Re: [PATCH v11] kvm: notify host when the guest is panicked

[Marcelo Tosatti <mtosatti@redhat.com>]

On Thu, Oct 25, 2012 at 11:42:32AM +0800, Hu Tao wrote:
> We can know the guest is panicked when the guest runs on xen.
> But we do not have such feature on kvm.
> 
> Another purpose of this feature is: management app(for example:
> libvirt) can do auto dump when the guest is panicked. If management
> app does not do auto dump, the guest's user can do dump by hand if
> he sees the guest is panicked.
> 
> We have three solutions to implement this feature:
> 1. use vmcall
> 2. use I/O port
> 3. use virtio-serial.
> 
> We have decided to avoid touching hypervisor. The reason why I choose
> choose the I/O port is:
> 1. it is easier to implememt
> 2. it does not depend any virtual device
> 3. it can work when starting the kernel

It has been asked earlier why a simple virtio device is not usable
for this (with no response IIRC).

Also, there is no high level documentation: purpose of the interface,
how a management application should use it, etc.