Online Update to SLES11SP2 cause lvm to report memory leak

This document (7010394) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 2

Situation

After performing an online migration to SLES11SP2 with lvm2 using package version 2.02.84-3.29.12 the following (shortened) LVM error is experienced is seen on the screen or in /var/log/boot.msg:

You have a memory leak (not released memory pool):
   [0x6c5130]
   [0x6c5170]
   [0x6c51b0]
   [0x6c51f0]
   [0x6c5230]
   [0x6c5270]
   [0x6c52b0]
   [0x6c52f0]
   [0x6c5330]

This error is displayed as many times as logical volumes available in the system.
The behavior could not be reproduced by installing SLES11SP2 from scratch and patching the system afterwards to the latest patch level.

Resolution

If this issue is encountered please run as root the command

mkinitrd

to update the binaries and libraries inside the initrd to match the latest lvm2 version. Once the system boots properly again, apply the latest updates for lvm2 and device-mapper (and its dependencies).

Cause

/boot/initrd contains an older version of the vgchange binary.

Disclaimer

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