Re: [Xen-devel] Shutdown of HVM domains without PC drivers [was Re: Early ACPI events prevent subsequent ACPI functionality on xen 4.3 + HVM domU]

[Sander Eikelenboom <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thursday, June 27, 2013, 5:59:04 PM, you wrote:

> Sander,

> (new thread started for you)

> --On 27 June 2013 15:04:58 +0100 George Dunlap 
> <george.dunlap@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>> On 21/05/13 18:31, Sander Eikelenboom wrote:
>>
>>> This reminds me that there still is the issue that a HVM domain without
>>> PV drivers doesn't shutdown properly with the standard init.d scripts.
>>
>> BTW, if you want this to get attention, you should probably either reply
>> to that thread, or start a new thread.  Starting a new topic on an
>> unrelated thread is generally frowned upon. :-)

> Something needs to tell the guest to shut down. Without pvdrivers, you'll
> need to do it through ACPI. Do you have ACPI installed, and are you
> sending an xl power event?


Hi Alex/George,

The problem is NOT with a manual sent command by a admin, who has both 
knowledge and can (directly) respond to warning that is issued (although it's a 
bit harder in the --all case).

It's with automated scripts using "xl shutdown [-a]", in combination with HVM 
guests which do not have PV drivers installed.

For example:
- with the init.d/xendomains script on host shutdown when using complete 
shutdown of guests instead of save/restore (not the default in xen hotplug 
scripts)
  The guest shutdown will eventually timeout (default after 5 minutes) and the 
guest will be destroyed, both are not very desirable.
- but also with other automated scripts using "xl shutdown [-a]", like the 
tests scripts in automated xen test environment, which for quite some time 
issue problems with guest stop.

There are many ways to solve this ..

a) Make the scripts issuing a "xl shutdown" smarter, but this gets complicated 
for the "xl shutdown --all" case.
b) Make hotplug scripts and testscripts always use "-F" on host shutdown
c) Inverting the -F logic, make "xl shutdown" always try acpi power event when 
needed (no pv drivers) and make a option to suppress this behavior.
d) Make it possible to specify the desired behavior on guest shutdown in the 
.cfg file

I personally have mitigated the issue by using option "b", and using
  XENDOMAINS_SHUTDOWN="--wait -F"
  XENDOMAINS_SHUTDOWN_ALL="--all --wait -F"
in my /etc/default/xendomains.

For the test environment that would mean IanJ has to change the xl shutdown 
commands there to issue the -F as well (or install the pv-drivers)

For option "C", IanC was concerned for hvm guests which don't have the shutdown 
but a different action coupled to the acpi power event and no pv-drivers 
installed.

So although it's an itch, it's not a major one.
(perhaps the biggest is the test environment spitting out failures when it's 
actually the currently desired behavior :-), as without this one could get 
complete failure free runs .. which IMHO is a worthy goal to strive for with 
automated testing)

--
Sander


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