.pdf |
| |
| 4. :Title: BIOS and Kernel Developer's Guide (BKDG) for AMD Family 15h |
| Models 30h-3Fh Processors |
| :AMD publication #: 49125 |
| :Revision: 3.06 |
| :Issue Date: 2/12/2015 (latest release) |
| :Link: http://support.amd.com/TechDocs/49125_15h_Models_30h-3Fh_BKDG.pdf |
| |
| 5. :Title: BIOS and Kernel Developer's Guide (BKDG) for AMD Family 15h |
| Models 60h-6Fh Processors |
| :AMD publication #: 50742 |
| :Revision: 3.01 |
| :Issue Date: 7/23/2015 (latest release) |
| :Link: http://support.amd.com/TechDocs/50742_15h_Models_60h-6Fh_BKDG.pdf |
| |
| 6. :Title: BIOS and Kernel Developer's Guide (BKDG) for AMD Family 16h |
| Models 00h-0Fh Processors |
| :AMD publication #: 48751 |
| :Revision: 3.03 |
| :Issue Date: 2/23/2015 (latest release) |
| :Link: http://support.amd.com/TechDocs/48751_16h_bkdg.pdf |
| |
| Credits |
| ======= |
| |
| * Written by Doug Thompson <dougthompson@xmission.com> |
| |
| - 7 Dec 2005 |
| - 17 Jul 2007 Updated |
| |
| * |copy| Mauro Carvalho Chehab |
| |
| - 05 Aug 2009 Nehalem interface |
| - 26 Oct 2016 Converted to ReST and cleanups at the Nehalem section |
| |
| * EDAC authors/maintainers: |
| |
| - Doug Thompson, Dave Jiang, Dave Peterson et al, |
| - Mauro Carvalho Chehab |
| - Borislav Petkov |
| - original author: Thayne Harbaugh |