virt January 2009

virt@lists.centos.org

26 participants
22 discussions

Re: [CentOS-virt] Best virtualization setup for Centos 5.2
by Scott Dowdle 22 Jan '09

22 Jan '09

Dennis, ----- "Dennis J." <dennisml(a)conversis.de> wrote: > Now I'm investigating the best way to setup virtual machines in > order to streamline our infrastructure. The setup I'm aiming for is > Centos 5.2 guests on Centos 5.2 host. Since you are wanting to do Linux on Linux virtualization, I thought I'd mention OpenVZ. Check out the CentOS OpenVZ HOWTO on the wiki. If you have any questions about using OpenVZ on CentOS, just ask. http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Virtualization/OpenVZ TYL, -- Scott Dowdle 704 Church Street Belgrade, MT 59714 (406)388-0827 [home] (406)994-3931 [work]

2 1

Best virtualization setup for Centos 5.2
by Dennis J. 22 Jan '09

22 Jan '09

Hi, we are running Centos 5.2 on our servers for some time now and are really happy with it. Now I'm investigating the best way to setup virtual machines in order to streamline our infrastructure. The setup I'm aiming for is Centos 5.2 guests on Centos 5.2 host. The physical systems are going to be 2xquad core Xeons and the VMs are probably going to be 1 or 2 vCPUs with 1 or 2 gb of ram for each guest. I plan to migrate a number of vmware instances on such a setup so I'm wondering what I can expect performance-wise when switching to either Xen or KVM. As far as I understand is Xen is the "official" supported solution with Centos 5. I downloaded the KVM kernel module and some tools from a repo at lfarkas.org (unfortunately the new virt-manager there cannot be installed due to depency issues) to experiment with KVM which works so far but gives me weird results. Doing a "hdparm -t" on the host system consistently gives me a result of about 70MB/sec yet in a KVM guest I get results ranging from 40MB/sec to 125MB/sec on each run. Also the Centos kernel does not support the virtio drivers needed for KVM paravirtualization so I'm wondering how fast hardware assisted block-io under KVM is compared to the performance of the paravirtualized Xen driver and to vmware esx based guests. Are there any current performance benchmarks out there? I googled a bit but only found some outdated and contested data on the web and virtualization is a rather fast-moving field. Regards, Dennis

4 3

Linux distributions supported by Xen as PVM domUs
by Jason Voorhees 19 Jan '09

19 Jan '09

Hi: Reading Red Hat's Website and a printed manual of RH184 (Red Hat Virtualization course) I see that RHEL 5 only supports RHEL 4.5 and RHEL 5 as paravirtualized guests. So I asume this is the same situation for CentOS 5, right? What's the dependency between Xen versions for paravirtualized guests? I ask this questions because I got this experiences: 1. Running CentOS 5 as Dom0 - RHEL 4.5/CentOS 4.5 paravirtualized install, boot and works OK. - RHEL 5/CentOS 5 paravirtualized install, boot and works OK. - OpenSuSE 11 doesn't boot xen kernel. 2. Running OpenSuSE 11 as Dom0 - RHEL 4.5 or RHEL 5 installs correctly but doesn't boot. I got errors. I don't have error messages right now (but I can get them if asked) but I see a common difference: RHEL 4.5/RHEL5 and OpenSuSE have different Xen versions. Also OpenSuSE uses domUloader (or something like that) as boot manager instead of pygrub (or are they the same thing?) So the final question is: What are the requirements to run a paravirtualized operating system? Are they fully dependent on Xen version? I would like to run different Linux distros paravirtualized, maybe Opensolaris or FreeBSD. Is it possible? Thanks, bytes!

2 1

unsubscribe
by Mika Dukat 19 Jan '09

19 Jan '09

----- Original Message ----- From: <centos-virt-request(a)centos.org> To: <centos-virt(a)centos.org> Sent: Monday, January 19, 2009 11:00 AM Subject: CentOS-virt Digest, Vol 17, Issue 10 > Send CentOS-virt mailing list submissions to > centos-virt(a)centos.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos-virt > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > centos-virt-request(a)centos.org > > You can reach the person managing the list at > centos-virt-owner(a)centos.org > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of CentOS-virt digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: vmware problem took down X on host? (Ted Miller) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 21:31:42 -0500 > From: Ted Miller <limaohio123-CompMailLists(a)yahoo.com> > Subject: Re: [CentOS-virt] vmware problem took down X on host? > To: Discussion about the virtualization on CentOS > <centos-virt(a)centos.org> > Message-ID: <4973E60E.6070702(a)yahoo.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > Tru Huynh wrote: >>Ted Miller wrote: >>> I run VMWare server 1.07 on Centos 5. > > Upgraded to 2.0 now. > >>> Last night I left a Windows 2000 >>> virtual machine doing a ClamWin scan of drive M: when I went to bed >>> around >>> midnight. Drive M: is actually a volume on the Centos 5 host, mounted >>> via >>> Samba. It has about 40Gb of photos on it, plus a few other things. I >>> had >>> the VM up visible in the VMWare Server Console running under KDE on >>> display >>> 8 (X session #1), my usual configuration. > >> why don't you just run clamscan from CentOS to the local storage instead >> of using a guest OS on vmware server + clamwin + samba? ;) > > I have to have it installed to do the C: drive on the VM, so just ran it > on > the mounted volumes too. I can do it all via that install, but an install > on Centos cannot do the virtual drive. I don't want to maintain two > installs when one will do fine. > >>> This morning when I looked in on it the screen was not responsive. The >>> keyboard seemed to be working (num lock would go on and off, though >>> sometimes with some delay). > >> some kernel panic lights (sos in morse?) > > No, normal keyboard lights. I tried NumLock when I could not get the > monitor to come on, to see if there was any life. The NumLock light did > respond to the NumLock key, so I knew that the kernel was still running. > > In my original post I detailed how I was eventually able to get a bash > console to come up, and get the computer to reboot. > >>> After the reboot, things seem pretty normal. However, I found this in >>> /var/log/messages, and wonder what they mean, especially the one at >>> 04:02:08 about debug info. > >> X server crashed (nvidia driver crashed? or hardware issue on the video >> card or >> the mainboard) then samba crashed > > I updated the nvidia driver. Did have one other Xserver crash today. > Didn't loose anything important, just all of the sudden got flipped out to > the login prompt. I had another Xserver terminal open, but it was not > affected by that crash. > > Ted Miller > Indiana, USA > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > CentOS-virt mailing list > CentOS-virt(a)centos.org > http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos-virt > > > End of CentOS-virt Digest, Vol 17, Issue 10 > ******************************************* > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.10.9/1900 - Release Date: 1/18/2009 12:11 PM

1 0

vmware problem took down X on host?
by Ted Miller 19 Jan '09

19 Jan '09

I run VMWare server 1.07 on Centos 5. Last night I left a Windows 2000 virtual machine doing a ClamWin scan of drive M: when I went to bed around midnight. Drive M: is actually a volume on the Centos 5 host, mounted via Samba. It has about 40Gb of photos on it, plus a few other things. I had the VM up visible in the VMWare Server Console running under KDE on display 8 (X session #1), my usual configuration. This morning when I looked in on it the screen was not responsive. The keyboard seemed to be working (num lock would go on and off, though sometimes with some delay). There was some disk activity showing on the hard drive light. Nothing I did would cause any video to appear. I finally his Ctl+Alt+1 (nothing happened) then I pressed just Ctrl, and the monitor light turned green. I got a console login prompt! When I tried to go back to one of the GUI consoles the computer locked up again. I went to another computer on the network and logged into the VMWare server from it. It showed both the Windows 2000 machine and also the IPCop VM (which had also been running) were both shut down. I restarted them both successfully. I again could not get any response from the host machine. Eventually I hit a key combination that got me back to console 1 command line. I went back to the other computer, shut down both of the VMs that were running, logged in, and did a Ctl-Alt-Del. I breathed a sigh of relief as the shutdown messages started scrolling across the screen. After the reboot, things seem pretty normal. However, I found this in /var/log/messages, and wonder what they mean, especially the one at 04:02:08 about debug info. Jan 17 01:27:44 office2 kernel: NVRM: Xid (0005:00): 3, C 00000001 SC 00000003 M 000002fc Data 00000003 Jan 17 01:27:44 office2 kernel: NVRM: Xid (0005:00): 3, C 00000001 SC 00000003 M 000002fc Data 00000001 Jan 17 01:27:44 office2 last message repeated 6 times Jan 17 03:37:35 office2 smbd[4771]: [2009/01/17 03:37:35, 0] smbd/open.c:open_directory(2060) Jan 17 03:37:35 office2 smbd[4771]: open_directory: TED/Alabanza/Sony_KP-43T90_TV/hv cable removal_anyone: TechLore.com_files is a stream name! Jan 17 03:37:35 office2 smbd[4771]: [2009/01/17 03:37:35, 0] smbd/open.c:open_directory(2060) Jan 17 03:37:35 office2 smbd[4771]: open_directory: TED/Alabanza/Sony_KP-43T90_TV/hv cable removal_anyone: TechLore.com_files is a stream name! Jan 17 03:37:36 office2 smbd[4771]: [2009/01/17 03:37:36, 0] smbd/open.c:open_directory(2060) Jan 17 03:37:36 office2 smbd[4771]: open_directory: TED/Alabanza/Sony_KP-43T90_TV/hv cable removal_anyone: TechLore.com_files/iframe_data is a stream name! Jan 17 03:37:36 office2 smbd[4771]: [2009/01/17 03:37:36, 0] smbd/open.c:open_directory(2060) Jan 17 03:37:36 office2 smbd[4771]: open_directory: TED/Alabanza/Sony_KP-43T90_TV/hv cable removal_anyone: TechLore.com_files/iframe_data is a stream name! Jan 17 03:37:36 office2 smbd[4771]: [2009/01/17 03:37:36, 0] smbd/open.c:open_directory(2060) Jan 17 03:37:36 office2 smbd[4771]: open_directory: TED/Alabanza/Sony_KP-43T90_TV/hv cable removal_anyone: TechLore.com_files/minimall_data is a stream name! Jan 17 03:37:37 office2 smbd[4771]: [2009/01/17 03:37:37, 0] smbd/open.c:open_directory(2060) Jan 17 03:37:37 office2 smbd[4771]: open_directory: TED/Alabanza/Sony_KP-43T90_TV/hv cable removal_anyone: TechLore.com_files/minimall_data is a stream name! Jan 17 03:37:41 office2 smbd[4771]: [2009/01/17 03:37:41, 0] smbd/open.c:open_directory(2060) Jan 17 03:37:41 office2 smbd[4771]: open_directory: TED/Alabanza/Sony_KP-43T90_TV/hv cable removal_anyone: TechLore.com_files/iframe_data_002 is a stream name! Jan 17 03:37:41 office2 smbd[4771]: [2009/01/17 03:37:41, 0] smbd/open.c:open_directory(2060) Jan 17 03:37:41 office2 smbd[4771]: open_directory: TED/Alabanza/Sony_KP-43T90_TV/hv cable removal_anyone: TechLore.com_files/iframe_data_002 is a stream name! Jan 17 03:37:42 office2 smbd[4771]: [2009/01/17 03:37:42, 0] smbd/open.c:open_directory(2060) Jan 17 03:37:42 office2 smbd[4771]: open_directory: TED/Alabanza/Sony_KP-43T90_TV/hv cable removal_anyone: TechLore.com_files/iframe_data_003 is a stream name! Jan 17 03:37:42 office2 smbd[4771]: [2009/01/17 03:37:42, 0] smbd/open.c:open_directory(2060) Jan 17 03:37:42 office2 smbd[4771]: open_directory: TED/Alabanza/Sony_KP-43T90_TV/hv cable removal_anyone: TechLore.com_files/iframe_data_003 is a stream name! Jan 17 03:37:42 office2 smbd[4771]: [2009/01/17 03:37:42, 0] smbd/open.c:open_directory(2060) Jan 17 03:37:42 office2 smbd[4771]: open_directory: TED/Alabanza/Sony_KP-43T90_TV/hv cable removal_anyone: TechLore.com_files/iframe_data_003/ads_data is a stream name! Jan 17 03:37:42 office2 smbd[4771]: [2009/01/17 03:37:42, 0] smbd/open.c:open_directory(2060) Jan 17 03:37:42 office2 smbd[4771]: open_directory: TED/Alabanza/Sony_KP-43T90_TV/hv cable removal_anyone: TechLore.com_files/iframe_data_003/ads_data is a stream name! Jan 17 03:56:46 office2 kernel: device eth1 left promiscuous mode Jan 17 03:56:46 office2 kernel: audit(1232182606.512:5): dev=eth1 prom=0 old_prom=256 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 Jan 17 03:56:46 office2 kernel: bridge-eth1: disabled promiscuous mode Jan 17 03:56:46 office2 kdm[3925]: X server for display :1 terminated unexpectedly Jan 17 03:56:46 office2 kernel: device eth0 left promiscuous mode Jan 17 03:56:46 office2 kernel: audit(1232182606.897:6): dev=eth0 prom=0 old_prom=256 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 Jan 17 03:56:46 office2 kernel: bridge-eth0: disabled promiscuous mode Jan 17 03:57:05 office2 kdm_greet[14492]: Can't open default user face Jan 17 04:02:08 office2 nmbd[3710]: [2009/01/17 04:02:08, 0] nmbd/nmbd.c:process(559) Jan 17 04:02:08 office2 nmbd[3710]: Got SIGHUP dumping debug info. Jan 17 04:02:08 office2 nmbd[3710]: [2009/01/17 04:02:08, 0] nmbd/nmbd_workgroupdb.c:dump_workgroups(282) Jan 17 04:02:08 office2 nmbd[3710]: dump_workgroups() Jan 17 04:02:08 office2 nmbd[3710]: dump workgroup on subnet 10.41.65.2: netmask= 255.255.255.0: Jan 17 04:02:08 office2 nmbd[3710]: MILLER(1) current master browser = OFFICE2 Jan 17 04:02:08 office2 nmbd[3710]: OFFICE2 40849a03 (Office2) Jan 17 04:15:53 office2 smbd[4771]: [2009/01/17 04:15:53, 0] lib/util_sock.c:read_data(534) Jan 17 04:15:53 office2 smbd[4771]: read_data: read failure for 4 bytes to client 10.41.65.251. Error = No route to host Jan 17 04:47:01 office2 ntpd[3543]: synchronized to 69.26.112.120, stratum 3 Jan 17 04:48:04 office2 ntpd[3543]: synchronized to LOCAL(0), stratum 10 Jan 17 10:48:08 office2 xinetd[3522]: START: vmware-authd pid=17407 from=10.41.65.254 Jan 17 10:48:08 office2 xinetd[3522]: EXIT: vmware-authd status=0 pid=17407 duration=0(sec) Jan 17 10:48:44 office2 kernel: device eth1 entered promiscuous mode Jan 17 10:48:44 office2 kernel: audit(1232207324.327:7): dev=eth1 prom=256 old_prom=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 Jan 17 10:48:44 office2 kernel: bridge-eth1: enabled promiscuous mode Jan 17 10:48:44 office2 kernel: device eth0 entered promiscuous mode Jan 17 10:48:44 office2 kernel: audit(1232207324.327:8): dev=eth0 prom=256 old_prom=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 Jan 17 10:48:44 office2 kernel: bridge-eth0: enabled promiscuous mode Jan 17 10:48:44 office2 xinetd[3522]: START: vmware-authd pid=17425 from=10.41.65.254 Here is the /var/log/vmware/vmware-serverd-0.log entries from that time period, starting back when the Win2K VM was started and running through my remote connection this morning (when I found all VMs powered off): Jan 16 18:37:07: app| Adding to list of running vms: /vmware/Win2K-T1/Win2K-T1.vmx Jan 16 18:37:07: app| Attempting to launch vmx : /vmware/Win2K-T1/Win2K-T1.vmx Jan 16 18:37:07: app| New connection on socket server-vmxvmdb from host localhost (ip address: local) , user: tmiller Jan 16 18:37:07: app| Connection from : /vmware/Win2K-T1/Win2K-T1.vmx Jan 16 18:37:07: app| Setting up autoDetect info. Jan 16 18:37:07: app| VMServerdConnect: connecting to /vmware/Win2K-T1/Win2K-T1.vmx Jan 16 18:37:09: app| Connected to /vmware/Win2K-T1/Win2K-T1.vmx Jan 16 18:37:09: app| Trimming event log for /vmware/Win2K-T1/Win2K-T1.vmx by 3 lines... Jan 16 18:37:09: app| SP: Retrieved username: tmiller Jan 16 18:37:09: app| VM suddenly changed state: poweredOn. Jan 16 18:37:09: app| SP: Retrieved username: tmiller Jan 16 18:37:09: app| SP: Retrieved username: tmiller Jan 16 18:37:10: app| cleanup: cleaned up 2 objects Jan 16 18:37:41: app| VmsdRegister: Config file has changed: /vmware/Win2K-T1/Win2K-T1.vmx Jan 17 03:56:46: app| vmdbPipe_Streams Couldn't read: OVL_STATUS_EOF Jan 17 03:56:46: app| VMHS: Connection to VM broken: cfg: /vmware/IPCop-01/IPCop-01.vmx; error: Pipe: Read failed; state: 3 Jan 17 03:56:46: app| VMServerd IPC closed the connection with thread /vmware/IPCop-01/IPCop-01.vmx (0x9522af0) Jan 17 03:56:46: app| Lost connection to /vmware/IPCop-01/IPCop-01.vmx (/vmware/IPCop-01/IPCop-01.vmx) unexpectedly. Jan 17 03:56:46: app| vmdbPipe_Streams Couldn't read: OVL_STATUS_EOF Jan 17 03:56:46: app| VMHS: Connection to VM broken: cfg: /vmware/Win2K-T1/Win2K-T1.vmx; error: Pipe: Read failed; state: 3 Jan 17 03:56:47: app| VMServerd IPC closed the connection with thread /vmware/Win2K-T1/Win2K-T1.vmx (0x9522b6c) Jan 17 03:56:47: app| Lost connection to /vmware/Win2K-T1/Win2K-T1.vmx (/vmware/Win2K-T1/Win2K-T1.vmx) unexpectedly. Jan 17 03:56:47: app| OvlHostStartIo: errno 104 Jan 17 03:56:47: app| vmdbPipe_Streams: Couldn't read Jan 17 03:56:47: app| VM suddenly changed state: poweredOff. Jan 17 03:56:47: app| VM suddenly changed state: poweredOff. Jan 17 03:56:47: app| VM suddenly changed state: poweredOff. Jan 17 03:56:47: app| SP: Deleting user session: 0 username: tmiller Jan 17 03:56:47: app| VM suddenly changed state: poweredOff. Jan 17 03:56:47: app| VM suddenly changed state: poweredOff. Jan 17 03:56:47: app| VM suddenly changed state: poweredOff. Jan 17 10:48:18: app| New connection on socket server-vmdb from host 10.41.65.254 (ip address: 10.41.65.254) , user: tmiller I thing the "event" happened at 03:56:46, when: the the VMWare server lost the connection to both VMs within 2 seconds device eth1 left promiscuous mode I do note that it showed the connection to the IPCop machine broken first, so that may be where the problem started. If it helps any, the IPCop VM uses both eth0 (LAN) and eth1 (DSL modem). Win2K only uses eth0. Anyone have any insight as to what might have happened? Any recommendations besides that I should probably upgrade the server to the latest version? Ted Miller Indiana

2 2

Problems with qemu-kvm and etherboot-roms-kvm
by Michael Schenck 16 Jan '09

16 Jan '09

CentOS-Virt, I ran into an error attempting to offer two boot options using libvirt with kvm. I wanted the virtual to first attempt to boot from its "disk" and if that didn't work, fall back on netboot (we kickstart install). This argument is "-boot cn". If the disk you provide is of type IDE this will probably work for you, unless you use "-drive" with the argument ",boot=on" as libvirt does by default. All drive types, other than IDE, can not be booted from without the "boot=on" argument given to "-drive" which is why this is a standard config in libvirt. If you try this you will fail with "*Too many* option *ROMS*". The reason for this is, qemu only allows for 64kb of space for ROMs. Most pxe boot ROMs are 64kb, including the ones in etherboot-roms-kvm (found in /usr/share/etherboot). Because of this, qemu provides 32kb (found in /usr/share/qemu) version of the PXE boot roms. When booting kvm virtuals with qemu-kvm it looks for etherboot roms in /usr/share/kvm/ which has symlinks pointing to /usr/share/etherboot/ and seem to be placed their by the "kvm" rpm. That being said, I'm tempted to just change the symlinks, however qemu does not provide a PXE rom for e1000. I have already reported this to the fedora community, and I'm told a solution has been put in place. I have yet to see the update show up in my yum updates, but I'm confident one will be put in place as a lot of the et.redhat.com projects use kvm. In the mean time, any ideas? Best Regards, Michael Schenck

1 0

32 bit Win 2003 Server Enterprise Edition don't recognize > than 3.75 GB RAM
by Francisco Pérez 16 Jan '09

16 Jan '09

Hi everybody. I have a xen full virtualized guest running with 32 bit WIN 2003 Enterprise edition with 8 GB RAM assigned to it, but when the Virtual Machine starts only recognize 3,75 GB. I Have edit boot.ini with /PAE switch but still don't work. In addition,when i set pae value = 1 in the guest config file, the system gave me a blue screen after the windows splash screen. Kind regards Francisco.

3 3

xen CentOS 5.2 domU install error: "Error mounting device xvda1 as /boot"
by Jim Trainor 16 Jan '09

16 Jan '09

Hello CentOS Xen experts, I am attempting my first Xen installation. I have a Centos 5.2 server (dom0) and am attempting to install a Centos 5.2 guest (domU). The install goes fine with one exception. At the end it complains "error mounting /boot". My efforts googling around the net to dig up a solution have come up empty, although I've seen similar issues reported. Details below. Any suggests would be much appreciated. I've read this: http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/Xen/InstallingCentOSDomU but have not yet tried it. However, I would expect the same result, since it describes a simple variation of a normal Anaconda install. Details: * Centos 5.2 installation command, installing Centos 5.2 as the guest OS using nfs mounted Centos 5.2 iso dvd image: virt-install --paravirt -name vm-1 --ram 512 --file /vm/1/vm-1.img --file-size -4 --nographcs --location:nfs:192.168.1.101:/mnt/iso I select a minimal server config during the install that I know fits in 4 GB. Not much more than the base packages. * Last install (Anaconda) screen: "Error mounting device xvda1 as /boot: Read-only file system" "This most likely means this partition has not been formated." * Error on reboot after install: virDomainCreate() failed POST operation failed: (xend.err "Error creating doamain: Boot loader didn't return any data!") The /etc/xen/vm-1 and /vm/1/vm-1.img files exist as expected after the install but will not boot. Thanks, Jim Trainor

2 4

Areca 1220 crashing box
by William Taylor 14 Jan '09

14 Jan '09

Has anyone experienced any problems with Areca raid cards specifically the 1220 causing kernels to lock up? We are running 2.6.18-92.1.22.el5xen on 64bit. We have "areca_cli rsf info" run once an hour from cron to check for raid raid issues. Having this running seems to cause the box to lock up. Whats weird is I can't seem to make it lock up while running that command by hand. If anyone has any insight on this it would be most appreciated. Thanks, William

1 0

stability issues with KVM 82
by Michael Schenck 13 Jan '09

13 Jan '09

CentOS Virt, I'm using Farkas' repository, as I'm sure you've guessed. I seem to be having stability issues. The parent distro is CentOS 5.2 patched all the way to current, as well as centos 5.2 for the KVM virtuals. I have been having random crashes such that the virtual is non-responsive. Has anyone else been seeing this? - Michael Schenck

2 2

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

virt January 2009