[Xen-users] losing network on pciback NIC in domU

[Matthew Haas <haas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Good morning,

 After reading through "Re: [Xen-users] Status of \"4GB byte count 
overflow hangs networking\"", I was reminded of a problem we've been 
experiencing with one of our Xen machines here.
 Using the pci hiding mechanism, we've given a PCI-E Koutech PEN120 
gig-E card to our NFS domU. Currently not running an active vif 
interface. The Koutech appears as eth1 on the domU.
 Assigned an IP, and it is off and running. Everything seems to work 
just fine.. then after a while (sometimes we trigger it by exceptionally 
heavy traffic and usage-- such as continually rebooting many nodes in 
our cluster; although sometimes it'll go on for weeks without issue) 
network functionality seems to cease entirely.
 The posts I've followed seem to be referring to a 4GB hangup on the 
VIF interface. So even if it isn't directly related to the problems 
we're experiencing, it is the closest mention I've seen.
 xentop shows a 0 for NETTX for the NFS domU (which I guess would make 
sense if it is monitoring only vif0, and it isn't active).
 We've been able to avoid a reboot pretty much every time by 
disconnecting the network cable from the card, waiting for it to 
recognize the link is gone, and plugging it back in. Everything comes 
back as if nothing was wrong.
 The domU recognizes that the cable was unplugged and when link is 
re-established, but doesn't seem to have any knowledge that it had gone 
stupid.
 When it is stupid, nothing can access it, and I believe xm console'ing 
into the domU, the network is also inaccessible from it.
 Could this in any way be related to the problems others are 
experiencing? Some sort of 4GB thing?
 I'll be keeping a look out and running some tests in the near future 
to see if this may also be the case in this situation.
 Currently running a 2.6.18 xen-unstable PAE setup on a Core 2 Duo box 
w/4GB of RAM. Debian Etch is the distribution.
-Matthew
--
 Matthew Haas
 Visiting Instructor
 Corning Community College
 Computer & Information Science
 http://lab46.corning-cc.edu/haas/home/

  "Writing should be like breathing;
   It is one of those important things we do." -- me

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