libvirt users - Jun 2014 - Re: data monitored by "virDomainBlockStats" API not consistent with ones reading from /proc/[pid]/io, and corrugated with /proc/diskstats

Just to clarify my problems:
For each KVM virtual machine, it is actually a process running on the host. 
The $pid in "/proc/$pid/io" represents the VM process’s PID. All my
work
is done on the host, not inside the VMs.  Take the VM process’s pid is “pid”, 
What the /proc/$pid/io records is io statistics of the VM from the host’s 
perspective. I understand that qemu might do some I/O coalescing kind of
work, but /proc/$pid/io reveals the actual IOs submitted to the host kernel.

For example, through “ps” command, i get the following info of one of my 
VMs: (the pid of the VM process is 4438)

qemu      4438     1  0 Jun24 ?        00:06:25 /usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64 ...

[unrelevant data fields are ignored]
Command line "virsh domblkstat $vmname vda” get the results below:
	vda rd_bytes 639415808
	vda wr_bytes 728186880

Command line "cat /proc/4438/io” get the result below:
	read_bytes: 772415488 
	write_bytes: 734040064

I execute the above two commands consecutively using “&&", but we
can
that the results vary a lot, especially for the read_bytes. 

Since libvirt virDomainBlockStats API reads data from qemu  i should ask
the qemu folks for the answers. Great thanks, anyway.



On Jun 25, 2014, at 3:45 AM, Eric Blake <eblake@redhat.com> wrote:
> On 06/24/2014 02:24 AM, coperd wrote:
> 
>> 
>> It is supposed that the VM’s disk “rd_bytes" and “wr_bytes"
should
> never exceed the value of the physical disk respectively, right ?
> 
> That's a question for the qemu folks.
> 
>> Doesn’t
>> libvirt virDomainBlockStats read disk information from “proc” ?
> 
> No, libvirt reads it from the qemu QMP command query-blockstats.  Beyond
> that, you'll have to investigate how qemu comes up with that number.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Eric Blake   eblake redhat com    +1-919-301-3266
> Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org
>

On 06/25/2014 05:11 AM, coperd wrote:

[please don't top-post on technical lists]
> Command line "virsh domblkstat $vmname vda” get the results below:
> 	vda rd_bytes 639415808
> 	vda wr_bytes 728186880
> 
> Command line "cat /proc/4438/io” get the result below:
> 	read_bytes: 772415488 
> 	write_bytes: 734040064
Bear in mind that for some file formats, such as qcow2, qemu must read
(and write) additional I/O to manage the metadata of the file in
comparison to the amount of read and writes performed on behalf of the
guest; the qemu numbers are reported from the guest perspective, not
what qemu asked the host kernel to do.  So seeing /proc/NN/io have
larger numbers than qemu makes total sense.

I'm still not clear how you are getting vcpu PID numbers for reading
from /proc; it's not something that libvirt is currently advertising.

-- 
Eric Blake   eblake redhat com    +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org

On Jun 26, 2014, at 2:50 AM, Eric Blake <eblake@redhat.com> wrote:
> I'm still not clear how you are getting vcpu PID numbers for reading
> from /proc; it's not something that libvirt is currently advertising.
I thought the VM process’s /proc statistics information is exactly the same 
as the guest’s behaviour. It turns out to be my misunderstanding.

Each vcpu is a thread of the VM process in qemu implementation, whose 
thread id can be obtained by the “-L” option of the “ps” command.  It seems 
that I don't mention the vcpu PID. I’m referring to the VM process’s
/proc/$pid.

If running a VM whose image file is located on the local disk, how can i 
calculate the disk bandwidth(the percentage, e.g. 40% disk) used by the VM?