Loading kdump-initrd after a kernel update fails with "no kdump initial ramdisk found"

This document (7018428) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 Service Pack 1 (SLES 12 SP1)

Situation

After a kernel update and reboot of the system the following message
will be seen:

linux-7fro:~ # journalctl -u kdump.service
-- Logs begin at Fri 2016-12-30 09:26:00 CET, end at Fri 2016-12-30 09:26:35 CET. --
Dec 30 09:26:02 linux-7fro systemd[1]: Starting Load kdump kernel on startup...
Dec 30 09:26:03 linux-7fro load.sh[758]: No kdump initial ramdisk found. Tried to locate /boot/initrd-3.12.67-60.64.21-default-kdump.
Dec 30 09:26:03 linux-7fro systemd[1]: kdump.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=6/NOTCONFIGURED
Dec 30 09:26:03 linux-7fro systemd[1]: Failed to start Load kdump kernel on startup.
Dec 30 09:26:03 linux-7fro systemd[1]: Unit kdump.service entered failed state.

Resolution

No further action is needed. To be on the safe side, you can check however if the following condition is true.

linux-7fro:~ # cat /sys/kernel/kexec_crash_loaded

If the result is '1' the kdump kernel has been loaded and all should work as expected.

Cause

When the systemd service
/usr/lib/systemd/system/kdump.service
is started it detected that no initrd<kernel-version>-kdump is available in /boot.

The initrd for the kdump kernel will be built at the same time and will be available when the kdump kernel is started if a crash happens.

Additional Information

When possible you should test if capturing a kernel dump works as expected.
The simplest way to test if all is working is to run the following command:

echo c >/proc/sysrq-trigger

This should start the kdump kernel and save the kernel dump of the production kernel.

Disclaimer

This Support Knowledgebase provides a valuable tool for SUSE customers and parties interested in our products and solutions to acquire information, ideas and learn from one another. Materials are provided for informational, personal or non-commercial use within your organization and are presented "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.