Smarts NCM:Why is NCM modifying core kernel files?

Products

• VMware Smart Assurance

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:


An understanding of why Network Configuration Manager modifies the following files:

• /sbin/sysctl -w kernel.core_uses_pid=1 
• /sbin/sysctl -w kernel.core_pattern="/var/cores/core.%e.%p" 
• /sbin/sysctl -w fs.suid_dumpable=1 
• /proc/sys/fs/suid_dumpable 

 

Network Administrators or Server Administrators might have concerns of why Smarts Network Configuration Manager is modifying the Kernel Code and would like a complete understanding why.

Environment

VMware Smart Assurance - NCM

Cause

This is by design.

Resolution

During the NCM installation the core file creation is enabled, allowing debugging of core files after an application crash. These configurations can be disabled, but will stop all core debugging from being created.  Also during the installation, values were added to the rc.local, instead of the /etc/sysctl.conf as some values are ignored during boot.