WARNING - OLD ARCHIVES

This is an archived copy of the Xen.org mailing list, which we have preserved to ensure that existing links to archives are not broken. The live archive, which contains the latest emails, can be found at http://lists.xen.org/
   
 
 
Xen 
 
Home Products Support Community News
 
   
 

xen-users

[Xen-users] Re: DomU clock out of sync (and Dom0 too)

To: xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Xen-users] Re: DomU clock out of sync (and Dom0 too)
From: Andy Lee <yikes2000@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 2 Jul 2011 15:53:26 -0700 (PDT)
Delivery-date: Sat, 02 Jul 2011 15:54:46 -0700
Envelope-to: www-data@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In-reply-to: <20110514110535.GA13248@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
List-help: <mailto:xen-users-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=help>
List-id: Xen user discussion <xen-users.lists.xensource.com>
List-post: <mailto:xen-users@lists.xensource.com>
List-subscribe: <http://lists.xensource.com/mailman/listinfo/xen-users>, <mailto:xen-users-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=subscribe>
List-unsubscribe: <http://lists.xensource.com/mailman/listinfo/xen-users>, <mailto:xen-users-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=unsubscribe>
References: <20110514110535.GA13248@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sender: xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Dmitry Nedospasov wrote:
> 
> I was watching some logs on a domU today and i suddenly noticed that the
> timestamps were off by something on the order of 47 seconds. I was
> surprised because *I don't* run independent wall clocks. I checked
> some other domUs and the "drift" was also very close to that of the
> first domU.
> 
> I also checked another dom0, Here the domUs were "only" out of sync by
> ~11 seconds.
> 
> The dom0s are all debian squeeze with Xen 4.0.1-2. The domUs are also
> debian squeeze and utilizing PV with the ParaVirtOPs in the normal
> debian linux-image-2.6.32 kernel.
> 

I've been fighting this problem (clock running +47 seconds) for several
months.  My OS setup is like yours, dom0 is Debian Squeeze x64 running Xen
4.0.1-2.  DomU's are Debian Squeeze x64 or Lenny x86:

       dom0: Debian Squeeze x64, running ntpd
             Xen version 4.0.1 (Debian 4.0.1-2)

  Risk domU: Debian Squeeze x64, running ntpd
  Coop domU: Debian Squeeze x64, running ntpd
    T4 domU: Debian Lenny x86, not running ntpd

Last night I wrote a Perl script to remotely monitor the dom0 and domU
clocks via 'rsh <host> date +%s' from a non-Xen server.  The script runs
every minute and records any time change > 2sec from previous minute.  Here
is the result:

----------------------------------------
Fri Jul  1 23:00:05 PDT 2011
           dom0 = localtime + 1s
      Risk domU = localtime + 1s
      Coop domU = localtime + 1s
        T5 domU = localtime + 93s
----------------------------------------
Fri Jul  1 23:13:04 PDT 2011
        T5 domU = localtime + 1s ..... (ran ntpdate manually)
----------------------------------------
Sat Jul  2 05:26:04 PDT 2011
           dom0 = localtime + 47s
      Risk domU = localtime + 47s
      Coop domU = localtime + 48s
        T5 domU = localtime + 47s
----------------------------------------
Sat Jul  2 05:59:04 PDT 2011
      Risk domU = localtime + 0s
----------------------------------------
Sat Jul  2 07:50:04 PDT 2011
      Coop domU = localtime + 0s
----------------------------------------
Sat Jul  2 08:11:04 PDT 2011
           dom0 = localtime + 0s
----------------------------------------
Sat Jul  2 09:13:05 PDT 2011
        T5 domU = localtime - 1s ..... (ran ntpdate manually)

At 5:26 am, there was a "time quake" on the Xen server, which caused dom0
and all domU clocks to move ahead by 47 seconds.  Risk domU, running NTP,
corrected its clock at 5:59 am by abruptly jerking it back to normal time. 
Coop domU and dom0 also did the same thing a while later.  T5 domU, not
running NTP, never corrected itself.  I manually executed ntpdate on it.

Several things are odd about this problem.  First, the "time quake" is exact
and reporducible, +47 seconds, same as Dmitry.  My server is dual Xeon 5345
on SuperMicro X7DBR-E motherboard.  Platform timer is "3.579MHz ACPI PM
Timer" (from xm dmesg).

Secondly, I thought NTP is suppose to adjust the clock gradually (-5ms each
second) instead of skipping many seconds at once.  (Or it might be running
the clock VERY SLOWLY for a few seconds to offset +47 secs.)  Thirdly, after
the initial "time quake", domUs and dom0 had to correct their clocks
individually, at different times.

Although a long shot, I will try "clocksource=pit" in Xen command line this
weekend...

P.S. "+47 secs" often cause my Perl POE scripts to hang, that's why this is
a critical problem for me.

--
View this message in context: 
http://xen.1045712.n5.nabble.com/DomU-clock-out-of-sync-tp4395454p4545936.html
Sent from the Xen - User mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

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

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>