The software described in this documentation is either in Extended Support or Sustaining Support. See https://www.oracle.com/us/support/library/enterprise-linux-support-policies-069172.pdf for more information.
Oracle recommends that you upgrade the software described by this documentation as soon as possible.
Kdump is the Linux kernel crash-dump mechanism. Oracle recommends
that you enable the Kdump feature. In the event of a system crash,
Kdump creates a memory image (vmcore) that can
help in determining the cause of the crash. Enabling Kdump
requires you to reserve a portion of system memory for exclusive
use by Kdump. This memory is unavailable for other uses.
Kdump uses kexec to boot into a second kernel
whenever the system crashes. kexec is a
fast-boot mechanism which allows a Linux kernel to boot from
inside the context of a kernel that is already running without
passing through the bootloader stage.