Red Hat Knowledgebase

Release Found: Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Symptom:
You want the system to automatically reboot after a timed delay when the kernel panics. When you experience a kernel panic, the system hangs and is inaccessable.

Solution:
To enable automatic reboots after a kernel panic, edit the /etc/sysctl.conf file and add the following lines to the file:

# When kernel panic's, reboot after 10 second delay kernel.panic = 10

This will cause the system to reboot after 10 seconds after the kernel panics. In order for this setting to become "active" in the running kernel, you need to run the command sysctl -p, which will re-read your sysctl.conf file.