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Re: [Xen-devel] Instability with Xen, interrupt routing frozen, HPET bro

To: Jeremy Fitzhardinge <jeremy@xxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [Xen-devel] Instability with Xen, interrupt routing frozen, HPET broadcast
From: Andreas Kinzler <ml-xen-devel@xxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 30 Sep 2010 12:16:55 +0200
Cc: xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Keir Fraser <keir.fraser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, JBeulich@xxxxxxxxxx
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On 29.09.2010 21:50, Jeremy Fitzhardinge wrote:
It is a Supermicro X8SIL-F, Intel Xeon 3450 system.
The big problem I had initially was instability with the integrated
ethernet until I disabled PCIe ASPM.  The symptom was that the ethernet
devices would disappear (ie, their PCI config space would start to read
all 0xff...)

I know that this is a known problem of Intel 82574L chips (on X8SIL) - it is discussed on "Intel Wired Ethernet" (http://sourceforge.net/projects/e1000/). That is why I tested different NICs (Intel ET Server Adapter (82576 [igb]) and Realtek 8168) and the problem remained. So I can say with certainty that the NIC and/or its power management is not the problem.

I also spend extensive time changing hardware components. I used a different mainboard (ASUS P7F-M), a different power supply, changed CPU, changed NICs (see above) - problems remained.

> That's exactly what my main test/devel machine is.  It has been very
> stable for me with xen-unstable.

We have a second Supermicro X8SIL-F, Intel Xeon 3450 system which only runs Linux PVM domains and it is totally stable (without my HPET patch). So I think as with all timing/race/deadlock/... issues it depends on what you do on your system. Let me give you my crash "recipe" [quite reliable ;-)]

Have two HVMs (called win1, win2) with Windows 7 x64 installed (do install everything twice, never clone, VM config attached). Install GPLPV 0.11.0.213, iometer 2006.07.27, prime95 25.11 x64. On both systems: start prime95 torture test (in-place large FFT) and using Windows task manager set CPU affinity on win1 of process prime95 to use only CPU1. On win2 do the same thing but to use only CPU0. Then start iometer on both VMs using the following parameters: have a second virtual disk in both VMs (so every windows has 2 virtual disks, one for Windows and one for iometer), use "# of outstanding I/Os" = 4, access spec = "All in one". Wait some minutes. Crash!

Regards Andreas

Attachment: win1.hvm
Description: Text document

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