Hello, I have about a dozen FreeBSD 8.4 VMs running on a pair of ESXi (5.0.0, build 469512) boxes. Generally, I have not had any problems with this configuration. However one particular VM, which is running the same kernel and same VMware settings as the other VMs has paniced twice in the past few months. I do not have a core dump, but both times a message regading the CD-ROM device was logged shortly before the panic: Sep 9 08:50:56 shellvm kernel: ata1: WARNING - READ_TOC read data overrun 18>12 Prior to the panic, the only thing Ive observed via my normal nagios checks was that snmp and other network services became unavailable and ping times to the host became very erratic, jumping from a few ms to 800ms+. After the panic, the VM is locked up hard and consuming copious amounts of CPU. Looking around I see two things of note: https://communities.vmware.com/message/1876880 (suggests it?s an issue with FreeBSDs CD-ROM handling) http://freebsd.1045724.n5.nabble.com/Re-kern-150186-parallels-panic-Parallels-Desktop-CDROM-disconnected-leads-to-panic-eventually-td4114484.html (also suggests CD issues) This thread also ends with Ivan Voras stating "I'd say it's 'well known' - at least the panic also happens on VMWare, and has been happening for many years. Ill try the suggested fix of completely removing the CD-ROM device (its currently in the device list, but is not connected), but Im curious if theres any reference Ive missed regarding known VMware issues and/or best practices. Ill be sure to grab a console screenshot if it happens again, I have little hope of getting a dump though, as it seems the whole IO system is locked up. Thanks, Charles -- Charles Sprickman NetEng/SysAdmin Bway.net - New York's Best Internet www.bway.net spork at bway.net - 212.982.9800 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 495 bytes Desc: Message signed with OpenPGP using GPGMail URL: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/attachments/20140909/d735b082/attachment.sig>
> On Sep 9, 2014, at 2:56 PM, Charles Sprickman <spork at bway.net> wrote: > > Hello, > > I have about a dozen FreeBSD 8.4 VMs running on a pair of ESXi > (5.0.0, build 469512) boxes. Generally, I have not had any problems > with this configuration. However one particular VM, which is > running the same kernel and same VMware settings as the other VMs > has paniced twice in the past few months. > > I do not have a core dump, but both times a message regading the > CD-ROM device was logged shortly before the panic: > > Sep 9 08:50:56 shellvm kernel: ata1: WARNING - READ_TOC read data > overrun 18>12 > > Prior to the panic, the only thing Ive observed via my normal nagios > checks was that snmp and other network services became unavailable > and ping times to the host became very erratic, jumping from a few > ms to 800ms+. After the panic, the VM is locked up hard and > consuming copious amounts of CPU. > > Looking around I see two things of note: > > https://communities.vmware.com/message/1876880 (suggests it?s an > issue with FreeBSDs CD-ROM handling) > > http://freebsd.1045724.n5.nabble.com/Re-kern-150186-parallels-panic-Parallels-Desktop-CDROM-disconnected-leads-to-panic-eventually-td4114484.html > (also suggests CD issues) >I dropped the CDROM as it's also caused a weird issues were sysinstall would not find any daN devices if both were present . This was only an issue when using sysinstall to jumpstart a box.> This thread also ends with Ivan Voras stating "I'd say it's 'well > known' - at least the panic also happens on VMWare, and has been > happening for many years. > > Ill try the suggested fix of completely removing the CD-ROM device > (its currently in the device list, but is not connected), but Im > curious if theres any reference Ive missed regarding known VMware > issues and/or best practices. Ill be sure to grab a console > screenshot if it happens again, I have little hope of getting a dump > though, as it seems the whole IO system is locked up. > > Thanks, > > Charles >Also try to set the event timer to acpi-fast or acpi-safe . It's a sysctl named something like kern.timecounter.choice . There is a buggy emulated hpet in some versions on esxi that kill the clock on FreeBSD and Linux . There is a kb on how to fix the issue dr Linux boxes circa 2011 . -- Mark saad | mark.saad at longcount.org> -- Charles Sprickman NetEng/SysAdmin Bway.net - New York's Best > Internet www.bway.net spork at bway.net - 212.982.9800 >
On 09 Sep 2014, at 18:56 , Charles Sprickman <spork at bway.net> wrote: Hi,> I have about a dozen FreeBSD 8.4 VMs running on a pair of ESXi > (5.0.0, build 469512) boxes. Generally, I have not had any problems > with this configuration. However one particular VM, which is > running the same kernel and same VMware settings as the other VMs > has paniced twice in the past few months. > > I do not have a core dump, but both times a message regading the > CD-ROM device was logged shortly before the panic: > > Sep 9 08:50:56 shellvm kernel: ata1: WARNING - READ_TOC read data > overrun 18>12I remember those from 2010. Not been running freebsd 8 in a long time. The best workaround I found back then was indeed to remove CDROM (and for that matter also did the floppy;-) as much as possible from VMware. I cannot remember if that was good enough to get entirely rid of it anymore ( I think some devices maybe floppy still showed up ) but I have never seen this after going to 9 and 10 certainly. ? Bjoern A. Zeeb "Come on. Learn, goddamn it.", WarGames, 1983