[CentOS-virt] Report on Xen-4.6rc2 from virt7-xen-46-candidate

[T.Weyergraf]

On 09/09/2015 11:40 AM, George Dunlap wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 8, 2015 at 11:25 PM, T.Weyergraf <T.Weyergraf at virtfinity.de> wrote:
>> Hi
>>
>> I gave the new Xen-4.6rc2 a spin on a CentOS 7 virtualisation guest
>> (nested-xen). I haven't yet started testing guests, but rather looked at the
>> install itself.
>>
>> One issue, I found, was with xenstored.service and the corresponding
>> unit-file:
>>
>> [root at xencen7ws ~]# systemctl status xenstored
>> xenstored.service - The Xen xenstore
>>     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/xenstored.service; disabled)
>>     Active: active (running) since Tue 2015-09-08 23:13:43 CEST; 13min ago
>>    Process: 757 ExecStartPre=/bin/mkdir -p /var/run/xen (code=exited,
>> status=0/SUCCESS)
>>    Process: 753 ExecStartPre=/bin/rm -f /var/lib/xenstored/tdb* (code=exited,
>> status=0/SUCCESS)
>>    Process: 740 ExecStartPre=/bin/grep -q control_d /proc/xen/capabilities
>> (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
>>   Main PID: 760 (xenstored)
>>     CGroup: /system.slice/xenstored.service
>>             └─760 /usr/sbin/xenstored
>>
>> Sep 08 23:13:43 xencen7ws.virtfinity.local xenstored[760]: TDB: tdb_open_ex:
>> could not open file /var/lib/xenstored/tdb: No such file or directory
>> Sep 08 23:13:43 xencen7ws.virtfinity.local xenstored[760]: Checking store
>> ...
>> Sep 08 23:13:43 xencen7ws.virtfinity.local xenstored[760]: Checking store
>> complete.
>> Sep 08 23:13:43 xencen7ws.virtfinity.local xenstored[760]: xenstored is
>> ready
>> Sep 08 23:13:43 xencen7ws.virtfinity.local systemd[1]: Started The Xen
>> xenstore.
>>
>> As you can see, xenstored.service is running, but disabled by the package
>> installation. This is, because xenstored.service apparently got overseen in
>> the source-rpm's spec-file's post runtime/preun runtime. See diff [1] for
>> details.
> The Xen documentation (in INSTALL) recommends enabing
> xen-init-dom0.service, xenconsoled.service, and
> xen-qemu-dom0-disk-backend.service.  I didn't specifically enable
> xenstored, because I figured that was the "systemd way" -- specify the
> dependencies, specify what you actually want (i.e., a xen dom0), and
> let it sort out what actually needs to be started.
>
> Is there a good reason to specifically enable xenstored, even though
> it will start automatically because of dependencies?
>
> (I really am asking here -- this whole systemd thing is really new to me.)
If the Xen docs (which I haven't checked) state it should not be 
enabled, it's probably best to follow that advice. xenstored is a bit 
tricky, as it's not designed to be started/stopped or restarted as a 
regular service.
For my initial report, I checked the stuff I recycled from fedora, which 
indeed enables xenstored.service and uses a pidfile. From an 
administrative point of view, I like pidfiles, as they allow to check a 
service from a script with very little effort. xenstored-pidfiles have 
been present all the time except until lately (apparently) and I dislike 
changing things like that without good reason.
Suffice to say, that there might be a good reason.
I found the initial systemd-related patches to Xen, adding the unit 
files, but I still need to find the patches changing that behaviour and 
explaining the reasons.
>
>> Also, I think xenstored should write a pidfile. You might consider adding to
>> /usr/lib/systemd/system/xenstored.service:
>> PIDFile=/var/run/xenstored.pid
>> and change
>> ExecStart=/usr/sbin/xenstored
>> to
>> ExecStart=/usr/sbin/xenstored --pid-file /var/run/xenstored.pid
>> $XENSTORED_ARGS
>>
>> Hope this helps, this is just a quick start. I'll continue checking and
>> reporting during the next days.
> I think because systemd doesn't do forking, that it doesn't need a
> pidfile.  In fact, if xenstored detects that it's running under
> systemd, it will actually ignore the --pid-file directive.
A quick check shows xenstored for systemd to create the socket (in the 
systemd case). I will read up more code and patches.

For the time being, you are right. Let's not change, what appears to be 
there for a reason. Once up and running, your packages provide a working 
xenstored, so there is nothing "broken" by any means.
>
>   -George
Regards,
Thomas

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