panic: add sysctl to dump all CPUs backtraces on oops event

Usually when the kernel reaches an oops condition, it's a point of no
return; in case not enough debug information is available in the kernel
splat, one of the last resorts would be to collect a kernel crash dump
and analyze it.  The problem with this approach is that in order to
collect the dump, a panic is required (to kexec-load the crash kernel).
When in an environment of multiple virtual machines, users may prefer to
try living with the oops, at least until being able to properly shutdown
their VMs / finish their important tasks.

This patch implements a way to collect a bit more debug details when an
oops event is reached, by printing all the CPUs backtraces through the
usage of NMIs (on architectures that support that).  The sysctl added
(and documented) here was called "oops_all_cpu_backtrace", and when set
will (as the name suggests) dump all CPUs backtraces.

Far from ideal, this may be the last option though for users that for
some reason cannot panic on oops.  Most of times oopses are clear enough
to indicate the kernel portion that must be investigated, but in virtual
environments it's possible to observe hypervisor/KVM issues that could
lead to oopses shown in other guests CPUs (like virtual APIC crashes).
This patch hence aims to help debug such complex issues without
resorting to kdump.

Signed-off-by: Guilherme G. Piccoli <gpiccoli@canonical.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Reviewed-by: Kees Cook <keescook@chromium.org>
Cc: Luis Chamberlain <mcgrof@kernel.org>
Cc: Iurii Zaikin <yzaikin@google.com>
Cc: Thomas Gleixner <tglx@linutronix.de>
Cc: Vlastimil Babka <vbabka@suse.cz>
Cc: Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@infradead.org>
Cc: Matthew Wilcox <willy@infradead.org>
Link: http://lkml.kernel.org/r/20200327224116.21030-1-gpiccoli@canonical.com
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>

1 files changed, 16 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/kernel.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/kernel.rst
index 861820d27c19..83acf5025488 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/kernel.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/kernel.rst
@@ -646,6 +646,22 @@ rate for each task.
 scanned for a given scan.
 
 
+oops_all_cpu_backtrace:
+================
+
+If this option is set, the kernel will send an NMI to all CPUs to dump
+their backtraces when an oops event occurs. It should be used as a last
+resort in case a panic cannot be triggered (to protect VMs running, for
+example) or kdump can't be collected. This file shows up if CONFIG_SMP
+is enabled.
+
+0: Won't show all CPUs backtraces when an oops is detected.
+This is the default behavior.
+
+1: Will non-maskably interrupt all CPUs and dump their backtraces when
+an oops event is detected.
+
+
 osrelease, ostype & version
 ===========================