microcode failed to start with VMI kernel
When you install the VMI kernel for SLES10 SP2 the deamon microcode failes to start.
No worry, you don’t need this process any more when you have paravirtualization. Just remove the deamon with:
insserv -r /etc/init.d/microcode_ctl
Below is a grab from the man pages:
The microcode_ctl utility is a companion to the IA32 microcode driver written by Tigran Aivazian <tigran@aivazian.fsnet.co.uk>. The uaility has two uses:
a) it decodes and sends new microcode to the kernel driver to be uploaded to Intel IA32 processors. (Pentium Pro, PII, Celeron, PIII, Xeon, Pentium 4 etc)
b) it signals the kernel driver to release the buffers containing the copy of microcode data actually applied to given CPU, linear array of 2048 bytes per CPU, see struct microcode in include/asm/processor.h for information on the layout of chunks buffers may hold
The microcode update is volatile and needs to be uploaded on each system boot i.e. it doesn’t reflash your cpu permanently, reboot and it reverts back to the old microcode.
Michael Wilmsen is a experienced VMware Architect with more than 20 years in the IT industry. Main focus is VMware vSphere, Horizon View and Hyper Converged with a deep interest into performance and architecture.
Michael is VCDX 210 certified, has been rewarded with the vExpert title from 2011, Nutanix Tech Champion and a Nutanix Platform Professional.
