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-devel

Re: [Xen-devel] SHUTDOWN_crash and vcpu deferrals

To: John Levon <levon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Xen-devel] SHUTDOWN_crash and vcpu deferrals
From: Keir Fraser <keir.fraser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 21:35:16 +0000
Cc:
Delivery-date: Fri, 20 Feb 2009 13:35:53 -0800
Envelope-to: www-data@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In-reply-to: <20090220210155.GA5872@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
List-help: <mailto:xen-devel-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=help>
List-id: Xen developer discussion <xen-devel.lists.xensource.com>
List-post: <mailto:xen-devel@lists.xensource.com>
List-subscribe: <http://lists.xensource.com/mailman/listinfo/xen-devel>, <mailto:xen-devel-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=subscribe>
List-unsubscribe: <http://lists.xensource.com/mailman/listinfo/xen-devel>, <mailto:xen-devel-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=unsubscribe>
Sender: xen-devel-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thread-index: AcmTnpnhFktmJaOjRAeMi1s8qQFCnAABITFT
Thread-topic: [Xen-devel] SHUTDOWN_crash and vcpu deferrals
User-agent: Microsoft-Entourage/12.15.0.081119
On 20/02/2009 21:01, "John Levon" <levon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> If an HVM guest is waiting for an ioemu assist, when qemu isn't running, and
> domain_shutdown(SHUTDOWN_crash) is called, then the domain isn't crashed
> properly:
> 
> Nothing will ever end the deferral. I added code to bust through the
> deferral if SHUTDOWN_crash was the reason, and it seemed to help, but
> I'm not sure it's the right fix.

Hm. If qemu is down you're kind of screwed anyway. Even a non-crashed guest
will likely hang. If you care about that eventuality (i.e., you believe qemu
problems are possible/likely and need to detect them, defend against them,
or whatever), would it be better to have tools try to detect it through
keepalives or something, and basically tackle that class of problem head on?

If you want the hack, I think what you're doing is probably about right. I'd
have to go back over that code again to be exactly sure though, since it's a
bit subtle.

Personally I think a dead qemu is pretty bad, and bugs leading to such
should simply be found and fixed (oh for a perfect world :-). That bad
things happen to a guest, like SHUTDOWN_crash hanging, after qemu is dead...
I'd just live with that -- a worse thing has *already* happened to that
guest's virtualisation environment.

 -- Keir



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