question - installation speed F11 Beta VM on F11 Beta physical

Hi,

I have an F11 Beta server, fully updated to the latest and greatest from rawhide.  I've noticed that whenever I try to install F11 beta in a VM, it installs really, really slowly, may 2 orders of magnitude slower than on the phyical machine.  The physical server is a single processor quad-core Xeon with 8GB of RAM.  I've set the VM to have 4GB RAM w/2 cpus.

It appears that the installation seems to be occcuring from the network versus the DVD.  Why would this be and how can I speed up this incredibly slow process?

Thanks in advance for any help on this!

Regards,

Mike Hinz
President
YR20
1718 Fry Road, Suite 440
Houston, TX  77084
[e-mail]
832-225-1293 (o)
713-594-3095 (m)
832-550-2657 (f)

[Mark McLoughlin]

On Wed, 2009-04-08 at 16:52 -0500, [e-mail] wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have an F11 Beta server, fully updated to the latest and greatest
> from rawhide.  I've noticed that whenever I try to install F11 beta in
> a VM, it installs really, really slowly, may 2 orders of magnitude
> slower than on the phyical machine.  The physical server is a single
> processor quad-core Xeon with 8GB of RAM.  I've set the VM to have 4GB
> RAM w/2 cpus.
>
> It appears that the installation seems to be occcuring from the
> network versus the DVD.  Why would this be and how can I speed up this
> incredibly slow process?

There's a good chance you're using plain QEMU instead of KVM. Does your
machine have hardware virt support? Is the kvm_intel module loaded? Is
qemu-system-x86_64 running or qemu-kvm? What's in the guest's log file
in /var/log/libvirt/qemu/ ?

Cheers,
Mark.

Mark,

I'm sure that my config is correct.  The cpu is a very recent Xeon and I've turned on VT support in the bios.  I'm including the relevent tests, at least as I understand them, to make sure I'm running the correct stuff.  FYI, I installed the VM via virt-manager version 0.7.0.

The installation of F11 on the guess still appears to me to be extremely slow, but it appears to be using the network versus the physical DVD, for the most part.  Additionally I see some different dialog during the installation on the VM versus on a physical machine.  It asks for some info about Ethernet and IP config that doesn't seem to happen on the physical machine.   Then I can clearly see the DVD hardly being accessed while the network activity is going crazy during the installation.  Furhter info:  When the installation is done on the VM, F11 is completely up to date!!  This makes me think that somehow the issue is that the installaion on the VM is network based, after initially happening from the DVD.  Also, just fyi, I've tried both a bridged network and the default NAT connectivity with absolutely no difference.

Thanks for your help on this!

Here's some output from /proc/cpuinfo:

[root@vmh2 qemu]# grep -E 'svm|vmx' /proc/cpuinfo
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx esttm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority

Here's the output of lsmod

[root@vmh2 qemu]# lsmod | grep kvm
kvm_intel              47880  3
kvm                   152184  1 kvm_intel

Here's what virsh thinks is going on:

[root@vmh2 qemu]# virsh capabilities | grep kvm
      <domain type='kvm'>
        <emulator>/usr/bin/qemu-kvm</emulator>
      <domain type='kvm'>
        <emulator>/usr/bin/qemu-kvm</emulator

Finally, here's the first part of the guest's log file.  Please note that the 'ballon' info is repeated literally thousands of times in the log, so I'm only including the very top of the file:

LC_ALL=C PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin /usr/bin/qemu-kvm -S -M pc -m 4000 -smp 1 -name vm1 -uuid 5e738733-04
e7-2eaf-f1fa-0f09865d53d5 -monitor pty -pidfile /var/run/libvirt/qemu//vm1.pid -no-reboot -boot d -drive file=/de
v/sr0,if=ide,media=cdrom,index=2 -drive file=/var/lib/libvirt/images/vm1.img,if=virtio,index=0 -net nic,macaddr=5
4:52:00:70:ca:09,vlan=0,model=virtio -net tap,fd=20,script=,vlan=0,ifname=vnet0 -serial pty -parallel none -usb -
usbdevice tablet -vnc 127.0.0.1:0 -k en-us -soundhw es1370
char device redirected to /dev/pts/2
char device redirected to /dev/pts/3
ALSA lib pulse.c:272:(pulse_connect) PulseAudio: Unable to connect: Connection refused

file mcoputils.cc: line 499 (static std::string Arts::MCOPUtils::mcopDirectory()): assertion failed: (home != 0)
HOME environment variable not set?
info cpus
* CPU #0: pc=0x00000000000ffff0 thread_id=29781
cont
balloon 4000
info balloon
balloon: actual=4000
info balloon

Regards,

Mike Hinz
President
YR20
1718 Fry Road, Suite 440
Houston, TX  77084
[e-mail]
832-225-1293 (o)
713-594-3095 (m)
832-550-2657 (f)

-----Original Message-----
From: "Mark McLoughlin" 
Sent: Thursday, April 9, 2009 11:58am
To: [e-mail]
Cc: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: [fedora-virt] question - installation speed F11 Beta VM on F11 Beta physical

On Wed, 2009-04-08 at 16:52 -0500, [e-mail] wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have an F11 Beta server, fully updated to the latest and greatest
> from rawhide.  I've noticed that whenever I try to install F11 beta in
> a VM, it installs really, really slowly, may 2 orders of magnitude
> slower than on the phyical machine.  The physical server is a single
> processor quad-core Xeon with 8GB of RAM.  I've set the VM to have 4GB
> RAM w/2 cpus.
>
> It appears that the installation seems to be occcuring from the
> network versus the DVD.  Why would this be and how can I speed up this
> incredibly slow process?

There's a good chance you're using plain QEMU instead of KVM. Does your
machine have hardware virt support? Is the kvm_intel module loaded? Is
qemu-system-x86_64 running or qemu-kvm? What's in the guest's log file
in /var/log/libvirt/qemu/ ?

Cheers,
Mark.

[Mark McLoughlin]

Hi Mike,

Sorry - I'm a bit behind on mail.

On Thu, 2009-04-09 at 12:54 -0500, [e-mail] wrote:
> Mark,
>
> I'm sure that my config is correct.  The cpu is a very recent Xeon and
> I've turned on VT support in the bios.  I'm including the relevent
> tests, at least as I understand them, to make sure I'm running the
> correct stuff.  FYI, I installed the VM via virt-manager version
> 0.7.0.
>
> The installation of F11 on the guess still appears to me to be
> extremely slow, but it appears to be using the network versus the
> physical DVD, for the most part.

What kernel version do you have on the host?

I recently fixed a bug which might have caused this:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/490266

That fix is in rawhide since kernel-2.6.29-21.fc11

Cheers,
Mark.
> Additionally I see some different dialog during the installation on
> the VM versus on a physical machine.  It asks for some info about
> Ethernet and IP config that doesn't seem to happen on the physical
> machine.   Then I can clearly see the DVD hardly being accessed while
> the network activity is going crazy during the installation.  Furhter
> info:  When the installation is done on the VM, F11 is completely up
> to date!!  This makes me think that somehow the issue is that the
> installaion on the VM is network based, after initially happening from
> the DVD.  Also, just fyi, I've tried both a bridged network and the
> default NAT connectivity with absolutely no difference.
>
> Thanks for your help on this!
>
> Here's some output from /proc/cpuinfo:
>
> [root@vmh2 qemu]# grep -E 'svm|vmx' /proc/cpuinfo
> flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca
> cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall
> nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good pni dtes64 monitor
> ds_cpl vmx esttm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm tpr_shadow vnmi
> flexpriority
>
> Here's the output of lsmod
>
> [root@vmh2 qemu]# lsmod | grep kvm
> kvm_intel              47880  3
> kvm                   152184  1 kvm_intel
>
> Here's what virsh thinks is going on:
>
> [root@vmh2 qemu]# virsh capabilities | grep kvm
>       <domain type='kvm'>
>         <emulator>/usr/bin/qemu-kvm</emulator>
>       <domain type='kvm'>
>         <emulator>/usr/bin/qemu-kvm</emulator
>
> Finally, here's the first part of the guest's log file.  Please note
> that the 'ballon' info is repeated literally thousands of times in the
> log, so I'm only including the very top of the file:
>
> LC_ALL=C PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin /usr/bin/qemu-kvm -S -M pc
> -m 4000 -smp 1 -name vm1 -uuid 5e738733-04
> e7-2eaf-f1fa-0f09865d53d5 -monitor pty
> -pidfile /var/run/libvirt/qemu//vm1.pid -no-reboot -boot d -drive
> file=/de
> v/sr0,if=ide,media=cdrom,index=2 -drive
> file=/var/lib/libvirt/images/vm1.img,if=virtio,index=0 -net
> nic,macaddr=5
> 4:52:00:70:ca:09,vlan=0,model=virtio -net
> tap,fd=20,script=,vlan=0,ifname=vnet0 -serial pty -parallel none -usb
>
> usbdevice tablet -vnc 127.0.0.1:0 -k en-us -soundhw es1370
> char device redirected to /dev/pts/2
> char device redirected to /dev/pts/3
> ALSA lib pulse.c:272:(pulse_connect) PulseAudio: Unable to connect:
> Connection refused
>
> file mcoputils.cc: line 499 (static std::string
> Arts::MCOPUtils::mcopDirectory()): assertion failed: (home != 0)
> HOME environment variable not set?
> info cpus
> CPU #0: pc=0x00000000000ffff0 thread_id=29781
>
> cont
> balloon 4000
> info balloon
> balloon: actual=4000
> info balloon
>
> Regards,
>
> Mike Hinz
> President
> YR20
> 1718 Fry Road, Suite 440
> Houston, TX  77084
> [e-mail]
> 832-225-1293 (o)
> 713-594-3095 (m)
> 832-550-2657 (f)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Mark McLoughlin" 
> Sent: Thursday, April 9, 2009 11:58am
> To: [e-mail]
> Cc: [e-mail]
> Subject: Re: [fedora-virt] question - installation speed F11 Beta VM
> on F11 Beta physical
>
> On Wed, 2009-04-08 at 16:52 -0500, [e-mail] wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I have an F11 Beta server, fully updated to the latest and greatest
> > from rawhide.  I've noticed that whenever I try to install F11 beta
>
> in
> > a VM, it installs really, really slowly, may 2 orders of magnitude
> > slower than on the phyical machine.  The physical server is a single
> > processor quad-core Xeon with 8GB of RAM.  I've set the VM to have
>
> 4GB
> > RAM w/2 cpus.
> >
> > It appears that the installation seems to be occcuring from the
> > network versus the DVD.  Why would this be and how can I speed up
>
> this
> > incredibly slow process?
>
> There's a good chance you're using plain QEMU instead of KVM. Does
> your
> machine have hardware virt support? Is the kvm_intel module loaded? Is
> qemu-system-x86_64 running or qemu-kvm? What's in the guest's log file
> in /var/log/libvirt/qemu/ ?
>
> Cheers,
> Mark.

Mark,

I've got kernel 2.6.29.1-52.fc11 installed on the physical host.  I see a newer kernel 2.6.29.1-70.fc11, but I've not worked up the nerve to install that one yet.

However, I've just come up with another clue....The problem with very slow install seems to be particularly with installing Fedora 11 Beta -x64.  I've just created another VM on my physical server.  The physical server is running Fedora 11 beta, very close to fully updated, as per the below.  On the 2nd VM, I'm currently installing the Fedora 10 -x64 release from DVD.  That process is proceeding at very, very close to the same speed as it would on a physical machine....

Soooo, it looks like the problem is related to the system being installed.  Does this clue help with the mystery?

Regards,

Mike Hinz
President
YR20
1718 Fry Road, Suite 440
Houston, TX  77084
[e-mail]
832-225-1293 (o)
713-594-3095 (m)
832-550-2657 (f)

-----Original Message-----
From: "Mark McLoughlin" 
Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2009 8:24am
To: [e-mail]
Cc: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: [fedora-virt] question - installation speed F11 Beta VM on F11 Beta physical

Hi Mike,

Sorry - I'm a bit behind on mail.

On Thu, 2009-04-09 at 12:54 -0500, [e-mail] wrote:
> Mark,
>
> I'm sure that my config is correct.  The cpu is a very recent Xeon and
> I've turned on VT support in the bios.  I'm including
> 0.7.0.   the relevent
> tests, at least as I understand them, to make sure I'm running the
> correct stuff.  FYI, I installed the VM via virt-manager version
> 0.7.0.
>
> The installation of F11 on the guess still appears to me to be
> extremely slow, but it appears to be using the network versus the
> physical DVD, for the most part.

What kernel version do you have on the host?
> 0.7.0.

I recently fixed a bug which might have caused this:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/490266

That fix is in rawhide since kernel-2.6.29-21.fc11

Cheers,
Mark.
> Additionally I see some different dialog during the installation on
> the VM versus on a physical machine.  It asks for some info about
> Ethernet and IP config that doesn't seem to happen on the physical
> machine.   Then I can clearly see the DVD hardly being accessed while
> the network activity is going crazy during the installation.  Furhter
> info:  When the installation is done on the VM, F11 is completely up
> to date!!  This makes me think that somehow the issue is that the
> installaion on the VM is network based, after initially happening from
> the DVD.  Also, just fyi, I've tried both a bridged network and the
> default NAT connectivity with absolutely no difference.
>
> Thanks for your help on this!
>
> Here's some output from /proc/cpuinfo:
>
> [root@vmh2 qemu]# grep -E 'svm|vmx' /proc/cpuinfo
> flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca
> cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall
> nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good pni dtes64 monitor
> ds_cpl vmx esttm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm tpr_shadow vnmi
> flexpriority
>
> Here's the output of lsmod
>
> [root@vmh2 qemu]# lsmod | grep kvm
> kvm_intel              47880  3
> kvm                   152184  1 kvm_intel
>
> Here's what virsh thinks is going on:
>
> [root@vmh2 qemu]# virsh capabilities | grep kvm
>       <domain type='kvm'>
>         <emulator>/usr/bin/qemu-kvm</emulator>
>       <domain type='kvm'>
>         <emulator>/usr/bin/qemu-kvm</emulator
>
> Finally, here's the first part of the guest's log file.  Please note
> that the 'ballon' info is repeated literally thousands of times in the
> log, so I'm only including the very top of the file:
>
> LC_ALL=C PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin /usr/bin/qemu-kvm -S -M pc
> -m 4000 -smp 1 -name vm1 -uuid 5e738733-04
> e7-2eaf-f1fa-0f09865d53d5 -monitor pty
> -pidfile /var/run/libvirt/qemu//vm1.pid -no-reboot -boot d -drive
> file=/de
> v/sr0,if=ide,media=cdrom,index=2 -drive
> file=/var/lib/libvirt/images/vm1.img,if=virtio,index=0 -net
> nic,macaddr=5
> 4:52:00:70:ca:09,vlan=0,model=virtio -net
> tap,fd=20,script=,vlan=0,ifname=vnet0 -serial pty -parallel none -usb
>
> usbdevice tablet -vnc 127.0.0.1:0 -k en-us -soundhw es1370
> char device redirected to /dev/pts/2
> char device redirected to /dev/pts/3
> ALSA lib pulse.c:272:(pulse_connect) PulseAudio: Unable to connect:
> Connection refused
>
> file mcoputils.cc: line 499 (static std::string
> Arts::MCOPUtils::mcopDirectory()): assertion failed: (home != 0)
> HOME environment variable not set?
> info cpus
> CPU #0: pc=0x00000000000ffff0 thread_id=29781
>
> cont
> balloon 4000
> info balloon
> balloon: actual=4000
> info balloon
>
> Regards,
>
> Mike Hinz
> President
> YR20
> 1718 Fry Road, Suite 440
> Houston, TX  77084
> [e-mail]
> 832-225-1293 (o)
> 713-594-3095 (m)
> 832-550-2657 (f)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Mark McLoughlin" 
> Sent: Thursday, April 9, 2009 11:58am
> To: [e-mail]
> Cc: [e-mail]
> Subject: Re: [fedora-virt] question - installation speed F11 Beta VM
> on F11 Beta physical
>
> On Wed, 2009-04-08 at 16:52 -0500, [e-mail] wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I have an F11 Beta server, fully updated to the latest and greatest
> > from rawhide.  I've noticed that whenever I try to install F11 beta
>
> in
> > a VM, it installs really, really slowly, may 2 orders of magnitude
> > slower than on the phyical machine.  The physical server is a single
> > processor quad-core Xeon with 8GB of RAM.  I've set the VM to have
>
> 4GB
> > RAM w/2 cpus.
> >
> > It appears that the installation seems to be occcuring from the
> > network versus the DVD.  Why would this be and how can I speed up
>
> this
> > incredibly slow process?
>
> There's a good chance you're using plain QEMU instead of KVM. Does
> your
> machine have hardware virt support? Is the kvm_intel module loaded? Is
> qemu-system-x86_64 running or qemu-kvm? What's in the guest's log file
> in /var/log/libvirt/qemu/ ?
>
> Cheers,
> Mark.