FSFreeze on Windows VM

FSFreeze on Windows VM

[Shelly Kagan]

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Hi all,
I'm having some weird behavior with fsfreeze in windows VM.
I run the fsfreeze and it returns:
`error: Guest agent is not responding: Guest agent not available for now`

but checking the status returned frozen, rerunning it again returns that
the command is not enabled (expected since the freeze occurs)

I checked the fsstatus and it keeps returning `frozen` even after 10
seconds (from my understanding the freeze in windows vm is limited to 10
seconds by default by the VSS. No way to change this default from my
understanding, is it true?) Shouldn't the status return thawed if the VSS
no longer keeps the freeze state?

After a minute I did the thaw and it returned error:
`error: internal error: unable to execute QEMU agent command
'guest-fsfreeze-thaw': couldn't hold writes: fsfreeze is limited up to 10
seconds:`

but the fsstatus changed to thawed after that call.

My questions are:
1. Why would the fsfreeze return error about the guest agent but still
freeze the fs?
2. Why would the guest agent not respond, is there a way to make sure it is
available before the freeze command? (running the fsstatus command before
it returned without issues..)
3. Is it expected that the fsstatus will return frozen even if possibly VSS
has already thawed? and that the thaw fails but the status do change after
to thawed?

Thanks for taking the time to respond and help,
-- 

Shelly Kagan

Senior Software Engineer

Red Hat <https://www.redhat.com>
<https://www.redhat.com>

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Re: FSFreeze on Windows VM

[Konstantin Kostiuk]

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Hi Shelly,

Can you provide your version of Guest Agent? Is it built from upstream or
some VirtIO-Win release?
Previously we had some issues related to wrong error messages from Guest
Agent.

Best Regards,
Konstantin Kostiuk.


On Tue, Mar 29, 2022 at 6:24 PM Shelly Kagan <skagan@redhat.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
> I'm having some weird behavior with fsfreeze in windows VM.
> I run the fsfreeze and it returns:
> `error: Guest agent is not responding: Guest agent not available for now`
>
> but checking the status returned frozen, rerunning it again returns that
> the command is not enabled (expected since the freeze occurs)
>
> I checked the fsstatus and it keeps returning `frozen` even after 10
> seconds (from my understanding the freeze in windows vm is limited to 10
> seconds by default by the VSS. No way to change this default from my
> understanding, is it true?) Shouldn't the status return thawed if the VSS
> no longer keeps the freeze state?
>
> After a minute I did the thaw and it returned error:
> `error: internal error: unable to execute QEMU agent command
> 'guest-fsfreeze-thaw': couldn't hold writes: fsfreeze is limited up to 10
> seconds:`
>
> but the fsstatus changed to thawed after that call.
>
> My questions are:
> 1. Why would the fsfreeze return error about the guest agent but still
> freeze the fs?
> 2. Why would the guest agent not respond, is there a way to make sure it
> is available before the freeze command? (running the fsstatus command
> before it returned without issues..)
> 3. Is it expected that the fsstatus will return frozen even if possibly
> VSS has already thawed? and that the thaw fails but the status do change
> after to thawed?
>
> Thanks for taking the time to respond and help,
> --
>
> Shelly Kagan
>
> Senior Software Engineer
>
> Red Hat <https://www.redhat.com>
> <https://www.redhat.com>
>

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Re: FSFreeze on Windows VM

[Shelly Kagan]

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Hi Konstantin,

The Guest Agent version
"guestAgentVersion": "100.0.0",
I'm running with a 2019 windows image which I understand the GA is part of
the virtio drivers.
Don't know if the following info also helps but:
  "hostname": "WIN-CUCKQ65DH6K",
  "os": {
    "name": "Microsoft Windows",
    "kernelRelease": "17763",
    "version": "Microsoft Windows Server 2019",
    "prettyName": "Windows Server 2019 Standard",
    "versionId": "2019",
    "kernelVersion": "10.0",
    "machine": "x86_64",
    "id": "mswindows"
  },

I think what is more important to me is the GA being not responsive for the
freeze call. I'm using the fsfreeze in a feature I'm implementing, and
since in windows there is a 10sec timeout because of the VSS the fact that
the freeze call returns error that the GA is not available plus that when
its not available it takes much longer for the freeze call to return is
really time sensitive.

Thanks

On Wed, Apr 6, 2022 at 2:29 PM Konstantin Kostiuk <kkostiuk@redhat.com>
wrote:

> Hi Shelly,
>
> Can you provide your version of Guest Agent? Is it built from upstream or
> some VirtIO-Win release?
> Previously we had some issues related to wrong error messages from Guest
> Agent.
>
> Best Regards,
> Konstantin Kostiuk.
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 29, 2022 at 6:24 PM Shelly Kagan <skagan@redhat.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>> I'm having some weird behavior with fsfreeze in windows VM.
>> I run the fsfreeze and it returns:
>> `error: Guest agent is not responding: Guest agent not available for now`
>>
>> but checking the status returned frozen, rerunning it again returns that
>> the command is not enabled (expected since the freeze occurs)
>>
>> I checked the fsstatus and it keeps returning `frozen` even after 10
>> seconds (from my understanding the freeze in windows vm is limited to 10
>> seconds by default by the VSS. No way to change this default from my
>> understanding, is it true?) Shouldn't the status return thawed if the VSS
>> no longer keeps the freeze state?
>>
>> After a minute I did the thaw and it returned error:
>> `error: internal error: unable to execute QEMU agent command
>> 'guest-fsfreeze-thaw': couldn't hold writes: fsfreeze is limited up to 10
>> seconds:`
>>
>> but the fsstatus changed to thawed after that call.
>>
>> My questions are:
>> 1. Why would the fsfreeze return error about the guest agent but still
>> freeze the fs?
>> 2. Why would the guest agent not respond, is there a way to make sure it
>> is available before the freeze command? (running the fsstatus command
>> before it returned without issues..)
>> 3. Is it expected that the fsstatus will return frozen even if possibly
>> VSS has already thawed? and that the thaw fails but the status do change
>> after to thawed?
>>
>> Thanks for taking the time to respond and help,
>> --
>>
>> Shelly Kagan
>>
>> Senior Software Engineer
>>
>> Red Hat <https://www.redhat.com>
>> <https://www.redhat.com>
>>
>

-- 

Shelly Kagan

Senior Software Engineer

Red Hat <https://www.redhat.com>
<https://www.redhat.com>

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Re: FSFreeze on Windows VM

[Konstantin Kostiuk]

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Hi Shelly,

Thanks for your answer. Your version of GuestAgent is too old. The latest
version is 103.0.0.
Version 100.0.0 has a bug related to wrong error messages. When you try to
freeze FS, GA can return an error that the GA is not available.

Please try again with the latest version. I think it should work fine. If
you still will have problems, will try to debug them.

Best Regards,
Konstantin Kostiuk.


On Wed, Apr 13, 2022 at 10:03 AM Shelly Kagan <skagan@redhat.com> wrote:

> Hi Konstantin,
>
> The Guest Agent version
> "guestAgentVersion": "100.0.0",
> I'm running with a 2019 windows image which I understand the GA is part of
> the virtio drivers.
> Don't know if the following info also helps but:
>   "hostname": "WIN-CUCKQ65DH6K",
>   "os": {
>     "name": "Microsoft Windows",
>     "kernelRelease": "17763",
>     "version": "Microsoft Windows Server 2019",
>     "prettyName": "Windows Server 2019 Standard",
>     "versionId": "2019",
>     "kernelVersion": "10.0",
>     "machine": "x86_64",
>     "id": "mswindows"
>   },
>
> I think what is more important to me is the GA being not responsive for
> the freeze call. I'm using the fsfreeze in a feature I'm implementing, and
> since in windows there is a 10sec timeout because of the VSS the fact that
> the freeze call returns error that the GA is not available plus that when
> its not available it takes much longer for the freeze call to return is
> really time sensitive.
>
> Thanks
>
> On Wed, Apr 6, 2022 at 2:29 PM Konstantin Kostiuk <kkostiuk@redhat.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi Shelly,
>>
>> Can you provide your version of Guest Agent? Is it built from upstream or
>> some VirtIO-Win release?
>> Previously we had some issues related to wrong error messages from Guest
>> Agent.
>>
>> Best Regards,
>> Konstantin Kostiuk.
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 29, 2022 at 6:24 PM Shelly Kagan <skagan@redhat.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi all,
>>> I'm having some weird behavior with fsfreeze in windows VM.
>>> I run the fsfreeze and it returns:
>>> `error: Guest agent is not responding: Guest agent not available for now`
>>>
>>> but checking the status returned frozen, rerunning it again returns that
>>> the command is not enabled (expected since the freeze occurs)
>>>
>>> I checked the fsstatus and it keeps returning `frozen` even after 10
>>> seconds (from my understanding the freeze in windows vm is limited to 10
>>> seconds by default by the VSS. No way to change this default from my
>>> understanding, is it true?) Shouldn't the status return thawed if the VSS
>>> no longer keeps the freeze state?
>>>
>>> After a minute I did the thaw and it returned error:
>>> `error: internal error: unable to execute QEMU agent command
>>> 'guest-fsfreeze-thaw': couldn't hold writes: fsfreeze is limited up to 10
>>> seconds:`
>>>
>>> but the fsstatus changed to thawed after that call.
>>>
>>> My questions are:
>>> 1. Why would the fsfreeze return error about the guest agent but still
>>> freeze the fs?
>>> 2. Why would the guest agent not respond, is there a way to make sure it
>>> is available before the freeze command? (running the fsstatus command
>>> before it returned without issues..)
>>> 3. Is it expected that the fsstatus will return frozen even if possibly
>>> VSS has already thawed? and that the thaw fails but the status do change
>>> after to thawed?
>>>
>>> Thanks for taking the time to respond and help,
>>> --
>>>
>>> Shelly Kagan
>>>
>>> Senior Software Engineer
>>>
>>> Red Hat <https://www.redhat.com>
>>> <https://www.redhat.com>
>>>
>>
>
> --
>
> Shelly Kagan
>
> Senior Software Engineer
>
> Red Hat <https://www.redhat.com>
> <https://www.redhat.com>
>

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Re: FSFreeze on Windows VM

[Shelly Kagan]

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Hi Konstantin,
Thanks for the quick response.
I will look into getting a newer GA version.
Regarding the GA not available, is it relevant to the newer versions? Is
there a way to make sure the GA is available when running the freeze? when
it is not available it takes a lot of time to get a response back and it
causes the freeze to delay.
Best Regards,
Shelly

On Wed, Apr 13, 2022 at 4:51 PM Konstantin Kostiuk <kkostiuk@redhat.com>
wrote:

> Hi Shelly,
>
> Thanks for your answer. Your version of GuestAgent is too old. The latest
> version is 103.0.0.
> Version 100.0.0 has a bug related to wrong error messages. When you try to
> freeze FS, GA can return an error that the GA is not available.
>
> Please try again with the latest version. I think it should work fine. If
> you still will have problems, will try to debug them.
>
> Best Regards,
> Konstantin Kostiuk.
>
>
> On Wed, Apr 13, 2022 at 10:03 AM Shelly Kagan <skagan@redhat.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi Konstantin,
>>
>> The Guest Agent version
>> "guestAgentVersion": "100.0.0",
>> I'm running with a 2019 windows image which I understand the GA is part
>> of the virtio drivers.
>> Don't know if the following info also helps but:
>>   "hostname": "WIN-CUCKQ65DH6K",
>>   "os": {
>>     "name": "Microsoft Windows",
>>     "kernelRelease": "17763",
>>     "version": "Microsoft Windows Server 2019",
>>     "prettyName": "Windows Server 2019 Standard",
>>     "versionId": "2019",
>>     "kernelVersion": "10.0",
>>     "machine": "x86_64",
>>     "id": "mswindows"
>>   },
>>
>> I think what is more important to me is the GA being not responsive for
>> the freeze call. I'm using the fsfreeze in a feature I'm implementing, and
>> since in windows there is a 10sec timeout because of the VSS the fact that
>> the freeze call returns error that the GA is not available plus that when
>> its not available it takes much longer for the freeze call to return is
>> really time sensitive.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> On Wed, Apr 6, 2022 at 2:29 PM Konstantin Kostiuk <kkostiuk@redhat.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Shelly,
>>>
>>> Can you provide your version of Guest Agent? Is it built from upstream
>>> or some VirtIO-Win release?
>>> Previously we had some issues related to wrong error messages from Guest
>>> Agent.
>>>
>>> Best Regards,
>>> Konstantin Kostiuk.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Mar 29, 2022 at 6:24 PM Shelly Kagan <skagan@redhat.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi all,
>>>> I'm having some weird behavior with fsfreeze in windows VM.
>>>> I run the fsfreeze and it returns:
>>>> `error: Guest agent is not responding: Guest agent not available for
>>>> now`
>>>>
>>>> but checking the status returned frozen, rerunning it again returns
>>>> that the command is not enabled (expected since the freeze occurs)
>>>>
>>>> I checked the fsstatus and it keeps returning `frozen` even after 10
>>>> seconds (from my understanding the freeze in windows vm is limited to 10
>>>> seconds by default by the VSS. No way to change this default from my
>>>> understanding, is it true?) Shouldn't the status return thawed if the VSS
>>>> no longer keeps the freeze state?
>>>>
>>>> After a minute I did the thaw and it returned error:
>>>> `error: internal error: unable to execute QEMU agent command
>>>> 'guest-fsfreeze-thaw': couldn't hold writes: fsfreeze is limited up to 10
>>>> seconds:`
>>>>
>>>> but the fsstatus changed to thawed after that call.
>>>>
>>>> My questions are:
>>>> 1. Why would the fsfreeze return error about the guest agent but still
>>>> freeze the fs?
>>>> 2. Why would the guest agent not respond, is there a way to make sure
>>>> it is available before the freeze command? (running the fsstatus command
>>>> before it returned without issues..)
>>>> 3. Is it expected that the fsstatus will return frozen even if possibly
>>>> VSS has already thawed? and that the thaw fails but the status do change
>>>> after to thawed?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for taking the time to respond and help,
>>>> --
>>>>
>>>> Shelly Kagan
>>>>
>>>> Senior Software Engineer
>>>>
>>>> Red Hat <https://www.redhat.com>
>>>> <https://www.redhat.com>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Shelly Kagan
>>
>> Senior Software Engineer
>>
>> Red Hat <https://www.redhat.com>
>> <https://www.redhat.com>
>>
>

-- 

Shelly Kagan

Senior Software Engineer

Red Hat <https://www.redhat.com>
<https://www.redhat.com>

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Re: FSFreeze on Windows VM

[Konstantin Kostiuk]

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Hi Shelly,

You can use guest-ping commend to check that GA is alive. This command
should work always.

Best Regards,
Konstantin Kostiuk.


On Wed, Apr 13, 2022 at 5:21 PM Shelly Kagan <skagan@redhat.com> wrote:

> Hi Konstantin,
> Thanks for the quick response.
> I will look into getting a newer GA version.
> Regarding the GA not available, is it relevant to the newer versions? Is
> there a way to make sure the GA is available when running the freeze? when
> it is not available it takes a lot of time to get a response back and it
> causes the freeze to delay.
> Best Regards,
> Shelly
>
> On Wed, Apr 13, 2022 at 4:51 PM Konstantin Kostiuk <kkostiuk@redhat.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi Shelly,
>>
>> Thanks for your answer. Your version of GuestAgent is too old. The latest
>> version is 103.0.0.
>> Version 100.0.0 has a bug related to wrong error messages. When you try
>> to freeze FS, GA can return an error that the GA is not available.
>>
>> Please try again with the latest version. I think it should work fine. If
>> you still will have problems, will try to debug them.
>>
>> Best Regards,
>> Konstantin Kostiuk.
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Apr 13, 2022 at 10:03 AM Shelly Kagan <skagan@redhat.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Konstantin,
>>>
>>> The Guest Agent version
>>> "guestAgentVersion": "100.0.0",
>>> I'm running with a 2019 windows image which I understand the GA is part
>>> of the virtio drivers.
>>> Don't know if the following info also helps but:
>>>   "hostname": "WIN-CUCKQ65DH6K",
>>>   "os": {
>>>     "name": "Microsoft Windows",
>>>     "kernelRelease": "17763",
>>>     "version": "Microsoft Windows Server 2019",
>>>     "prettyName": "Windows Server 2019 Standard",
>>>     "versionId": "2019",
>>>     "kernelVersion": "10.0",
>>>     "machine": "x86_64",
>>>     "id": "mswindows"
>>>   },
>>>
>>> I think what is more important to me is the GA being not responsive for
>>> the freeze call. I'm using the fsfreeze in a feature I'm implementing, and
>>> since in windows there is a 10sec timeout because of the VSS the fact that
>>> the freeze call returns error that the GA is not available plus that when
>>> its not available it takes much longer for the freeze call to return is
>>> really time sensitive.
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>>
>>> On Wed, Apr 6, 2022 at 2:29 PM Konstantin Kostiuk <kkostiuk@redhat.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Shelly,
>>>>
>>>> Can you provide your version of Guest Agent? Is it built from upstream
>>>> or some VirtIO-Win release?
>>>> Previously we had some issues related to wrong error messages from
>>>> Guest Agent.
>>>>
>>>> Best Regards,
>>>> Konstantin Kostiuk.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Mar 29, 2022 at 6:24 PM Shelly Kagan <skagan@redhat.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi all,
>>>>> I'm having some weird behavior with fsfreeze in windows VM.
>>>>> I run the fsfreeze and it returns:
>>>>> `error: Guest agent is not responding: Guest agent not available for
>>>>> now`
>>>>>
>>>>> but checking the status returned frozen, rerunning it again returns
>>>>> that the command is not enabled (expected since the freeze occurs)
>>>>>
>>>>> I checked the fsstatus and it keeps returning `frozen` even after 10
>>>>> seconds (from my understanding the freeze in windows vm is limited to 10
>>>>> seconds by default by the VSS. No way to change this default from my
>>>>> understanding, is it true?) Shouldn't the status return thawed if the VSS
>>>>> no longer keeps the freeze state?
>>>>>
>>>>> After a minute I did the thaw and it returned error:
>>>>> `error: internal error: unable to execute QEMU agent command
>>>>> 'guest-fsfreeze-thaw': couldn't hold writes: fsfreeze is limited up to 10
>>>>> seconds:`
>>>>>
>>>>> but the fsstatus changed to thawed after that call.
>>>>>
>>>>> My questions are:
>>>>> 1. Why would the fsfreeze return error about the guest agent but still
>>>>> freeze the fs?
>>>>> 2. Why would the guest agent not respond, is there a way to make sure
>>>>> it is available before the freeze command? (running the fsstatus command
>>>>> before it returned without issues..)
>>>>> 3. Is it expected that the fsstatus will return frozen even if
>>>>> possibly VSS has already thawed? and that the thaw fails but the status do
>>>>> change after to thawed?
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks for taking the time to respond and help,
>>>>> --
>>>>>
>>>>> Shelly Kagan
>>>>>
>>>>> Senior Software Engineer
>>>>>
>>>>> Red Hat <https://www.redhat.com>
>>>>> <https://www.redhat.com>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> Shelly Kagan
>>>
>>> Senior Software Engineer
>>>
>>> Red Hat <https://www.redhat.com>
>>> <https://www.redhat.com>
>>>
>>
>
> --
>
> Shelly Kagan
>
> Senior Software Engineer
>
> Red Hat <https://www.redhat.com>
> <https://www.redhat.com>
>

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