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  7. Using SUSE or SLES Kernel Taint with DRBD

Using SUSE or SLES Kernel Taint with DRBD

This article will show you how to relax SUSE or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) third-party kernel module protections to allow for the LINBIT® DRBD® kernel module to be inserted.

If using DRBD from LINBIT repositories on SLES, you’ll see the module fail to load. This is because SUSE is picky about support and using third-party modules. The errors will look like this:

modprobe: ERROR: module 'drbd' is unsupported
modprobe: ERROR: Use --allow-unsupported or set allow_unsupported_modules 1 in
modprobe: ERROR: /etc/modprobe.d/10-unsupported-modules.conf
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'drbd': Operation not permitted

To get around this, there is an option that will allow the system to load unsupported modules at the cost of tainting the kernel. Kernel taint is just a way of saying that this SLES kernel is sharing space with modules that SUSE has no control of, and cannot support. There is no functional impact.

To allow the loading of unsupported 3rd party modules in SLES, set allow_unsupported_modules 1 in /etc/modprobe.d/unsupported-modules. After making this change, modules missing the supported flag will be allowed to load.

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Reviewed 2020/12/01 – DGT