Slow Jerky Guests

[Frank Murphy]

Hi Since reinstalling my virt-host to F14.
My guest VM's are jerky, like as thought the screen is being refreshed 
after every action.

The only thing, I came across was a line in messages ( on an F14 guest)
"booting kernel test 03: booting para-virtualized kernel"

With Virt built into the CPU, should I not get full virtualization.

What else shoul I be looking at.

Host is Intel quad-core with 4gb ddr2 ram.
With 1gb of guest hd space spread across 3 physical drives.

[Richard W.M. Jones]

On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 05:10:56PM +0000, Frank Murphy wrote:
> Hi Since reinstalling my virt-host to F14.
> My guest VM's are jerky, like as thought the screen is being refreshed 
> after every action.

This is always a good page to keep an eye on:

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Common_F14_bugs

(substitute "F14" for whatever version you are using).

In particular:

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Common_F14_bugs#Sluggish_interaction_and_high_...

Rich.

[Daniel P. Berrange]

On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 05:10:56PM +0000, Frank Murphy wrote:
> Hi Since reinstalling my virt-host to F14.
> My guest VM's are jerky, like as thought the screen is being refreshed 
> after every action.

Likely need to try this pending update

https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/gtk-vnc-0.4.2-4.fc14

Daniel

[Michael Kürschner]

Hello list,

On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 8:25 PM, Daniel P. Berrange  wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 05:10:56PM +0000, Frank Murphy wrote:
> > Hi Since reinstalling my virt-host to F14.
> > My guest VM's are jerky, like as thought the screen is being refreshed
> > after every action.
>
> Likely need to try this pending update
>
> https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/gtk-vnc-0.4.2-4.fc14

I install the package via the normal update service and test my ubuntu
10.04 virtual host. But on my PC, AMD Phenom + 4GB RAM, it runs still
really slow. 1 CPU core of my host computer runs on 100% and the
graphic display are so slow, that a normal work is not possible.

I think, the kvm environment on Fedora 13 runs very fast, so that I
think: "No more VMWare", but with the actual version is depressing
slow.

Hope you have some ideas to speed up the kvm system.

regards,
Michael

[Justin Forbes]

On Mon, 2010-12-20 at 14:03 +0100, Michael Kuerschner wrote:
> Hello list,
>
> On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 8:25 PM, Daniel P. Berrange  wrote:
> > On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 05:10:56PM +0000, Frank Murphy wrote:
> > > Hi Since reinstalling my virt-host to F14.
> > > My guest VM's are jerky, like as thought the screen is being refreshed
> > > after every action.
> >
> > Likely need to try this pending update
> >
> > https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/gtk-vnc-0.4.2-4.fc14
>
> I install the package via the normal update service and test my ubuntu
> 10.04 virtual host. But on my PC, AMD Phenom + 4GB RAM, it runs still
> really slow. 1 CPU core of my host computer runs on 100% and the
> graphic display are so slow, that a normal work is not possible.
>
> I think, the kvm environment on Fedora 13 runs very fast, so that I
> think: "No more VMWare", but with the actual version is depressing
> slow.
>
> Hope you have some ideas to speed up the kvm system.

Which kernel are you running? The latest kernel update has some patches
which might help out here.  Specifically some timer fixes from
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=644973

Justin

[Michael Kürschner]

Am 20.12.2010 14:41, schrieb Justin M. Forbes:
> Which kernel are you running? The latest kernel update has some patches
> which might help out here.  Specifically some timer fixes from
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=644973

Sorry for the delay, but I was to be away on business.

My installed kernel version is: 2.6.35.9-64.fc14.i686.PAE. I think the
last kernel in the update stream.

Micha

[Tom Horsley]

On Mon, 20 Dec 2010 14:03:32 +0100
Michael Kuerschner wrote:
> Hope you have some ideas to speed up the kvm system.

There is a possibility that it has nothing to do with kvm
but instead is an X problem with the kernel mode settings
stuff. Is there one or more "kslowd" kernel processes
accumulating lots of cpu time on your system? If so, might
be suffering from:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=649960

It made my whole system jerky (including the virtual
machines) till I found the magic module option to disable
polling.

[Michael Kürschner]

Am 20.12.2010 15:28, schrieb Tom Horsley:
> There is a possibility that it has nothing to do with kvm
> but instead is an X problem with the kernel mode settings
> stuff. Is there one or more "kslowd" kernel processes
> accumulating lots of cpu time on your system? If so, might
> be suffering from:
>
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=649960
>
> It made my whole system jerky (including the virtual
> machines) till I found the magic module option to disable
> polling.

I test your hint with the solution in these case. I build a new
initramfs with dracut but no improvement for the virtual machine.

I get the same problem like with an old kernel version. The machine
starts with BIOS output, but if the bootloader get start the OS, no
activities on disk (graph on disk E/A show nothing). The "real" CPU core
runs on 100%.  The virtual machine is a kvm host.

If I build a new virtual machine with the qemu hypervisor and the same
disk image, the virtual host starts.

The kvm module from kernel is loaded and kvm activ:

[root@blackwater ~]# lsmod | grep kvm
kvm_amd                29397  0
kvm                   213156  1 kvm_amd
[root@blackwater ~]# dmesg | grep kvm
[    8.312555] kvm: Nested Virtualization enabled
[    8.312559] kvm: Nested Paging enabled

A "virsh capabilities" command print this information: 
<capabilities>

<host>
    <uuid>44323230-4439-5050-3530-4231ffffffff</uuid>
    <cpu>
      <arch>i686</arch>
      <model>Opteron_G3</model>
      <vendor>AMD</vendor>
      <topology sockets='1' cores='2' threads='1'/>
      <feature name='wdt'/>
      <feature name='skinit'/>
      <feature name='osvw'/>
      <feature name='3dnowprefetch'/>
      <feature name='cr8legacy'/>
      <feature name='extapic'/>
      <feature name='cmp_legacy'/>
      <feature name='3dnow'/>
      <feature name='3dnowext'/>
      <feature name='pdpe1gb'/>
      <feature name='fxsr_opt'/>
      <feature name='mmxext'/>
      <feature name='ht'/>
      <feature name='vme'/>
    </cpu>
    <migration_features>
      <live/>
      <uri_transports>
        <uri_transport>tcp</uri_transport>
      </uri_transports>
    </migration_features>
    <secmodel>
      <model>selinux</model>
      <doi>0</doi>
    </secmodel>
  </host>

<guest>
    <os_type>hvm</os_type>
    <arch name='i686'>
      <wordsize>32</wordsize>
      <emulator>/usr/bin/qemu</emulator>
      <machine>pc-0.13</machine>
      <machine canonical='pc-0.13'>pc</machine>
      <machine>fedora-13</machine>
      <machine>pc-0.12</machine>
      <machine>pc-0.11</machine>
      <machine>pc-0.10</machine>
      <machine>isapc</machine>
      <domain type='qemu'>
      </domain>
      <domain type='kvm'>
        <emulator>/usr/bin/qemu-kvm</emulator>
        <machine>pc-0.13</machine>
        <machine canonical='pc-0.13'>pc</machine>
        <machine>fedora-13</machine>
        <machine>pc-0.12</machine>
        <machine>pc-0.11</machine>
        <machine>pc-0.10</machine>
        <machine>isapc</machine>
      </domain>
    </arch>
    <features>
      <cpuselection/>
      <pae/>
      <nonpae/>
      <acpi default='on' toggle='yes'/>
      <apic default='on' toggle='no'/>
    </features>
  </guest>

<guest>
    <os_type>hvm</os_type>
    <arch name='x86_64'>
      <wordsize>64</wordsize>
      <emulator>/usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64</emulator>
      <machine>pc-0.13</machine>
      <machine canonical='pc-0.13'>pc</machine>
      <machine>fedora-13</machine>
      <machine>pc-0.12</machine>
      <machine>pc-0.11</machine>
      <machine>pc-0.10</machine>
      <machine>isapc</machine>
      <domain type='qemu'>
      </domain>
    </arch>
    <features>
      <cpuselection/>
      <acpi default='on' toggle='yes'/>
      <apic default='on' toggle='no'/>
    </features>
  </guest>

</capabilities>

Is my machine not qualified to runs kvm nativ?

regards
Michael

[Tom Horsley]

On Wed, 22 Dec 2010 19:52:35 +0100
Michael Kürschner wrote:
>   <domain type='kvm'>

I think that says it does support native hardware kvm
(but I always have trouble reading that output :-).

[Michael Kürschner]

Am 20.12.2010 15:28, schrieb Tom Horsley:
> On Mon, 20 Dec 2010 14:03:32 +0100
> Michael Kuerschner wrote:
> > Hope you have some ideas to speed up the kvm system.
>
> There is a possibility that it has nothing to do with kvm
> but instead is an X problem with the kernel mode settings
> stuff. Is there one or more "kslowd" kernel processes
> accumulating lots of cpu time on your system? If so, might
> be suffering from:
>
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=649960
>
> It made my whole system jerky (including the virtual
> machines) till I found the magic module option to disable
> polling.
> _______________________________________________
> virt mailing list
> [e-mail]
> https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/virt

I reset the parameter "options drm_kms_helper poll=0", but my kvm vhost
dont start. It's a pity.

Michael

[Boris Derzhavets]

> I install the package via the normal update service and test my ubuntu
> 10.04 virtual host. But on my PC, AMD Phenom + 4GB RAM, it runs still
> really slow. 1 CPU core of my host computer runs on 100% and the
> graphic display are so slow, that a normal work is not possible.

Similar task  (Ubuntu 10.10 Desk KVM) performs pretty fast ( close to paravirtual Xen Guest install) on C2D8400,8GB RAM, ASUS P5Q-E, Seagate Barracuda 500 GB (SATA)

F14 KVM package deployment phase was excellent close to PV Guest Xen speed.

I was able to find one slow guest install - Solaris 11.
Package deployment phase is really slow vs. PV Guest S11 install @ Xen 4.0.1 Dom0

Boris.

--- On Mon, 12/20/10, Michael Kuerschner  wrote:

From: Michael Kuerschner 
Subject: Re: [fedora-virt] Slow Jerky Guests
To: "FPO-Virt" 
Date: Monday, December 20, 2010, 8:03 AM

Hello list,

On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 8:25 PM, Daniel P. Berrange  wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 05:10:56PM +0000, Frank Murphy wrote:
> > Hi Since reinstalling my virt-host to F14.
> > My guest VM's are jerky, like as thought the screen is being refreshed
> > after every action.
>
> Likely need to try this pending update
>
> https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/gtk-vnc-0.4.2-4.fc14

I install the package via the normal update service and test my ubuntu
10.04 virtual host. But on my PC, AMD Phenom + 4GB RAM, it runs still
really slow. 1 CPU core of my host computer runs on 100% and the
graphic display are so slow, that a normal work is not possible.

I think, the kvm environment on Fedora 13 runs very fast, so that I
think: "No more VMWare", but with the actual version is depressing
slow.

Hope you have some ideas to speed up the kvm system.

regards,
Michael