xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/netdump.4 (revision f374ba41)
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25.\" $FreeBSD$
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27.Dd November 10, 2022
28.Dt NETDUMP 4
29.Os
30.Sh NAME
31.Nm netdump
32.Nd protocol for transmitting kernel dumps to a remote server
33.Sh SYNOPSIS
34To compile netdump client support into the kernel, place the following lines in
35your kernel configuration file:
36.Bd -ragged -offset indent
37.Cd "options INET"
38.Cd "options DEBUGNET"
39.Cd "options NETDUMP"
40.Ed
41.Sh DESCRIPTION
42netdump is a UDP-based protocol for transmitting kernel dumps to a remote host.
43A netdump client is a panicking kernel, and a netdump server is a host
44running the
45.Nm
46daemon, available in ports as
47.Pa ports/ftp/netdumpd .
48.Nm
49clients are configured using the
50.Xr dumpon 8
51utility or the
52.Ic netdump
53command in
54.Xr ddb 4 .
55.Pp
56.Nm
57client messages consist of a fixed-size header followed by a variable-sized
58payload.
59The header contains the message type, a sequence number, the offset of
60the payload data in the kernel dump, and the length of the payload data
61(not including the header).
62The message types are
63.Dv HERALD , FINISHED , KDH , VMCORE ,
64and
65.Dv EKCD_KEY .
66.Nm
67server messages have a fixed size and contain only the sequence number of
68the client message.
69These messages indicate that the server has successfully processed the
70client message with the corresponding sequence number.
71All client messages are acknowledged this way.
72Server messages are always sent to port 20024 of the client.
73.Pp
74To initiate a
75.Nm ,
76the client sends a
77.Dv HERALD
78message to the server at port 20023.
79The client may include a relative path in its payload, in which case the
80.Nm
81server should attempt to save the dump at that path relative to its configured
82dump directory.
83The server will acknowledge the
84.Dv HERALD
85using a random source port, and the client must send all subsequent messages
86to that port.
87.Pp
88The
89.Dv KDH , VMCORE ,
90and
91.Dv EKCD_KEY
92message payloads contain the kernel dump header, dump contents, and
93dump encryption key respectively.
94The offset in the message header should be treated as a seek offset
95in the corresponding file.
96There are no ordering requirements for these messages.
97.Pp
98A
99.Nm
100is completed by sending the
101.Dv FINISHED
102message to the server.
103.Pp
104The following network drivers support netdump:
105.Xr alc 4 ,
106.Xr bge 4 ,
107.Xr bnxt 4 ,
108.Xr bxe 4 ,
109.Xr cxgb 4 ,
110.Xr em 4 ,
111.Xr igb 4 ,
112.Xr ix 4 ,
113.Xr ixl 4 ,
114.Xr mlx4en 4 ,
115.Xr mlx5en 4 ,
116.Xr re 4 ,
117.Xr vtnet 4 .
118.Sh SYSCTL VARIABLES
119The following variables are available as both
120.Xr sysctl 8
121variables and
122.Xr loader 8
123variables:
124.Bl -tag -width "indent"
125.It Va net.netdump.debug
126Control debug message verbosity.
127Debug messages are disabled by default, but are useful when troubleshooting
128or when developing driver support.
129.It Va net.netdump.path
130Specify a path relative to the server's dump directory in which to store
131the dump.
132For example, if the
133.Nm
134server is configured to store dumps in
135.Pa /var/crash ,
136a path of
137.Dq foo
138will cause the server to attempt to store dumps from the client in
139.Pa /var/crash/foo .
140The server will not automatically create the relative directory.
141.It Va net.netdump.polls
142The client will poll the configured network interface while waiting for
143acknowledgements.
144This parameter controls the maximum number of poll attempts before giving
145up, which typically results in a re-transmit.
146Each poll attempt takes 0.5ms.
147.It Va net.netdump.retries
148The number of times the client will re-transmit a packet before aborting
149a dump due to a lack of acknowledgement.
150The default may be too small in environments with lots of packet loss.
151.It Va net.netdump.arp_retries
152The number of times the client will attempt to learn the MAC address of
153the configured gateway or server before giving up and aborting the dump.
154.El
155.Sh SEE ALSO
156.Xr decryptcore 8 ,
157.Xr dumpon 8 ,
158.Xr savecore 8
159.Sh HISTORY
160.Nm
161client support first appeared in
162.Fx 12.0 .
163.Sh BUGS
164Only IPv4 is supported.
165.Pp
166.Nm
167may only be used after the kernel has panicked.
168