Re: [Autotest] [KVM-AUTOTEST PATCH 0/5] KVM test: Support for Parallel install of guest OS

[Ryan Harper <ryanh@us.ibm.com>]

* Lucas Meneghel Rodrigues <lmr@redhat.com> [2010-02-10 11:14]:
> On Wed, 2010-02-10 at 21:53 +0530, yogi wrote:
> > Hello everyone,
> > 
> > I like to submit a set of patches to enable installing multiple guests
> > in parallel.
> 
> Hi Yogi, great to receive your patches!
> 
> > To install multiple guests in parallel the role of the host and the
> > guest need to be changed. In this patch host acts as a client and the
> > guest acts as server, enabling us to install multiple guest at same
> > time. 
> 
> I see your point, but I am concerned that we already have a parallel
> test execution implementation (see control.parallel), so either your
> patchset needs to fit in with the control.parallel approach or we might
> think of another approach. I have thought of some ideas, will check your
> approach and comment about it soon.

If I've read the patches right,  I believe Yogi is relying upon
control.parallel; these changes are needed to ensure that the
unattended_install test invoked in parallel doesn't clobber itself.
Yogi hit all of the major issues:

1) tftp code uses the same path and filename for each guest; Yogi
switched that to include a per-guest path so we can have multipl
kernel/initrd pairs in flight at the same time

2) only one service side listening server and no way agreeing upon a
port number; Yogi moved the listen to the guest, and now the host pokes
at the pre-defined port in each guest to see if it has completed.



-- 
Ryan Harper
Software Engineer; Linux Technology Center
IBM Corp., Austin, Tx
ryanh@us.ibm.com