Users Guide

Installing Managed System Software on Supported Linux and VMware ESX Server Operating
NOTE: You can also use this procedure when upgrading Server Administrator
if the new version of Server Administrator does not support the running kernel
with a precompiled device driver.
NOTE: When you have uninstalled Server Administrator from system B, the
/var/omsa/dks/
<kernel>/*. files that you copied to system B are not removed.
You must remove the files if they are no longer needed.
Forcing Dynamic Kernel Support on Red Hat Enterprise Linux Update
Releases When Kernel is Tainted
Server Administrator provides precompiled device drivers for the "Gold" releases
of supported Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating systems. Red Hat Enterprise
Linux supports loading device drivers built for the "Gold" release, on the Update
releases. This means Server Administrator does not have to ship precompiled
device drivers for every Red Hat Enterprise Linux Update release and users are
not forced to use DKS in order to run Server Administrator on every system that
is running a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Update release. However, loading a
device driver built for the "Gold" release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (version 4)
on an Update release may taint the kernel. If the kernel on a system running a
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (version 4) Update release has been tainted by this
device driver load process, Server Administrator’s init script command
restart-forcekernelmatch can be used to force DKS to be used in this situation.
DKS will build device drivers that do not taint the running kernel.
Determining if the Running Kernel is Tainted
After Server Administrator services have been started, perform the following
steps on Red Hat Enterprise Linux Update releases to determine if the kernel
has been tainted:
1
Log in as root .
2 Execute the following command:
lsmod
If you see Tainted: GF in the first line of the output as in the following
message, the running kernel is tainted:
Module Size Used by Tainted: GF
The "tainted" status may be caused by the Server Administrator device driver
load process.