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Issue:

SERVER:~ # systemctl start kdump.service

Job for kdump.service failed because the control process exited with error code. See "systemctl status kdump.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.

SERVER:~ # systemctl status kdump.service

● kdump.service - Load kdump kernel on startup

   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/kdump.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)

   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Wed 2018-10-17 12:29:34 EDT; 1s ago

  Process: 59804 ExecStart=/lib/kdump/load.sh (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

 Main PID: 59804 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)



Oct 17 12:29:33 SERVER systemd[1]: Starting Load kdump kernel on startup...

Oct 17 12:29:34 SERVER load.sh[59804]: kexec_file_load failed: Cannot assign requested address

Oct 17 12:29:34 SERVER systemd[1]: kdump.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE

Oct 17 12:29:34 SERVER systemd[1]: Failed to start Load kdump kernel on startup.

Oct 17 12:29:34 SERVER systemd[1]: kdump.service: Unit entered failed state.

Oct 17 12:29:34 SERVER systemd[1]: kdump.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

SERVER:~ # 

Logs:

SERVER:~ # tail /var/log/messages

2018-10-17T12:29:33.980232-04:00 SERVER systemd[1]: Starting Load kdump kernel on startup...

2018-10-17T12:29:34.133151-04:00 SERVER kdump[59974]: FAILED to load kdump kernel: /sbin/kexec -p /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.121-92.80-default --append="quiet console=tty0 console=ttyS0,9600 elevator=noop transparent_hugepage=never numa_balancing=disable intel_idle.max_cstate=1 elevator=deadline sysrq=yes reset_devices acpi_no_memhotplug cgroup_disable=memory irqpoll nr_cpus=1 root=kdump rootflags=bind rd.udev.children-max=8 disable_cpu_apicid=0   panic=1" --initrd=/boot/initrd-4.4.121-92.80-default-kdump  -s, Result: kexec_file_load failed: Cannot assign requested address

2018-10-17T12:29:34.133560-04:00 SERVER load.sh[59804]: kexec_file_load failed: Cannot assign requested address

2018-10-17T12:29:34.133726-04:00 SERVER systemd[1]: kdump.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE

2018-10-17T12:29:34.133958-04:00 SERVER systemd[1]: Failed to start Load kdump kernel on startup.

2018-10-17T12:29:34.134105-04:00 SERVER systemd[1]: kdump.service: Unit entered failed state.

2018-10-17T12:29:34.134233-04:00 SERVER systemd[1]: kdump.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

SERVER:~ #

Infos for the versions:

SERVER:~ # rpm -qa|grep -i kdump

yast2-kdump-3.1.44-11.6.15.x86_64

kdump-0.8.15-28.5.x86_64

SERVER:~ # uname -a

Linux SERVER 4.4.121-92.80-default #1 SMP Mon May 21 14:40:10 UTC 2018 (2afdd00) x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

SERVER:~ #

SERVER:~ # cat /etc/SuSE-release

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 (x86_64)

VERSION = 12

PATCHLEVEL = 2

# This file is deprecated and will be removed in a future service pack or release.

# Please check /etc/os-release for details about this release.

SERVER:~ #

The question: Why cannot the kdump.service start? What am I missing?

AFAIK SLES 12 doesn't needs the kernel-kdump package or am I wrong? If yes, from where can I get the kernel-kdump package?

Based on https://distrowatch.com/table-mobile.php?distribution=sle&pkglist=true&version=12-sp2 the kdump version looks OK.

UPDATE on 2018 Dec 05:

• rpm -V kdump-0.8.15-28.5.x86_64; echo $? -> it is 0, so ok




• I found a machine with same kernel version, but there, kdump works! But cannot find the difference between healthy vs. this bad host..




• tried to replace initrd, but didn't helped.




• tried to reinstall kdump, didn't helped: rpm -e yast2-kdump; rpm -e kdump; zypper in kdump




• tried to do a "systemctl unmask kdump; systemctl enable kdump; systemctl restart kdump" and "systemctl daemon-reload", didn't helped.

UPDATE on 2018 Dec 07:

cat /proc/cmdline

BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-4.4.121-92.80-default root=/dev/mapper/vg00-lv_root splash=silent quiet showopts console=tty0 console=ttyS0,9600 elevator=noop transparent_hugepage=never crashkernel=768M numa_balancing=disable intel_idle.max_cstate=1

Let me answer as best as I can with the provided information.

First, SLES 12 (and beyond) indeed does not need a kernel-kdump package. This special kernel flavour was only needed in ancient times, because the panic kernel must be loaded at a different physical address than the running kernel, but the load address could be changed only at compile time (aka the kernel was not relocatable).

Second, kdump won't start, because the underlying kexec_file_load system call fails with EADDRNOTAVAIL. This happens if the system cannot allocate one or more buffers needed to load the panic kernel into RAM. Note that there may be theoretically enough reserved memory for the panic kernel, but since the allocation has some additional constraints imposed by the Linux kernel boot code and/or drivers, this RAM may not be usable for loading the panic kernel. The other system may be more lucky thanks to a different physical memory layout.

As a first step, I would try increasing the reserved memory size on the kernel command line (e.g. crashkernel=256M), reboot and see if it helps.