RE: [Xen-devel] Re: [PATCH]: kexec: framework and i386

["Ian Pratt" <m+Ian.Pratt@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> The reserved region is the memory space for the "dump 
> kernel".  I believe the base address has to correspond to the 
> base address compiled into the dump kernel - since we don't 
> want the dump kernel to try to own all of memory.  
> It's native Linux, so it likes to run in contiguous memory.

This approach is rather wasteful of memory, though maybe burning 64MB
isn't a big deal these days.

Strictly speaking, we only really need to reserve a couple of MB for the
kernel text. 
It's unlikely that you'd want to dump pages belonging to unpriv guests,
so there's actually quite a lot of opportunity for shuffling things
around to get the dump kernel to where it expects to be in the machine
address space, zeroing the data/bss segments.

> When a panic occurs, Linux kexec jumps into the preloaded 
> kdump kernel (if any).  This kernel then reinitiases the 
> hardware, using its own device drivers and uses these to 
> write out the dump to disk.  ISTR that the dump format is 
> currently ELF, although I remember some talk on the Fastboot 
> ML about adding some extra headers to make OS debugging easier.

Is Xen and the dom0 kernel dumped as as separate ELF cores?

Ian

> It's a nice solution because you don't rely on the hosed 
> kernel to do the dump for you, and you don't disturb its 
> state in the process.  It also makes it easy to do things 
> like dumping to network devices, etc.
> 
> In our case it has the added bonus that on dom0 *or* a Xen 
> crash it ought to be possible to kexec into a native Linux 
> kernel which could dump (possibly some configurable 
> combination of) Xen itself, dom0, and all the other domains.  
> Admittedly hypervisor crashes / hangs are rare, but it might 
> aid debugging to be able to get a reliable dump of a crashed 
> / hung Xen.
> 
> This would also integrate with the Linux dump infrastructure, 
> which would be useful to have.
> 
> > Tim Deegan submitted a patch to add support for multiboot 
> images (such 
> > as Xen) to kexec a couple of years ago, and I believe it 
> has been part 
> > of the standard package for some time.
> 
> It was in there last time I looked at the source code...  
> I've never actually used it though, so in principle I guess 
> it could have rotted.  Or there could just be something weird 
> happenning.
> 
> Cheers,
> Mark
> 
> --
> Dave: Just a question. What use is a unicyle with no seat?  
> And no pedals!
> Mark: To answer a question with a question: What use is a skateboard?
> Dave: Skateboards have wheels.
> Mark: My wheel has a wheel!
> 

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