Re: [Qemu-devel] [RFC][PATCH 0/6] "bootonceindex" property

[Janne Huttunen <janne.huttunen@nokia.com>]

On Wed, 2017-03-22 at 11:51 +0100, Laszlo Ersek wrote:
> 
> I'm generally opposed to the proposed implementation for this feature
> /
> use case; that is, the new "bootonceindex" device property.
> 
> (1) My somewhat hand-waving counter-argument is simply the complexity
> /
> confusion that it introduces. See for example recent QEMU commit
> c0d9f7d0bced ("docs: Add a note about mixing bootindex with "-boot
> order"", 2017-02-28).

I agree that it may be confusing, but I was under the
(possibly false?) impression that the "-boot order" was on
its way to being deprecated. I thought supporting the same
functionality on "bootindex" -based configuration would
actually _help_ eventually getting rid of "-boot order".

Of course it can be argued that the "-boot once" was
always a misfeature and should be removed at the same time,
but as it stands I find it even more confusing that there
exists this "bootindex" mechanism but "-boot once" isn't
compatible with it and no compatible alternative seems to
exist at all.

> Even if the proposed solution keeps the "bootorder" fw_cfg file
> intact,
> and firmware wouldn't have to look at other fw_cfg files -- I can
> already guarantee that OVMF will not look at other fw_cfg files --,
> the
> command line changes look undesirable to me.

The current implementation doesn't require any firmware
changes.

> (2) My more technical counter-arguments are:
> 
> (2a) Exposing this in the libvirt domain XML would be a huge pain.
> AFAICS, libvirt already doesn't expose "-boot once" in the domain
> XML,
> which is a *good* thing.

I'm nowhere nearly qualified to comment on that so I'll leave
it to others.

> (2b) With the proposed change, "having rebooted once" becomes
> explicit
> runtime state that is guest-controlled. As such, it would have to be
> migrated. Assume that you start the guest on the source host, using
> both
> bootindex and bootonceindex properties. Then, for migration, libvirt
> (or
> the user, manually) starts QEMU on the target host using the same
> command line. After migration, if the guest reboots on the target
> host,
> its behavior should depend on whether said reboot is its first reboot
> since launching the domain, so the fact whether it rebooted on the
> source host should reach the target host.

Whether the first boot has happened or not is reflected in
the values of the "bootonceindex" properties. The current
implementation resets them back to -1 when the boot happens.
I'm not qualified to say if that is sufficient or not, but
if it isn't don't you already have problems migrating other
things? If e.g. someone sets the "bootindex" property while
the system is running, is that going to get migrated? If it
is, migrating the "bootonceindex" values the same way should
be sufficient, no?

You can probably tell that I'm not very familiar with the
migration and I must admit that I did not think about it
at all when doing the implementation, but things like this
are exactly the reason I wanted to get comments on the idea.

> I think you must already have a means to massage the management
> processor to change the boot order, for the next boot. Are you doing
> that massaging in code that runs on the main processor?

No, the changes are made externally. My setup is such that
first there is a computer that has a main processor with
an attached management processor. Then there is a second
external system that remotely monitors and controls the
first one. Part of what the second system does requires
setting a temporary boot order for the next reboot of the
first system every now and then. Many of the used components
are beyond my control (like e.g. operating systems etc.)
meaning that I either cannot modify them or doing so would
make the whole exercise moot. All this exists in real
hardware, but since there's never enough hardware available
and there are better uses for it, I tried to set up a virtual
machine that could act as a cheap substitute.