Troubleshooting problems after building a Custom Block-Based Linux Kernel Driver

  • 7018665
  • 27-Feb-2017
  • 19-Mar-2017

Environment

PlateSpin Protect 10.x and above
PlateSpin Forge 3.x and above
PlateSpin Migrate 9.x and above

Situation

This article provides information on how to troubleshoot issues that arise after attempting to build custom block-based Linux kernel driver. This includes errors such as the following:

Could not find BBT driver for kernel <kernel version>

Could not load driver: Exec format error PATH is <path to blkwatch.ko>

Resolution

Details:

- Check that the major and minor kernel version in the release string of your Linux workload kernel matches a major and minor kernel version in the list of PlateSpin Pre-compiled “blkwatch” Drivers (Linux). If the major and minor kernel version in the release string of your Linux workload kernel does not match a major and minor kernel version in the list, the self-compiled driver will not be supported.
- Ensure that the correct version for the kernel development package and gcc compiler be installed on the Linux machine where you created your custom block-based Linux kernel driver
- Locate the path to your blkwatch.ko and run a modinfo on the blkwatch.ko just to make sure that the kernel version is correct

Test:

If you are still experiencing problems with your custom block-based linux kernel driver after verifying above, you can try the following troubleshooting steps below:

- If your source machine is already discovered in the PlateSpin web console, undiscover it
- Log in to your source machine and cleanup all PlateSpin related entries from folders like /usr/lib/ofx/ (delete the ofx folder) and /tmp/ (delete the 1.package file)
- Reboot your source machine
- Compile a fresh custom block-based linux kernel driver. See TID 7005873
- On your PlateSpin server, cleanup this directory: /cleanup/controller/packages/ by deleting the folder "9D470BFF-E30F-4015-83D8-4D308A8C8B1B"
- Trigger a new replication