kvm problems on new hardware

Danny ter Haar
2009-10-26T10:13:22Z

Hello,
I have a KVM virtualization problem.
I've put together new hardware (supermicro) server with 2 E5530 cpu's
and memory & disk to start experimenting with virtualization.

I intend to use the www.proxmox.com system/setup.
I installed proxmox and started stress testing the hardware:
parallel kernel compiles in a loop (concurrency_level=32) &
memtest86+ during the night etc.
The hardware/os performs rocksolid when i stress test it, but the moment
i start a virtual guest (eg debian netinstall) i get the first screen of the
installation procedure in a vnc screen. I choose either normal install or
expert install , the guest screen goes blank with only a cursor and the
kvm process prints an error on the console and starts to eat cpu cycles.
So the host OS is not barfing, only the kvm process is giving problems and the
guest is frozen.

To see if it was/is related to the "older" proxmox kernel setup i installed
ubuntu karmic with libvirt on another harddrive for comparison:
Same error happens when i start a guest.

Oct 23 09:34:14 ubuntu kernel: [ 416.226550] device vnet0 left promiscuous mode
Oct 23 09:34:14 ubuntu kernel: [ 416.226554] br0: port 2(vnet0) entering disabled state
Oct 23 09:34:57 ubuntu kernel: [ 459.544150] type=1505 audit(1256290497.414:17): operation="profile_load" pid=1676 name=libvirt-2ae923e6-f06d-9f0d-d072-c2067b7cbee4
Oct 23 09:34:57 ubuntu kernel: [ 459.550725] device vnet0 entered promiscuous mode
Oct 23 09:34:57 ubuntu kernel: [ 459.551888] br0: port 2(vnet0) entering learning state
Oct 23 09:34:57 ubuntu kernel: [ 459.557989] type=1503 audit(1256290497.429:18): operation="open" pid=1679 parent=1 profile="libvirt-2ae923e6-f06d-9f0d-d072-c2067b7cbee4" requested_mask="rw::" denied_mask="w::" fsuid=0 ouid=0 name="/var/tmp/debian-503-amd64-netinst.iso"
Oct 23 09:35:05 ubuntu kernel: [ 468.066681] handle_exception: unexpected, vectoring info 0x80000010 intr info 0x80000b0d
Oct 23 09:35:05 ubuntu kernel: [ 468.066760] handle_exception: unexpected, vectoring info 0x8000000d intr info 0x80000b0d
Oct 23 09:35:05 ubuntu kernel: [ 468.066836] handle_exception: unexpected, vectoring info 0x8000000d intr info 0x80000b0d

In the bios there are settings for vt-d etc, i tried (imho) all combinations
but i am not able to start a guest. I spoke to supermicro support and even
got a more recent (yet unpublished) bios. All without success.

No i am up to the point where i dont know if i have a hardware or a software
problem. I installed the intel-microcode package to see if that maybe fixed
something: It didn't

References:
chassis:
http://supermicro.com/products/system/2U/6026/SYS-6026TT-BIBQRF.cfm?INF=
motherboard:
http://supermicro.com/products/motherboard/QPI/5500/X8DTT-F.cfm
7 hourmemtest:
http://dth.net/supermicro/memtest86_completed_7hr.jpg

More output (dmesg and other stuff) in the same dir:
http://dth.net/supermicro/

Am i trying to run this on hardware that is to recent and not yet tested ?

I hope somebody has some ideas/hints about this.

Danny