Re: [Xen-users] Xen locks down on specific server after 1-3 days

[Silviu Paragina <silviu@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

For other users having a similar problem. It seems that the ubuntu 8.04 
xen kernel is the culprit here. So if a similar problem arises either 
install the debian kernel or compile from source.
The debian kernel can be found here:
image: 
http://packages.debian.org/lenny/i386/linux-image-2.6.26-2-xen-686/download
modules: 
http://packages.debian.org/lenny/i386/linux-modules-2.6.26-2-xen-686/download
Or if you want to compile from source (and you want a kernel newer than 
2.6.18) the relevant links (as mentioned in other threads on this list) are:
Patches for kerneles newer than 2.6.18 are here 
http://code.google.com/p/gentoo-xen-kernel/downloads/list
patches for pvops (i think, not sure) http://x17.eu/xen/

Also a step by step guide to compile is here 
http://www.infohit.net/blog/post/compiling-a-xen-dom0-kernel-for-ubuntu-jaunty.html
If you wish to build packages for the kernel (ie debs) use make-kpkg, 
also look at this thread 
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=508487 because you will 
encounter some errors with xen patches+make-kpkg

Good luck
 Silviu Paragina


PS Thank you for pointing me in the right direction with compiling newer 
kernel versions. Also if you want to ask me a question on this topic cc 
me without "[xen-users]" on the subject line (I don't get to read the 
mailing list very often)
Silviu Paragina wrote:
> I've tried quite a few things, googleing gives some results but they 
> don't seem to be related.
> I have two servers one for testing one for production. I needed xen on 
> the production one so I could get windows running on top of linux. 
> Unfortunately the test server is different from the production one.
> The testing one has a Xeon X3210(4 cores), 2GB ram, the production one 
> has an Xeon 3040 (2 cores), 2GB ram. So there is quite a difference. 
> Considering the fact that the server locked up without any domUs I 
> will not post the windows domain config, which in this case seems 
> irrelevant.
> Here is the story
> The production server has Ubuntu 8.04 LTS on it so I thought I should 
> use it. Did an apt-get for xen packages from the backports repository 
> (xen 3.3.0).
> All worked out perfectly on the test machine. On the network side I 
> made a config similar to network-bridge (actualy a striped down 
> network-bridge) with the sole exception that it doesn't replace the 
> physical interface (ie all virtual machine are attached to a bridge, 
> and nothing else)
> Did an apt-get on the production server for xen, rebooted with xen, 
> then started to upload the windows image from the testing machine (no 
> configs yet). Having a slow connection I left it upload over the 
> weekend (this was on a Friday).
> 2 days later (Sunday) I couldn't ssh into the machine, the response 
> wasn't a timeout, but an Connection closed message after waiting a 
> long time (longer than the usual timeout when the machine is down).
> I got back pings (only thing that seems to work), and all the other 
> services (vpn/http) were behaving the same: connection seems to 
> establish but the actual services don't seem to respond.
> After a reset I noticed the logs full of BUG: soft lockup - CPU#0 
> stuck for 11s! [sshd:..] (see attached log file). At that time I had 
> hoped it was a fluke (despite the fact that my logic was yelling 
> otherwise). The config file of that time is attached as 
> xend-config.sxp (or the nocomment one).
> After this incident I went with installing the windows directly on the 
> machine. All seemed fine till another 2 days (or so) passed and it 
> locked up again this time without any log entries.
> After another few lockups (without any log entries) and desperate 
> config changes (memory related config changes, see 
> xend-config.sxp.diff), I tried building the 3.3.2 xen packages. Did an 
> apt-get source xen-hypervisor-3.3 replaced the source in the package 
> with the one from xen.org(3.3.2), removed the ubuntu patches and built 
> it. Unfortunately the kernel source package seemed a bit too complex 
> for my understanding and went with the stock ubuntu(xen) one. It 
> booted, everything seemed fine on the test machine (it ran without a 
> lock over a weekend, friday till monday), deployed on the production, 
> and this time after 3 days (actualy about 2 day and 16 hours) it 
> locked up.
> Probably irrelevant, but still: yesterday something weird came up on 
> the test machine and only the test machine, whenever i shutdown the 
> windows guest the vm lock on state s (even if i do xm shutdown machine 
> or shut it down from inside windows).
> Now I'm here. I shall try forcing dom0 to go with one cpu and the 
> windows with the other. But this should be only a temporary solution 
> because dom0 is running some services, and it requires some processing 
> power sometimes, and the same goes for windows.
> Right now I'm not sure
> - if I should try compiling from sources directly from xen.org. 3.3? 3.4?
> - if I should try compiling the kernel from xen.org
> - if I should downgrade to 3.2 which is in the standard ubuntu 8.04, 
> not from back-ports
> - if 3.2 can run without problems windows 2008 (3.3 seemed to be the 
> first one, deducing from the version changelog, that could run windows 
> 2008 server)
> - if I should upgrade to ubuntu jaunty
>
>
> Any help or suggestions are appreciated I've been trying stuff for 2-3 
> weeks now :(
> Cheers,
> Silviu
>
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