Debian 5.0 host, qemu-kvm 0.12.4, unable to use -smp > 1

Debian 5.0 host, qemu-kvm 0.12.4, unable to use -smp > 1

[Freddie Cash]

We just upgraded our KVM host system from KVM-72 to qemu-kvm 0.12.4
(debian lenny backports).  We are now unable to start any VMs that use
-smp option with values > 1 (-smp 1 works, -smp 2 doesn't).
Everything else is the same (nothing in the guests was changed,
nothing else on the host was changed).

Hardware:
  Tyan h2000M motherboard
  2x dual-core AMD Opteron 2200-series CPUs @ 2 GHz
  16 GB DDR2 SDRAM
  3Ware 9550SXU-12ML RAID controller
  12x 500 GB SATA harddrives in RAID6
  Intel PRO/1000MT quad-port gigabit NIC (bonded into kvmbr0)

  Debian 5.0 (Lenny) amd64

Everything was working great with KVM-72 with the exception of virtio
block device drivers (memory leak).

We have several Debian/Ubuntu and Windows XP/2003 VMs running on here
with various amounts of RAM.  And 1 VM that was running with -smp 2
that is now running with -smp 1.

I've tested -smp 1,cores=2 and it will boot, but only shows 1 CPU.
Using any value other than 1 for -smp causes the kvm process to start
(shows in ps output) but never run (no CPU usage in top, no VNC
connection, no errors, just nothing).

Not sure how to diagnose this one.  Any ideas?


-- 
Freddie Cash
fjwcash@gmail.com

Re: Debian 5.0 host, qemu-kvm 0.12.4, unable to use -smp > 1

[Freddie Cash]

On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 7:29 AM, Freddie Cash <fjwcash@gmail.com> wrote:
> We just upgraded our KVM host system from KVM-72 to qemu-kvm 0.12.4
> (debian lenny backports).  We are now unable to start any VMs that use
> -smp option with values > 1 (-smp 1 works, -smp 2 doesn't).
> Everything else is the same (nothing in the guests was changed,
> nothing else on the host was changed).
>
> Hardware:
>  Tyan h2000M motherboard
>  2x dual-core AMD Opteron 2200-series CPUs @ 2 GHz
>  16 GB DDR2 SDRAM
>  3Ware 9550SXU-12ML RAID controller
>  12x 500 GB SATA harddrives in RAID6
>  Intel PRO/1000MT quad-port gigabit NIC (bonded into kvmbr0)
>
>  Debian 5.0 (Lenny) amd64
>
> Everything was working great with KVM-72 with the exception of virtio
> block device drivers (memory leak).
>
> We have several Debian/Ubuntu and Windows XP/2003 VMs running on here
> with various amounts of RAM.  And 1 VM that was running with -smp 2
> that is now running with -smp 1.
>
> I've tested -smp 1,cores=2 and it will boot, but only shows 1 CPU.
> Using any value other than 1 for -smp causes the kvm process to start
> (shows in ps output) but never run (no CPU usage in top, no VNC
> connection, no errors, just nothing).
>
> Not sure how to diagnose this one.  Any ideas?

Adding -no-kvm-irqchip to the command-line allows the VM to start, and
the extra virtual CPUs to appear.  No idea what this option does,
though, nor why it would be needed.  It's not listed in the qemu/kvm
man page.

The command fails:
/usr/bin/kvm -name radius -smp 2 -m 512 -vnc :12 -daemonize -localtime
-usb -usbdevice tablet -net nic,macaddr=00:16:3e:00:00:12,model=e1000
-net tap,ifname=tap12 -pidfile /var/run/kvm/radius.pid -boot c -drive
index=0,media=disk,if=virtio,boot=on,file=/dev/mapper/vol0-radius

And this one works:
/usr/bin/kvm -name radius -smp 2 -m 512 -vnc :12 -daemonize -localtime
-usb -usbdevice tablet -net nic,macaddr=00:16:3e:00:00:12,model=e1000
-net tap,ifname=tap12 -pidfile /var/run/kvm/radius.pid -boot c -drive
index=0,media=disk,if=virtio,boot=on,file=/dev/mapper/vol0-radius
-no-kvm-irqchip

Anyone care to explain what -no-kvm-irqchip does, and/or why it's needed now?
-- 
Freddie Cash
fjwcash@gmail.com

Re: Debian 5.0 host, qemu-kvm 0.12.4, unable to use -smp > 1

[Gleb Natapov]

On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 07:29:22AM -0700, Freddie Cash wrote:
> We just upgraded our KVM host system from KVM-72 to qemu-kvm 0.12.4
> (debian lenny backports).  We are now unable to start any VMs that use
> -smp option with values > 1 (-smp 1 works, -smp 2 doesn't).
> Everything else is the same (nothing in the guests was changed,
> nothing else on the host was changed).
>
KVM-72 is too old for recent qemu-kvm userspace. Unfortunately our
backwards compatibility does not go so far.

> Hardware:
>   Tyan h2000M motherboard
>   2x dual-core AMD Opteron 2200-series CPUs @ 2 GHz
>   16 GB DDR2 SDRAM
>   3Ware 9550SXU-12ML RAID controller
>   12x 500 GB SATA harddrives in RAID6
>   Intel PRO/1000MT quad-port gigabit NIC (bonded into kvmbr0)
> 
>   Debian 5.0 (Lenny) amd64
> 
> Everything was working great with KVM-72 with the exception of virtio
> block device drivers (memory leak).
> 
> We have several Debian/Ubuntu and Windows XP/2003 VMs running on here
> with various amounts of RAM.  And 1 VM that was running with -smp 2
> that is now running with -smp 1.
> 
> I've tested -smp 1,cores=2 and it will boot, but only shows 1 CPU.
> Using any value other than 1 for -smp causes the kvm process to start
> (shows in ps output) but never run (no CPU usage in top, no VNC
> connection, no errors, just nothing).
> 
> Not sure how to diagnose this one.  Any ideas?
> 
> 
> -- 
> Freddie Cash
> fjwcash@gmail.com
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe kvm" in
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--
			Gleb.

Re: Debian 5.0 host, qemu-kvm 0.12.4, unable to use -smp > 1

[Freddie Cash]

On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 9:32 AM, Gleb Natapov <gleb@redhat.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 07:29:22AM -0700, Freddie Cash wrote:
>> We just upgraded our KVM host system from KVM-72 to qemu-kvm 0.12.4
>> (debian lenny backports).  We are now unable to start any VMs that use
>> -smp option with values > 1 (-smp 1 works, -smp 2 doesn't).
>> Everything else is the same (nothing in the guests was changed,
>> nothing else on the host was changed).
>>
> KVM-72 is too old for recent qemu-kvm userspace. Unfortunately our
> backwards compatibility does not go so far.

KVM modules and what-not were upgraded at the same time, obviously
(kvm, kvm-source, qemu-kvm packages).  :)  Taken from lenny-backports
repo.

Adding -no-kvm-irqchip to the command-line allows the VMs to start
with -smp >1.  Just don't know why that's needed, or what that does,
as it's not listed in any changelogs that I can see, nor in the
kvm/qemu man pages, nor anywhere on the linux-kvm.org website, nor
anywhere on the qemu website, nor anywhere else I can find.  In fact,
the only mention of it is in the "kvm --help" output, and that 1 line
of output is pretty much useless for understanding what it does.

After 2 hours of creative googling, mailing list archives browsing,
and searching through various bug trackers, I still have no idea why
that's needed or what it does or what the implications are for its
use.

-- 
Freddie Cash
fjwcash@gmail.com

Re: Debian 5.0 host, qemu-kvm 0.12.4, unable to use -smp > 1

[Thomas Mueller]

Am Wed, 11 Aug 2010 10:18:41 -0700 schrieb Freddie Cash:

> On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 9:32 AM, Gleb Natapov <gleb@redhat.com> wrote:
>> On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 07:29:22AM -0700, Freddie Cash wrote:
>>> We just upgraded our KVM host system from KVM-72 to qemu-kvm 0.12.4
>>> (debian lenny backports).  We are now unable to start any VMs that use
>>> -smp option with values > 1 (-smp 1 works, -smp 2 doesn't). Everything
>>> else is the same (nothing in the guests was changed, nothing else on
>>> the host was changed).
>>>
>> KVM-72 is too old for recent qemu-kvm userspace. Unfortunately our
>> backwards compatibility does not go so far.
> 
> KVM modules and what-not were upgraded at the same time, obviously (kvm,
> kvm-source, qemu-kvm packages).  :)  Taken from lenny-backports repo.
> 
> 

kvm-source is no longer provided by debian. the lenny-backports ist 
kvm-85. you need linux-image-2.6.32 from lenny-backports for recent 
kernel modules.

- Thomas

Re: Debian 5.0 host, qemu-kvm 0.12.4, unable to use -smp > 1

[Michael Tokarev]

11.08.2010 21:34, Thomas Mueller wrote:
> kvm-source is no longer provided by debian. the lenny-backports ist
> kvm-85. you need linux-image-2.6.32 from lenny-backports for recent
> kernel modules.

Please, pretty pretty please already, forget about kvm-NN releases.
They're dead long time ago.  bpo provides 0.12.4 now, and used
to have 0.11 when it was current.  Note the subject says the same
thing...

Thanks!

/mjt

Re: Debian 5.0 host, qemu-kvm 0.12.4, unable to use -smp > 1

[Thomas Mueller]

Am Wed, 11 Aug 2010 21:41:55 +0400 schrieb Michael Tokarev:

> 11.08.2010 21:34, Thomas Mueller wrote:
>> kvm-source is no longer provided by debian. the lenny-backports ist
>> kvm-85. you need linux-image-2.6.32 from lenny-backports for recent
>> kernel modules.
> 
> Please, pretty pretty please already, forget about kvm-NN releases.
> They're dead long time ago.  bpo provides 0.12.4 now, and used to have
> 0.11 when it was current.  Note the subject says the same thing...
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> /mjt

why not ad a "Conflicts: kvm-source" to qemu-kvm ? 

- Thomas

Re: Debian 5.0 host, qemu-kvm 0.12.4, unable to use -smp > 1

[Michael Tokarev]

11.08.2010 21:18, Freddie Cash wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 9:32 AM, Gleb Natapov<gleb@redhat.com>  wrote:
>> On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 07:29:22AM -0700, Freddie Cash wrote:
>>> We just upgraded our KVM host system from KVM-72 to qemu-kvm 0.12.4
>>> (debian lenny backports).  We are now unable to start any VMs that use
>>> -smp option with values>  1 (-smp 1 works, -smp 2 doesn't).
>>> Everything else is the same (nothing in the guests was changed,
>>> nothing else on the host was changed).
>>>
>> KVM-72 is too old for recent qemu-kvm userspace. Unfortunately our
>> backwards compatibility does not go so far.
>
> KVM modules and what-not were upgraded at the same time, obviously
> (kvm, kvm-source, qemu-kvm packages).  :)  Taken from lenny-backports
> repo.

Please remove kvm-source, reinstall kernel, and retry.
If kvm-source (which is the kernel module, of version -72) actually
compiles, it is quite surprizing - the module is written for a very
old (by now) kernel.

Thanks!

/mjt

Re: Debian 5.0 host, qemu-kvm 0.12.4, unable to use -smp > 1

[Freddie Cash]

On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 11:39 AM, Michael Tokarev <mjt@tls.msk.ru> wrote:
> 11.08.2010 21:18, Freddie Cash wrote:
>>
>> On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 9:32 AM, Gleb Natapov<gleb@redhat.com>  wrote:
>>>
>>> On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 07:29:22AM -0700, Freddie Cash wrote:
>>>>
>>>> We just upgraded our KVM host system from KVM-72 to qemu-kvm 0.12.4
>>>> (debian lenny backports).  We are now unable to start any VMs that use
>>>> -smp option with values>  1 (-smp 1 works, -smp 2 doesn't).
>>>> Everything else is the same (nothing in the guests was changed,
>>>> nothing else on the host was changed).
>>>>
>>> KVM-72 is too old for recent qemu-kvm userspace. Unfortunately our
>>> backwards compatibility does not go so far.
>>
>> KVM modules and what-not were upgraded at the same time, obviously
>> (kvm, kvm-source, qemu-kvm packages).  :)  Taken from lenny-backports
>> repo.
>
> Please remove kvm-source, reinstall kernel, and retry.
> If kvm-source (which is the kernel module, of version -72) actually
> compiles, it is quite surprizing - the module is written for a very
> old (by now) kernel.

kvm-source removed.
linux-image-2.6.32-bpo.5-amd64 purged then installed again.
Will reboot the server tomorrow morning and then test that -smp works
with/out -no-kvm-irqchip.

-- 
Freddie Cash
fjwcash@gmail.com

Re: Debian 5.0 host, qemu-kvm 0.12.4, unable to use -smp > 1

[Freddie Cash]

On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 11:46 AM, Freddie Cash <fjwcash@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 11:39 AM, Michael Tokarev <mjt@tls.msk.ru> wrote:
>> 11.08.2010 21:18, Freddie Cash wrote:
>>>
>>> On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 9:32 AM, Gleb Natapov<gleb@redhat.com>  wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 07:29:22AM -0700, Freddie Cash wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> We just upgraded our KVM host system from KVM-72 to qemu-kvm 0.12.4
>>>>> (debian lenny backports).  We are now unable to start any VMs that use
>>>>> -smp option with values>  1 (-smp 1 works, -smp 2 doesn't).
>>>>> Everything else is the same (nothing in the guests was changed,
>>>>> nothing else on the host was changed).
>>>>>
>>>> KVM-72 is too old for recent qemu-kvm userspace. Unfortunately our
>>>> backwards compatibility does not go so far.
>>>
>>> KVM modules and what-not were upgraded at the same time, obviously
>>> (kvm, kvm-source, qemu-kvm packages).  :)  Taken from lenny-backports
>>> repo.
>>
>> Please remove kvm-source, reinstall kernel, and retry.
>> If kvm-source (which is the kernel module, of version -72) actually
>> compiles, it is quite surprizing - the module is written for a very
>> old (by now) kernel.
>
> kvm-source removed.
> linux-image-2.6.32-bpo.5-amd64 purged then installed again.
> Will reboot the server tomorrow morning and then test that -smp works
> with/out -no-kvm-irqchip.

That (reboot with new kernel) fixed it.  Can now start VMs with -smp
>1, without using -no-kvm-irqchip.

Thanks everyone!!

-- 
Freddie Cash
fjwcash@gmail.com

Re: Debian 5.0 host, qemu-kvm 0.12.4, unable to use -smp > 1

[Michael Tokarev]

11.08.2010 21:43, Thomas Mueller wrote:
> Am Wed, 11 Aug 2010 21:41:55 +0400 schrieb Michael Tokarev:

>> Please, pretty pretty please already, forget about kvm-NN releases.
>> They're dead long time ago.  bpo provides 0.12.4 now, and used to have
>> 0.11 when it was current.  Note the subject says the same thing...
>
> why not ad a "Conflicts: kvm-source" to qemu-kvm ?

Because it's not qemu-kvm who conflicts with old kvm-source (kernel
module).  It is kvm-source that breaks _kernel_, not qemu-kvm.

Because one may install kvm-source, upgrade to new kernel (kvm-source
will break it by replacing kvm modules with older, non-functional ones),
and later install qemu-kvm.  The kernel is already broken, even if
kvm-source is removed during qemu-kvm install.

So it should be the kernel to conflict with kvm-source.  Note that
even lenny's kernel modules are more recent than kvm-72.

In any way, it's Debian-specific issue, not very interesting to most
readers of kvm@vger.

Thanks!

/mjt