Information about the IMPEX 4.0.6 fix release
This is a patch release adding a kernel parameter to work around a NVMe disk driver issue causing USB Protect Gen2 stations to hang.
A few customers have been experiencing hangs in their USB Protect Gen2 stations. After troubleshooting we have found out that this is a NVMe disk driver issue, not an actual hardware failure as some customers have reported to us. The issue can be mitigated by adding a kernel parameter which we are doing in this update.
This parameter will take effect after the next scheduled reboot which is early morning on Sundays or if the customer decides to reboot the Impex station at an earlier occasion after the patch release.
Detailed description
Some NVMe devices may exhibit issues related to power saving (APST). This is a known issue for certain types of storage devices such as Kingston A2000 as of firmware S5Z42105 and has previously also been reported on Samsung NVMe drives. This also seems to apply to the models of Advantech drives used in the Gen2 USB Protect stations.
If the failure occur, it renders the device unresponsive and unusable until the system is rebooted, with kernel logs similar to:
nvme nvme0: I/O 566 QID 7 timeout, aborting
nvme nvme0: I/O 989 QID 1 timeout, aborting
nvme nvme0: I/O 990 QID 1 timeout, aborting
nvme nvme0: I/O 840 QID 6 timeout, reset controller
nvme nvme0: I/O 24 QID 0 timeout, reset controller
nvme nvme0: Device not ready; aborting reset, CSTS=0x1
...
nvme nvme0: Device not ready; aborting reset, CSTS=0x1
nvme nvme0: Device not ready; aborting reset, CSTS=0x1
nvme nvme0: failed to set APST feature (-19)
As a mitigation, we add the kernel parameter nvme_core.default_ps_max_latency_us=0 to completely disable APST feature, which is a feature we do not use anyway.
Unaffected
Impex USB protect gen1 is not affected by the issue with APST since they do not have NVMe disks.
Information
Portal
https://portal.sysctl.se is now available for Sysctl customers. The portal is used to distribute files and information that have restricted distribution. In this initial release, the portal provides specific program files for IMPEX customers, and especially those customers that have standalone or offline USB Protect. From the portal customers can download offline updates and AntiVirus definitions updates. It is also possible to download installation media for
- ICC server
- Repository server
- IMPEX USB Protect
- IMPEX DataLock
Email SYSCTL support to get access to the portal.
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