topic Re: HPVM Panic in Operating System - HP-UX

HPVM Panic

Avinash20 — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 12:30:05 GMT

HPVM 4.0
OS: 11.31

Fresh installation.

We were unable to start the HPVM and none of the hpvm commands were running on host

Start HP Virtual Machine Monitor
Output from "/sbin/rc2.d/S529hpvm start":
----------------------------
ERROR: Integrity VM software cannot be started when hyperthreading is enabled
(getconf SC_HT_ENABLED). Use /usr/sbin/setboot -m off and reboot to enable
this system as an Integrity VM host.
"/sbin/rc2.d/S529hpvm start" FAILED

I disabled autoboot via
# /usr/sbin/setboot -m off

After this I was able to use all the hpvm command the the hpvm daemon started fine(/sbin/rc2.d/S529hpvm start)

But after I rebooted the server, the server paniced at

* Working...

Stored message buffer up to system crash:

MFS is defined: base= 0xe000000101a73000 size= 27676 KB
Loaded ACPI revision 2.0 tables.
MMIO on this platform supports Write Coalescing.

ERROR: This system does not support Hyperthreading, or Hyperthreading has been disabled on this system (see setboot(1M)). Value of tunable 'lcpu_attr' cannot be changed.
ERROR: The stored value (0) for the tunable 'lcpu_attr' is not valid. The system will use the default value instead.
Using /stand/ext_ioconfig

I would appreciated if someone could share some inputs on the above issue

Points will be assigned for any inputs which are relevent to this post !!

Thanks
Avinash

Re: HPVM Panic

Eric SAUBIGNAC — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:33:35 GMT

Bonjour,

Rather strange : it looks like the kernel is configured to use hyperthreading and find that it is not enable "This system does not support Hyperthreading, or Hyperthreading has been disabled on this system". In fact, since hyperthreading has been disabled with setboot it could be a normal situation if "lcpu_attr" was set to 1. But it is set to 0 as mentionned in "The stored value (0) for the tunable 'lcpu_attr'".

It also says that default value will be use but default value is ... 0 ! (see http://docs.hp.com/en/B2355-60130/lcpu_attr.5.html )

Installation of HPVM will modify lcpu_attr to 0 (see page 28 of http://docs.hp.com/en/T2767-90141/T2767-90141.pdf).

In a summary, you should be in a clean situation :-(((((

Have you recently installed patches ? May be you should try to remove them ? It could also be a good idea to rebuild the kernel ?

HTH

Eric

Re: HPVM Panic

Jozef_Novak — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:39:37 GMT

Hi Avinash,

very unusual for a fresh installation. Before anything else, I would check whether all required patches for HPVM 4.0 are in place.

Looks like a case for HP software support, though.

J.

Re: HPVM Panic

Eric SAUBIGNAC — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 13:43:16 GMT

By chance, did you plaid with command "psrset" ? See http://h71028.www7.hp.com/ERC/downloads/4AA0-7695ENW.pdf

Re: HPVM Panic

Avinash20 — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:24:54 GMT

Eric SAUBIGNAC: Thanks for the documentation.

" It could also be a good idea to rebuild the kernel ?"

But in swinstall kernel rebuilt was perfect without any issue

This is newly installed 11.31 server with latest patches.

Installation of HPVM just threw a WARNING

"Integrity VM software cannot be started when hyperthreading is enabled".....

But this got installed sucessfully.

Did not find any known issue as of such

One of the documentation says to reset the partition, I have not done that

http://docs.hp.com/en/5991-1247B/ch07s08.html
You must reset an nPartition after changing its Hyper-Threading status.

Is it necessary ?? Does it mean reset from MP or simply reboot the server.

NOTE: For ITRC users >>
Newer Integrity servers support â hyper-threadingâ , a way by which a single CPU core functions almost as two cores.
This feature does not work with Integrity VM 4.0.

Re: HPVM Panic

Eric SAUBIGNAC — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:07:14 GMT

Oups ... you are right. And it seems that you gave it to me. Many thanks. And you are not so far too ;-)

-- "Is it necessary ??" --
Should we understand that you did not rebooted your VM Host after "/usr/sbin/setboot -m off" ? Normally, you should in order to have hyperthreading disable. If you didn't I can't understand how HPVM could have worked.

-- "Does it mean reset from MP or simply reboot the server" --
A reboot is enough.

I remember know that, once, I had a trouble with hyperthreading : installation of VSE-OE, deactivation of hyperthreading, reboot then everything went well with HPVM. Then installation of latest QPK bundles, reboot and surprise : hyperthreading was back. I had to de-activate it once again. It seems that installation of some patches can activate hyperthreading.

What about you ? Have you installed some patches ? What is the actual situation ("setboot -v" and "kctune lcpu_attr") ?

Eric

Re: HPVM Panic

Avinash20 — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:42:42 GMT

>> Sadly I restored to my old 11.23 HPVM 3.5 from Ignite.

>> I will go again for a fresh installation and keep in mind about

/usr/sbin/setboot -m off
kctune lcpu_attr=0

Then reboot and then install HPVM.
Let me check this ..
Will keep you posted

Re: HPVM Panic

Avinash20 — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 07:34:40 GMT

Was unable to simulate it.
Took Ignite from other HPVM and restored in this host.

Eric suggestion needs to be followed as stated above,.