CentOS virt - Mar 2017 - NIC Stability Problems Under Xen 4.4 / CentOS 6 / Linux 3.18

On 02/21/2017 05:32 PM, Kevin Stange wrote:
> On 02/21/2017 11:50 AM, Johnny Hughes wrote:
>> On 02/21/2017 11:47 AM, Johnny Hughes wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> Kevin,
>>>
>>> Please try the 4.9.11-22 kernel that I just released for CentOS-6
(along
>>> with the newer linux-firmare packages and xfsprogs).
>>>
>>> If you enable the xen-testing repository in your CentOS-Xen.repo
file
>>> (assuming it is pointing to xen-44 and not xen-46) then a 'yum
upgrade'
>>> should replace all the needed packages.
>>>
>>> The actual path is here for the packages:
>>>
>>> https://buildlogs.centos.org/centos/6/virt/x86_64/xen-44/
>>>
>>> Hopefully this helps.
>>>
>>
>>
>> I should have said .. 'just releaed for testing' :)
>>
>> I have been using this for 4 or 5 days with no issues in production,
but
>> it needs testing before final release :)
> 
> Currently I've moved most of my servers onto the 4.4 kernel from xen
> made easy and they've been stable.  I have some indications of an issue
> with one of my 3.18 servers right now which required it to be rebooted,
> so I'm going to bring the 4.9 kernel up on that server to see how it
> does.  It may take a few weeks or more to draw any conclusions.
Currently running 4.9.11 on a few servers and they've been working fine.
 No new issues have come up so far, anyway.

I still can't rest assured the NIC issue is fixed, but no 4.4 or 4.9
server has yet had a NIC issue, with some being up almost a full month.
It looks promising! (I'm knocking on all the wood everywhere, though.)

-- 
Kevin Stange
Chief Technology Officer
Steadfast | Managed Infrastructure, Datacenter and Cloud Services
800 S Wells, Suite 190 | Chicago, IL 60607
312.602.2689 X203 | Fax: 312.602.2688
kevin at steadfast.net | www.steadfast.net

On 02/24/2017 11:51 AM, Kevin Stange wrote:
> On 02/21/2017 05:32 PM, Kevin Stange wrote:
>> On 02/21/2017 11:50 AM, Johnny Hughes wrote:
>>> On 02/21/2017 11:47 AM, Johnny Hughes wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Kevin,
>>>>
>>>> Please try the 4.9.11-22 kernel that I just released for
CentOS-6 (along
>>>> with the newer linux-firmare packages and xfsprogs).
>>>>
>>>> If you enable the xen-testing repository in your
CentOS-Xen.repo file
>>>> (assuming it is pointing to xen-44 and not xen-46) then a
'yum upgrade'
>>>> should replace all the needed packages.
>>>>
>>>> The actual path is here for the packages:
>>>>
>>>> https://buildlogs.centos.org/centos/6/virt/x86_64/xen-44/
>>>>
>>>> Hopefully this helps.
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I should have said .. 'just releaed for testing' :)
>>>
>>> I have been using this for 4 or 5 days with no issues in
production, but
>>> it needs testing before final release :)
>>
>> Currently I've moved most of my servers onto the 4.4 kernel from
xen
>> made easy and they've been stable.  I have some indications of an
issue
>> with one of my 3.18 servers right now which required it to be rebooted,
>> so I'm going to bring the 4.9 kernel up on that server to see how
it
>> does.  It may take a few weeks or more to draw any conclusions.
> 
> Currently running 4.9.11 on a few servers and they've been working
fine.
>  No new issues have come up so far, anyway.
> 
> I still can't rest assured the NIC issue is fixed, but no 4.4 or 4.9
> server has yet had a NIC issue, with some being up almost a full month.
> It looks promising! (I'm knocking on all the wood everywhere, though.)
I'm ready to call this conclusive.  The problems I was having across the
board seemed to be caused by something seriously broken in 3.18.  Most
of my servers are now on 4.9.13 or newer and everything has been working
very well.

I'm not going to post any further updates unless something breaks.
Thanks to everyone that provided tips and suggestions along the way.

-- 
Kevin Stange
Chief Technology Officer
Steadfast | Managed Infrastructure, Datacenter and Cloud Services
800 S Wells, Suite 190 | Chicago, IL 60607
312.602.2689 X203 | Fax: 312.602.2688
kevin at steadfast.net | www.steadfast.net

On 03/16/2017 04:22 PM, Kevin Stange wrote:
>> I still can't rest assured the NIC issue is fixed, but no 4.4 or
4.9
>> server has yet had a NIC issue, with some being up almost a full month.
>> It looks promising! (I'm knocking on all the wood everywhere,
though.)
> 
> I'm ready to call this conclusive.  The problems I was having across
the
> board seemed to be caused by something seriously broken in 3.18.  Most
> of my servers are now on 4.9.13 or newer and everything has been working
> very well.
> 
> I'm not going to post any further updates unless something breaks.
> Thanks to everyone that provided tips and suggestions along the way.
> 
Do you mind sharing what hardware have you been running the 4.9 kernel on other
than "Supermicro X9DRT, Dual Xeon E5-2650, 2x I350, 2x 82571EB" and
"Supermicro X9DRD-iF/LF, Dual Xeon E5-2630, 2x I350, 2x 82575EB" if
any? Are you using any SATA/SAS controllers?

Thanks, Sarah