Xen users - Sep 2005 - xen2.0 stable periodic machine freeze

Hello,

I have a Dell PowerEdge 2850 that periodically (6 times in the last 24
hours) freezes, requiring a power cycle in order to come back.

The machine is running a Xen 2.0 stable source install.  Here is the
appropriate Grub entry:

title Xen 2.0 / XenLinux 2.6
kernel /boot/xen-2.0.gz dom0_mem=131072
module /boot/vmlinuz-2.6-xen0 root=/dev/sda1 ro console=tty0

Dom0 boots happily, and new domains are created without a problem. 
There isn''t anything in the logfiles indicating a problem after a
freeze, and the console simply displays the most recent setup and
teardown of domain networking, like so:

"port 2 (vif1.0) entering learning state
topology change detected, propagating
port 2 (vif1.0) entering fowarding state
device vif1.0 left promiscous mode
port 2 (vif1.0) entering disabled state
port 2 (vif1.0) entering disabled state
device vif1.0 entered promiscous mode
port 2 (vif1.0) entering learning state
topology change detected, propagating"

This machine is using the MegaRAID drivers for the disk controller,
which the archives suggested might have some problems.  Here is the
output of lspci in case some sharp eyes spot a hardware compatibility
problem:

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. Server Memory Controller Hub (rev 09)
0000:00:02.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. Memory Controller Hub PCI Express
Port A0 (rev 09)
0000:00:04.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. Memory Controller Hub PCI Express
Port B0 (rev 09)
0000:00:05.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. Memory Controller Hub PCI Express
Port B1 (rev 09)
0000:00:06.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. Memory Controller Hub PCI Express
Port C0 (rev 09)
0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB
UHCI #1 (rev 02)
0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB
UHCI #2 (rev 02)
0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB
UHCI #3 (rev 02)
0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB2
EHCI Controller (rev 02)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801 PCI Bridge (rev c2)
0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) LPC
Bridge (rev 02)0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER
(ICH5/ICH5R) Ultra ATA 100 Storage Controller (rev 02)
0000:01:00.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 80332 [Dobson] I/O processor (rev 06)
0000:01:00.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 80332 [Dobson] I/O processor (rev 06)
0000:02:0e.0 RAID bus controller: Dell PowerEdge Expandable RAID
controller 4 (rev 06)
0000:05:00.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. PCI Bridge Hub A (rev 09)
0000:05:00.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. PCI Bridge Hub B (rev 09)
0000:06:07.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82541GI/PI Gigabit
Ethernet Controller (rev 05)
0000:07:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82541GI/PI Gigabit
Ethernet Controller (rev 05)
0000:08:00.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. PCI Bridge Hub A (rev 09)
0000:08:00.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. PCI Bridge Hub B (rev 09)
0000:0b:05.0 ff00: Dell Remote Access Card 4 Daughter Card
0000:0b:05.1 ff00: Dell Remote Access Card 4 Daughter Card Virtual UART
0000:0b:05.2 ff00: Dell Remote Access Card 4 Daughter Card SMIC interface
0000:0b:06.0 IDE interface: Silicon Image, Inc. (formerly CMD
Technology Inc) PCI0680 Ultra ATA-133 Host Controller (rev 02)
0000:0b:0d.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon
RV100 QY [Radeon 7000/VE]


Thanks,

-- Douglas Hunter

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On Thursday 01 September 2005 16:17, Douglas Hunter
wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have a Dell PowerEdge 2850 that periodically (6 times in the last 24
> hours) freezes, requiring a power cycle in order to come back.
>
Similar problems with Dell hardware were reported recently,
I think the solution was to disable the USB Controller.

Look at the "Trying to build a stable XEN server" Thread from
2005-08-25 for
details...


HTH
/Ernst

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Douglas Hunter wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I have a Dell PowerEdge 2850 that periodically (6 times in the last 24
> hours) freezes, requiring a power cycle in order to come back.
> 
> The machine is running a Xen 2.0 stable source install.  Here is the
> appropriate Grub entry:
> 
> title Xen 2.0 / XenLinux 2.6
> kernel /boot/xen-2.0.gz dom0_mem=131072
> module /boot/vmlinuz-2.6-xen0 root=/dev/sda1 ro console=tty0

Hi Douglas,

Disable USB in your BIOS and all will be well. This is a known problem
with some Dell servers.

Hope this helps.



-- 

-Barry Flanagan

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On 9/1/05, Barry Flanagan <barryf-lists@flanagan.ie>
wrote:
> Douglas Hunter wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I have a Dell PowerEdge 2850 that periodically (6 times in the last 24
> > hours) freezes, requiring a power cycle in order to come back.
> >
> > The machine is running a Xen 2.0 stable source install.  Here is the
> > appropriate Grub entry:
> >
> > title Xen 2.0 / XenLinux 2.6
> > kernel /boot/xen-2.0.gz dom0_mem=131072
> > module /boot/vmlinuz-2.6-xen0 root=/dev/sda1 ro console=tty0
> 
> 
> Hi Douglas,
> 
> Disable USB in your BIOS and all will be well. This is a known problem
> with some Dell servers.
> 
> Hope this helps.
> 
> 
Thanks to everyone who responded.  I''ve disabled USB in the BIOS and
have been doing heavy IO on the box since.

Thanks again,

-- Douglas

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