Re: [Xen-users] xen + centos + areca raid issues

["Anand Gupta" <xen.mails@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Mark,

On 10/17/07, Mark Williamson <mark.williamson@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi there,

> I am trying to run a new server with centos + xen using centos xen
> packages.

OK.  From what you've said I guess this is CentOS 5.0, so it's come with Xen
support, libvirt, virt-manager, etc.

Yes correct. Its centos 5.0, comes with xen, libvirt, virt-manager etc.

> After installation, we had to install a hardware raid card (areca) on the
> machine, and thus reload the os. It so happens the drivers shipped aren't
> compatible with xen kernel, so i was forced to compile xen from source to
> compile areca drivers.
>
> Now with system running under compiled xen, i cannot boot my old domU image
>
> :(
>
> Here is the error i get
>
> xm create aaa
> Using config file "./aaa".
> Error: (22, 'Invalid argument')

Hmmm, not a very helpful error message!  The contents of /var/log/xen/xend.log
may yield more helpful hints.

Sorry my mistake.

Here is the /var/log/xen/xend.log file snippet

[2007-10-17 16:05:09 xend.XendDomainInfo 4529] DEBUG (XendDomainInfo:190) XendDomainInfo.create(['vm', ['name', 'aaa'], ['memory', '2048'], ['vcpus', 7], ['uuid', 'bee5f62b-7193-a454-e37e-a151a5be8f44'], ['bootloader', '/usr/bin/pygrub'], ['image', ['linux', ['ramdisk', '/var/run/xend/boot/boot_ramdisk.aXA4NQ'], ['kernel', '/var/run/xend/boot/boot_kernel.u8QNnA'], ['args', 'ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00']]], ['device', ['tap', ['uname', 'tap:aio:/home/xen/aaa'], ['dev', 'xvda'], ['mode', 'w']]], ['device', ['vif', ['bridge', 'xenbr0'], ['mac', '00:16:3e:12:34:a9']]], ['device', ['vkbd']], ['device', ['vfb', ['vncunused', '1'], ['type', 'vnc'], ['xauthority', '/root/.Xauthority']]]])
[2007-10-17 16:05:09 xend.XendDomainInfo 4529] DEBUG (XendDomainInfo:296) parseConfig: config is ['vm', ['name', 'aaa'], ['memory', '2048'], ['vcpus', 7], ['uuid', 'bee5f62b-7193-a454-e37e-a151a5be8f44'], ['bootloader', '/usr/bin/pygrub'], ['image', ['linux', ['ramdisk', '/var/run/xend/boot/boot_ramdisk.aXA4NQ'], ['kernel', '/var/run/xend/boot/boot_kernel.u8QNnA'], ['args', 'ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00']]], ['device', ['tap', ['uname', 'tap:aio:/home/xen/aaa'], ['dev', 'xvda'], ['mode', 'w']]], ['device', ['vif', ['bridge', 'xenbr0'], ['mac', '00:16:3e:12:34:a9']]], ['device', ['vkbd']], ['device', ['vfb', ['vncunused', '1'], ['type', 'vnc'], ['xauthority', '/root/.Xauthority']]]]
[2007-10-17 16:05:09 xend.XendDomainInfo 4529] DEBUG (XendDomainInfo:397) parseConfig: result is {'shadow_memory': None, 'start_time': None, 'uuid': 'bee5f62b-7193-a454-e37e-a151a5be8f44', 'on_crash': None, 'on_reboot': None, 'localtime': None, 'image': ['linux', ['ramdisk', '/var/run/xend/boot/boot_ramdisk.aXA4NQ'], ['kernel', '/var/run/xend/boot/boot_kernel.u8QNnA'], ['args', 'ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00']], 'on_poweroff': None, 'bootloader_args': None, 'cpus': None, 'name': 'aaa', 'backend': [], 'vcpus': 7, 'cpu_weight': None, 'features': None, 'vcpu_avail': None, 'memory': 2048, 'device': [('tap', ['tap', ['uname', 'tap:aio:/home/xen/aaa'], ['dev', 'xvda'], ['mode', 'w']]), ('vif', ['vif', ['bridge', 'xenbr0'], ['mac', '00:16:3e:12:34:a9']]), ('vkbd', ['vkbd']), ('vfb', ['vfb', ['vncunused', '1'], ['type', 'vnc'], ['xauthority', '/root/.Xauthority']])], 'bootloader': '/usr/bin/pygrub', 'cpu': None, 'maxmem': None}
[2007-10-17 16:05:09 xend.XendDomainInfo 4529] DEBUG (XendDomainInfo:1264) XendDomainInfo.construct: None
[2007-10-17 16:05:09 xend.XendDomainInfo 4529] ERROR (XendDomainInfo:202) Domain construction failed
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/xen/xend/XendDomainInfo.py", line 194, in create
    vm.construct()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/xen/xend/XendDomainInfo.py", line 1268, in construct
    handle = uuid.fromString(self.info['uuid']))
Error: (22, 'Invalid argument')
[2007-10-17 16:05:09 xend.XendDomainInfo 4529] DEBUG (XendDomainInfo:1463) XendDomainInfo.destroy: domid=None
[2007-10-17 16:05:09 xend 4529] ERROR (xmlrpclib2:184) (22, 'Invalid argument')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/xen/util/xmlrpclib2.py", line 162, in _marshaled_dispatch
    response = self._dispatch(method, params)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/SimpleXMLRPCServer.py", line 406, in _dispatch
    return func(*params)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/xen/xend/server/XMLRPCServer.py", line 64, in domain_create
    info = XendDomain.instance().domain_create(config)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/xen/xend/XendDomain.py", line 228, in domain_create
    dominfo = XendDomainInfo.create(config)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/xen/xend/XendDomainInfo.py", line 194, in create
    vm.construct()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/xen/xend/XendDomainInfo.py", line 1268, in construct
    handle = uuid.fromString(self.info['uuid']))
Error: (22, 'Invalid argument')

Out of interest, did you uninstall your old Xen before building a new one?
Sometimes the code of different Xen versions conflicts, which can mess things
up unless the previous copy was properly uninstalled.  This is especially a
problem with the tools.

Nope, i didn't uninstall the old version. I thought the new compile would overwrite them anyways. Moreover i wanted to try out the virt-manager and see if it works with new xen compile.

> Also the Virtual Machine Manager under centos has stopped working. Does
> this mean i need to recreate these domU's ? Really confused here on how to
> go about it since the old domU has a lot of data in it, which is required
> and now the machine is down :(

I'm not sure exactly why virtual machine manager would have failed at this
point; but I'm guessing that you've installed a newer version of Xen to that
which CentOS and RHEL 5 shipped.  The Xen control interface changed, so your
version of virt-manager doesn't understand it.

Even if virt-manager doesn't understand it, atleast xm create aaa should have worked. I am hoping looking at the log snippet you can provide more help.

CentOS / RHEL 5 ship Xen 3.0.3, with a Xen 3.1 release being planned for their
5.1 update.

That would be nice. I hope centos/rhel does more frequent updates and sync with frequent xen releases.

> P.S. : Is there a way to compile the areca drivers under the centos xen
> kernel ? I see the only kernel-xen source is available is under centosplus
> repository called kernel-xen-devel-2.6.18-8.1.14.el5.centos.plus. I don't
> see any targets in the areca driver Makefile even, so don't know how it
> will be compiled as well :(

The package kernel-xen-devel should have the stuff required to build modules
against the CentOS / RHEL Xenified kernels.  If you could use this to build
your module then you'd be able to go back to using the stardard Xen /
XenLinux packages; you'll get a newer version of Xen when it's added to the
next OS increment release.

I looked for the kernel-xen-devel and found it only in the plus repository. This is what i did to compile the areca drivers.

1. Copied the directory to drivers/scsi/areca
2. Edited drivers/scsi/Kconfig as per areca instructions
3. Copied the config file from /boot to the kernel directory
4. make oldconfig [it then asks me what to do about the areca drivers, which i choose as a module, the only option there]
5. then i issue a make, which gives the following error

make
scripts/kconfig/conf -s arch/i386/Kconfig
  CHK     include/linux/version.h
  CHK     include/linux/utsrelease.h
make[1]: *** No rule to make target `init/main.o', needed by `init/built- in.o'.  Stop.
make: *** [init] Error 2

If i issue make ARCH=xen, then it complains about no makefile inside /usr/src/kernels/2.6.18-8.1.14.el5.centos.plus-xen-i686/arch/xen/Makefile.

I could be doing some real wrong / stupid here, will appreciate if you can guide me to the proper direction.

> Any help on this will be really appreciated.

Hope that helps.

Thanks. Atleast your reply helped in understanding the problem in a better manner. I hope i can resolve this and stick with the centos/ rhel xen packages.

-- 
regards,

Anand Gupta
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