9.2. Parameters controlling kernel panic

The following kernel parameters can be set to control a system’s behavior when a soft lockup is detected.

softlockup_panic

Controls whether or not the kernel will panic when a soft lockup is detected.

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Type	Value	Effect
Integer	0	kernel does not panic on soft lockup
Integer	1	kernel panics on soft lockup

By default, on RHEL 10, this value is 0.

The system needs to detect a hard lockup first to be able to panic. The detection is controlled by the nmi_watchdog parameter.

nmi_watchdog

Controls whether lockup detection mechanisms (watchdogs) are active or not. This parameter is of integer type.

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Value	Effect
0	disables lockup detector
1	enables lockup detector

The hard lockup detector monitors each CPU for its ability to respond to interrupts.

watchdog_thresh

Controls frequency of watchdog hrtimer, NMI events, and soft or hard lockup thresholds.

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Default threshold	Soft lockup threshold
10 seconds	2 * `watchdog_thresh`

Setting this parameter to zero disables lockup detection altogether.