Auto reboot after kernel panic

By default after a kernel panic, Linux kernel just waits there for a system administrator to hit the restart or powercycle button.  This is because of the value set on “kernel.panic” parameter.

[root@linux23 ~]# cat /proc/sys/kernel/panic 
0
[root@linux23 ~]# sysctl -a | grep kernel.panic
kernel.panic = 0

To disable this and make the Linux OS reboot after a kernel panic, we have to set an integer N greater than zero to the parameter “kernel.panic”, where “N” is the number of seconds to wait before a automatic reboot.

For example , if you set N = 10 , then the system waits for 10 seconds before automatic reboot. To make this permanent, edit /etc/sysctl.conf and set it.

[root@linux23 ~]# echo 10 > /proc/sys/kernel/panic
0
[root@linux23 ~]# grep kernel.panic /etc/sysctl.conf kernel.panic = 10 

This helps in preventing manual intervention after a kernel panic. Setup some kernel dump or netdump to capture the kernel crash debug information.