Re: Windows XP + Virtio

[Vadim Rozenfeld <vrozenfe@redhat.com>]

On Wednesday, May 02, 2012 02:33:49 AM Sean Kennedy wrote:
> I am getting crashes (BSoD) when using Virtio for the disk driver in
> Windows XP.
> 
> It boots fine, it seems to run okay most of the time, but whenever the disk
> begins to get taxed, 9 times out of 10 it will start locking up then
> eventually crash with a BSoD about virtio.sys.
Hi Sean,
Can you tell me the bugcheck code and viostor version?
Thank you,
Vadim.
> 
> Here is the environment:
> 
> VM Host is a CentOS 6 server running qemu-kvm-0.12.1.2-2.209 with Kernel
> version 2.6.32-220.13.1.el6.x86_64.  It's a dual quad-core Xeon with 24
> gigs of ram.
> 
> It's connected to backend storage via 2 gigabit ethernet connections.  I
> have created a raw 20gig LVM block device for this XP machine that is
> exported over iSCSI.
> 
> The VM Host is running device-mapper-multipath to utilize both ethernet
> connections to the SAN.
> 
> When I run a disk benchmark tool on the XP machine, the ICMP responses from
> the box start going through the roof, and even drop off.  It usually
> bluescreens during the test.
> 
> I have eliminated multipathd and setup the XP virt machine to just use the
> iSCSI /dev/disk/by-id/ block directly, and it still behaves this way.
> 
> If I set the machine to use IDE instead of Virtio, it's certainly slower,
> but the machine never crashes and when running I/O benchmarks, pings stay
> solid as they should, this is while still using multipathd and iSCSI to
> the storage server.
> 
> Have I setup virtio incorrectly?  How would you go about finding the real
> issue?
> 
> Here is the virt machine's XML (using IDE for disk currently):
> 
> <domain type='kvm' id='12'>
>   <name>Apollo</name>
>   <uuid>d32041b8-853e-e679-edce-2b1f3db55e8a</uuid>
>   <memory>4194304</memory>
>   <currentMemory>4194304</currentMemory>
>   <vcpu>2</vcpu>
>   <os>
>     <type arch='i686' machine='rhel5.4.0'>hvm</type>
>     <boot dev='hd'/>
>   </os>
>   <features>
>     <acpi/>
>     <apic/>
>     <pae/>
>   </features>
>   <clock offset='localtime'>
>     <timer name='pit' tickpolicy='delay'/>
>   </clock>
>   <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
>   <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
>   <on_crash>restart</on_crash>
>   <devices>
>     <emulator>/usr/libexec/qemu-kvm</emulator>
>     <disk type='file' device='disk'>
>       <driver name='qemu' type='raw' cache='none'/>
>       <source file='/dev/mapper/vm_apollo'/>
>       <target dev='vda' bus='ide'/>
>       <alias name='ide0-0-0'/>
>       <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='0' unit='0'/>
>     </disk>
>     <disk type='file' device='cdrom'>
>       <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/>
>       <target dev='hdc' bus='ide'/>
>       <readonly/>
>       <alias name='ide0-1-0'/>
>       <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='1' unit='0'/>
>     </disk>
>     <controller type='ide' index='0'>
>       <alias name='ide0'/>
>       <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x01'
> function='0x1'/> </controller>
>     <interface type='bridge'>
>       <mac address='52:54:00:d7:bb:08'/>
>       <source bridge='br0'/>
>       <target dev='vnet0'/>
>       <model type='virtio'/>
>       <alias name='net0'/>
>       <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03'
> function='0x0'/> </interface>
>     <serial type='pty'>
>       <source path='/dev/pts/1'/>
>       <target port='0'/>
>       <alias name='serial0'/>
>     </serial>
>     <console type='pty' tty='/dev/pts/1'>
>       <source path='/dev/pts/1'/>
>       <target type='serial' port='0'/>
>       <alias name='serial0'/>
>     </console>
>     <input type='tablet' bus='usb'>
>       <alias name='input0'/>
>     </input>
>     <input type='mouse' bus='ps2'/>
>     <graphics type='vnc' port='5900' autoport='yes' keymap='en-us'/>
>     <video>
>       <model type='cirrus' vram='9216' heads='1'/>
>       <alias name='video0'/>
>       <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x02'
> function='0x0'/> </video>
>     <memballoon model='virtio'>
>       <alias name='balloon0'/>
>       <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x04'
> function='0x0'/> </memballoon>
>   </devices>
> </domain>
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> Sean--
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