[fedora-virt] Virtio-win Windows NIC goes offline during bulk copies

[Greg Scott]

Oh - versions - the guest VM is Windows Server 2008 R2.  It's running under a RHEL 6.1 host.  The virtio-win version is 1.2.0 - the newest one in the RHEL yum repository at least as of a couple days ago.  When the NIC goes offline, the RHEL host cannot ping it.  

As soon as I disable and then re-enable that NIC, the VM comes back online and answers pings again.  But every time this happens, my ntbackup bulk copy is already dead and I have to start it up again from the beginning.  

Thanks

- Greg Scott



From: virt-bounces at lists.fedoraproject.org [mailto:virt-bounces at lists.fedoraproject.org] On Behalf Of Greg Scott
Sent: Friday, September 02, 2011 2:47 AM
To: virt at lists.fedoraproject.org
Subject: [fedora-virt] Virtio-win Windows NIC goes offline during bulk copies

Help!

Long story short - I need to do a bulk copy of 200+ GB from a physical Windows server to a virtual Windows server hosted on a RHEL 6.1 host with libvirt.   The guest Windows VM is running Windows Server 2008R2 with two virtio NICs.  One virtio NIC is connected to RHEL bridge br0, the other to RHEL bridge br1.  Two virtual NICs because they will eventually connect to two different networks.  

So I am trying to do a bulk copy of 200+ GB from a physical Windows server to this virtual machine.  At random times, generally after a few dozen or so GB - but sometimes after more than 100 GB - the virtual NIC goes offline.  From the Windows VM, I am unable to ping anything, including the RHEL host it's running under.  

No, it's not a firewall rule.  The only workaround I can find is, inside the Windows VM, disable the virtio NIC and then re-enable it.  Essentially, reload the driver from Windows' point of view.  Then it's good for a while and everyone can ping everyone for a while again.  

I am running this bulk copy through a gb switch.  I've tried a couple of different switches, but no change in symptoms.  Plus, even if the switches are flakey, I should not have to keep reloading that virtual NIC driver.

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks

- Greg Scott