CentOS - Sep 2013 - How to use watchdog daemon with hardware watchdog driver interface?

Good morning!

On a CentOS 6.4 / 64 bit server I have
installed the watchdog 5.5 package.

The rpm -qi watchdog states:

The watchdog program can be used as a powerful software watchdog
daemon or may be alternately used with a hardware watchdog device such
as the IPMI hardware watchdog driver interface to a resident Baseboard
Management Controller (BMC).
...
This configuration file is also used to set the watchdog to be used as
a hardware watchdog instead of its default software watchdog
operation.

In the dmesg output of my server
( full text at http://pastebin.com/GbF7dRt7 )
I see such a device:

NMI watchdog enabled, takes one hw-pmu counter.
...
ipmi message handler version 39.2
IPMI System Interface driver.
ipmi_si: Adding default-specified kcs state machine
ipmi_si: Trying default-specified kcs state machine at i/o address
0xca2, slave address 0x0, irq 0
ipmi_si: Interface detection failed
ipmi_si: Adding default-specified smic state machine
ipmi_si: Trying default-specified smic state machine at i/o address
0xca9, slave address 0x0, irq 0
ipmi_si: Interface detection failed
ipmi_si: Adding default-specified bt state machine
ipmi_si: Trying default-specified bt state machine at i/o address
0xe4, slave address 0x0, irq 0
ipmi_si: Interface detection failed
ipmi_si: Unable to find any System Interface(s)
...
iTCO_vendor_support: vendor-support=0
iTCO_wdt: Intel TCO WatchDog Timer Driver v1.07rh
iTCO_wdt: Found a Lynx Point TCO device (Version=2, TCOBASE=0x1860)
iTCO_wdt: initialized. heartbeat=30 sec (nowayout=0)

My question is: what should I put into
/etc/watchdog.conf to enable the
hardware watchdog instead of the
default software watchdog mode?

I've also asked this question at
http://serverfault.com/questions/539816/how-to-use-watchdog-daemon-with-hardware-watchdog-driver-interface

Thank you
Alex

On 09/18/2013 03:57 AM, Alexander Farber wrote:
> Good morning!
>
> On a CentOS 6.4 / 64 bit server I have
> installed the watchdog 5.5 package.
>
> The rpm -qi watchdog states:
>
> The watchdog program can be used as a powerful software watchdog
> daemon or may be alternately used with a hardware watchdog device such
> as the IPMI hardware watchdog driver interface to a resident Baseboard
> Management Controller (BMC).
> ...
> This configuration file is also used to set the watchdog to be used as
> a hardware watchdog instead of its default software watchdog
> operation.
>
> In the dmesg output of my server
> ( full text at http://pastebin.com/GbF7dRt7 )
> I see such a device:
>
> NMI watchdog enabled, takes one hw-pmu counter.
> ...
> ipmi message handler version 39.2
> IPMI System Interface driver.
> ipmi_si: Adding default-specified kcs state machine
> ipmi_si: Trying default-specified kcs state machine at i/o address
> 0xca2, slave address 0x0, irq 0
> ipmi_si: Interface detection failed
> ipmi_si: Adding default-specified smic state machine
> ipmi_si: Trying default-specified smic state machine at i/o address
> 0xca9, slave address 0x0, irq 0
> ipmi_si: Interface detection failed
> ipmi_si: Adding default-specified bt state machine
> ipmi_si: Trying default-specified bt state machine at i/o address
> 0xe4, slave address 0x0, irq 0
> ipmi_si: Interface detection failed
> ipmi_si: Unable to find any System Interface(s)
> ...
> iTCO_vendor_support: vendor-support=0
> iTCO_wdt: Intel TCO WatchDog Timer Driver v1.07rh
> iTCO_wdt: Found a Lynx Point TCO device (Version=2, TCOBASE=0x1860)
> iTCO_wdt: initialized. heartbeat=30 sec (nowayout=0)
>
> My question is: what should I put into
> /etc/watchdog.conf to enable the
> hardware watchdog instead of the
> default software watchdog mode?
>
> I've also asked this question at
>
http://serverfault.com/questions/539816/how-to-use-watchdog-daemon-with-hardware-watchdog-driver-interface
>
> Thank you
> Alex
Hi  Alex,

Look to see if you have a /dev/watchdog device. If you do basically all you need
to do is then
service watchdog start. To test if it is working get the pid of the watchdog
process and do a kill
-9.  If your box reboots then the hardware watchdog works.

There are some additional features you can have the watchdog program check, see
the man page.

Hope this helps,
Steve

-- 
Stephen Clark
*NetWolves*
Director of Technology
Phone: 813-579-3200
Fax: 813-882-0209
Email: steve.clark at netwolves.com
http://www.netwolves.com