Re: [Xen-devel] [PATCH for-4.5] libxl: do not load roms for any NICs except the first to avoid wasting memory

[Stefano Stabellini <stefano.stabellini@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 24 Nov 2014, Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 24, 2014 at 12:17:12PM +0000, Stefano Stabellini wrote:
> > On Fri, 21 Nov 2014, Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk wrote:
> > > On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 06:48:53PM +0000, Stefano Stabellini wrote:
> > > > On Fri, 21 Nov 2014, Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk wrote:
> > > > > On Fri, Nov 21, 2014 at 05:11:09PM +0000, Stefano Stabellini wrote:
> > > > > > The rom is used for pxebooting. We don't need to allow pxebooting 
> > > > > > from
> > > > > > more than one network card.  Loading a romfile for every NIC wastes
> > > > > 
> > > > > Why not? Why can't we PXE boot from each network card?
> > > > 
> > > > I take it back: you are right, at the moment it is actually possible to
> > > > pxe boot from the fourth nic for example. Maybe we could just load the
> > > > first four romfiles and skip the others (four is the limit before QEMU
> > > > fails to allocate any more memory).
> > > 
> > > The limit is in the count of ROMs or the memory consumption?
> > 
> > The limit is memory consumption.
> 
> Um, how big are those ROMs? Gigs?

I think they are 60K each in the case of rtl8139.
However they are accounted on top of the ram of the guest, that's why
the allocation fails. Strictly speaking I guess it shouldn't work even
the first time around.

Maybe the bug is in libxl memory allocation, that doesn't account for
rom sizes.


> > > What if you also do PCI passthrough? Does that figure in this calculation?
> > 
> > In the case of PCI passthrough, roms are remapped, so they shouldn't
> > affect memory consumption.
> > 
> >  
> > > > TBH not all the emulated nics need a romfile but I wouldn't want to go
> > > > down at that level of details beause they become QEMU implementation
> > > > details. I wouldn't want to tie libxl to a certain version of QEMU in
> > > > any way.
> > > > 
> > > > A better way would be handling memory allocation errors in QEMU but QEMU
> > > > doesn't do that at the moment and the change there would be certainly
> > > > more invasive that a couple of lines in libxl.
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > > > memory and as a matter of fact breaks configurations with more than 
> > > > > > 4
> > > > > > NICs as QEMU fails to allocate memory on behalf of the guest.
> > > > > 
> > > > > What if you have four different type of NICs? Say 1 rlt8193, 1 e1000, 
> > > > > one eepro,
> > > > > and ne2k ?
> > > > > 
> > > > > Don't you want to load the ROM for each one?
> > > > 
> > > > The rom cannot be reused in QEMU among multiple instances of the same
> > > > nic, so having four different types of nics or just one type doesn't
> > > > change anything.
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > > > With this fix, it is possible to assign more than 4 rtl8139 NICs to 
> > > > > > the
> > > > > > guest.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Signed-off-by: Stefano Stabellini <stefano.stabellini@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > diff --git a/tools/libxl/libxl_dm.c b/tools/libxl/libxl_dm.c
> > > > > > index 3e191c3..f907ca9 100644
> > > > > > --- a/tools/libxl/libxl_dm.c
> > > > > > +++ b/tools/libxl/libxl_dm.c
> > > > > > @@ -674,9 +674,10 @@ static char ** 
> > > > > > libxl__build_device_model_args_new(libxl__gc *gc,
> > > > > >                                                  
> > > > > > LIBXL_NIC_TYPE_VIF_IOEMU);
> > > > > >                  flexarray_append(dm_args, "-device");
> > > > > >                  flexarray_append(dm_args,
> > > > > > -                   libxl__sprintf(gc, 
> > > > > > "%s,id=nic%d,netdev=net%d,mac=%s",
> > > > > > +                   libxl__sprintf(gc, 
> > > > > > "%s,id=nic%d,netdev=net%d,mac=%s%s",
> > > > > >                                                  nics[i].model, 
> > > > > > nics[i].devid,
> > > > > > -                                                nics[i].devid, 
> > > > > > smac));
> > > > > > +                                                nics[i].devid, 
> > > > > > smac,
> > > > > > +                                                i ? 
> > > > > > ",romfile=\"\"" : ""));
> > > > > >                  flexarray_append(dm_args, "-netdev");
> > > > > >                  flexarray_append(dm_args, GCSPRINTF(
> > > > > >                                            
> > > > > > "type=tap,id=net%d,ifname=%s,"
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > > > Xen-devel mailing list
> > > > > > Xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > > > > http://lists.xen.org/xen-devel
> > > > > 
> > > 
> 

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