We have recently upgraded our e1000e (intel ethernet) module on one of our CentOS 6.0 boxes.
Even tho the module compile and installed fine, the old version is still being used.
We have tracked this down to the fact that the e1000e.ko module is located inside the initamfs file for the booting kernel and thus, even tho the module located in /lib/modules/.... was being updated, the old one is still being loaded from inside the initramfs file.
After some research, we have found that creating a new initamfs file in CentOS should be as simple as:
/sbin/dracut <initramfs> <kernel-version>
Can someone confirm that this is a safe way to basically recreate the initamfs file?
This is a non-locally hosted (1000's of km away...) box, and getting support to resolve this if a reboot is unsuccessful will lead to quite a bit of down time.
Official doc of upstream vendor Verifying the Initial RAM Disk Image.
There should be no issue with updating dracut as long as the current kernel is booting and working correctly based on my own personal experience.