Re: [Xen-users] Dell Poweredge 2650 - heavy IO hangs domU machine s; xen 2.0.7, xen kernel 2.6.11.12

[Max E Baro <MEB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The issues I've had with PE2650 and Linux in general all related to a lack of IRQ's.  I had to disable all non-essential devices in the BIOS (lpt, usb and com).  It seems the BIOS on that server still has legacy IRQ issues (< IRQ15).  In my xenU's I also renamed /etc/sysconf/hwconf so it would'nt try to init any hardware devices directly.

Maybe these options could help...good luck

> This is a pretty serious problem... no bites yet? This doesn't sound familiar to anyone?

> It's not a bacula problem. Bacula doesn't do this to us running on unvirtualized hardware.

 

> Stephen Bosch wrote:

> Hello:

>

> At the off-list suggestion of another user, we have tried adding

> 'noirqbalance' to the xen start line in grub, we've disabled USB in the

> system BIOS, and we've added 'nousb' to the kernel parameters.

>

> The problem is still there, exactly as before, even with all those changes.

>

> *All* the virtual machines lose network connectivity, not just the ones

> involved in the backup. We have an LDAP server VM running on this

> hardware that is totally idle when this hang happens. We cannot ping or

> ssh into them. We can get a console using 'xm console', but after

> entering the userid, the login times out (after 60 seconds) before we

> ever get a password prompt.

>

> I still suspect an interrupt problem: it would appear that the tty is

> unable to do a disk read to do authentication. At the same time, the

> tape backup process hangs.

>

> If we kill the bacula storage daemon on dom0, all of the virtual

> machines release and we can log in again. At no point does anything

> reboot -- it just hangs, and it's not a fatal hang. If the backup

> process stops, whether through a timeout or by forceably stopping the

> storage daemon, the virtual machines are again pingable and we can log

> in both with ssh or 'xm console'.

>

> We tried monitoring the memory usage during the backup test by running

> 'top' in separate console windows. Loads were actually modest and there

> was plenty of memory remaining on all the virtual machines (over 1 GB in

> free RAM in one case).

>

> To recap: this is a Dell *2650*, not a 2850. It has a Serverworks, not

> an Intel chipset. The RAID controller is a PERC 3 DC (LSI Logic) which

> uses the Megaraid drivers. The controller firmware has been upgraded to

> 3.35/1.07, the most recent available.

>

> Note also -- dom0 is unaffected. We can still interact with dom0 without

> trouble. This hang affects only the virtual machines.

>

> Cheers,

>

> -Stephen-

Max Baro
Technical Support Representative
FACTS Services, Inc.
(305) 284 - 7440
meb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users