Re: [KVM-AUTOTEST PATCH] A test patch - Boot VMs until one of them becomes unresponsive

Michael Goldish
2009-06-09T09:57:44Z

----- "Yaniv Kaul" <ykaul@redhat.com> wrote:

> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > This test will boot VMs until one of them becomes unresponsive, and
>
> > records the maximum number of VMs successfully started.
> >
> >
> Can you clarify what this test is exactly testing? Is it any of the
> tests on http://kvm.et.redhat.com/page/KVM-Autotest/TODO (if not,
> please add it).

The test is in the wiki -- I added it months ago but didn't write it:
'Write a test which adds VMs until one of them becomes unresponsive, and records the maximum number of VMs successfully started. [jasowang]'

> Are you expecting OOM? Or some VMs to go into swap? Are the VMs
> completely idle, except for responding to SSH?
> Are you going to integrate KSM into this?

In my review of the patch I forgot to mention running load on the VMs.
This can be done easily by using 2 sessions per guest (or running in the background of a single session, but I prefer the former), and should be made user configurable via the config file.

I'm not sure about the other things you mentioned -- what should we do about OOM and swap usage? Fail the test? Limit the number of VMs?

And KSM sounds like a good idea, but I'm not sure it should be set up by the framework. Maybe it should be pre-setup on some of the hosts, so eventually some hosts will test with KSM and some without, and the framework can be unaware of that. We can find a way to add that information to the results database (like we currently add the KVM version).
Another option is to write a KSM setup test, like kvm_install, that will either run or not run before all other tests, depending on the control file.

>
>
> TIA,
> Y.
>
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe kvm" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html