[sos-devel] question about ethtool dumps

[Bryn M. Reeves]

On Fri, Mar 23, 2018 at 03:31:23PM +0200, Carl Heymann wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> is it currently possible to create ethtool debug dumps with sosreport? E.g. a command such as:
> 
>  ethtool -W <netdev> <flag> && ethtool -w <netdev> data /dev/stdout

For ethtool commands you can find out what is collected by just
running sosreport and then looking in the 'sos_commands/networking'
directory in the generated report:

# ls sos_commands/networking/ethtool_*wlp3s0 | cat
sos_commands/networking/ethtool_-a_wlp3s0
sos_commands/networking/ethtool_-c_wlp3s0
sos_commands/networking/ethtool_-d_wlp3s0
sos_commands/networking/ethtool_-g_wlp3s0
sos_commands/networking/ethtool_-i_wlp3s0
sos_commands/networking/ethtool_-k_wlp3s0
sos_commands/networking/ethtool_-S_wlp3s0
sos_commands/networking/ethtool_-T_wlp3s0
sos_commands/networking/ethtool_wlp3s0

These commands are collected for every interface on the system (I
filtered the above list for one NIC just to avoid clutter).

We do not currently perform the type of operation you describe:
we have a fairly strict policy of not modifying the system that
sos is running on and that is communicated to users in the text
displayed when sos starts:

    "The generated archive may contain data considered sensitive and its
    content should be reviewed by the originating organization before being
    passed to any third party.
    
    No changes will be made to system configuration."

The problem with this is that even if we added steps to revert
our changes we cannot be certain they will succeed: sos could
crash or be killed by the administrator leaving the system in
an unknown state (this is especially a problem with tools like
abrt, which has a habbit of kill -9ing a running sos at times).
 
> for all (or some) netdevs.
> 
> If this is not currently possible, would it be seen as a desirable feature?

It would be preferable if we could request the dump in a
somewhat atomic fashion: set the flag, get the dump, clear
the flag.

I'm inclined at the moment to think that this would belong
more in some external network diagnostic tool that sos would
then run to collect output.

Regards,
Bryn.