Xen users - Jan 2008 - HP Proliant DL145g3, xen-3.1.0 and SVM

I''ve got a DL145g3 which is reporting svm support in /proc/cpuinfo:

processor       : 0
vendor_id       : AuthenticAMD
cpu family      : 15
model           : 65
model name      : Dual-Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 2214 HE
stepping        : 2
cpu MHz         : 2200.000
cache size      : 1024 KB
physical id     : 0
siblings        : 2
core id         : 0
cpu cores       : 2
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 1
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca 
cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt 
rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow pni cx16 lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy
bogomips        : 4392.83
TLB size        : 1024 4K pages
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management: ts fid vid ttp tm stc

but in "xm dmesg" i''m getting:

(XEN) AMD SVM Extension is disabled in BIOS.

I went through the trouble of commenting out the check in the xen kernel 
for the bios disable flag and basically lie to xen and it panics horribly 
on boot.

I''ve also flashed the bios to the latest version from the hp site as of
today and gone through it hunting for anything to do with virtualization, 
but can''t find an option there.  I''ve also had someone else
look for the
option and he failed to find it as well.

At this point have I conclusively determined that the problem lies in
HP''s
BIOS and not having anything to do with Xen?

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> (XEN) AMD SVM Extension is disabled in BIOS.
> 
> I went through the trouble of commenting out the check in the xen kernel
> for the bios disable flag and basically lie to xen and it panics
> horribly on boot.
As expected. You can''t paint a traffic light green and expect not to
crash ;)
> I''ve also flashed the bios to the latest version from the hp site
as of
> today and gone through it hunting for anything to do with
> virtualization, but can''t find an option there.  I''ve
also had someone
> else look for the option and he failed to find it as well.
> 
> At this point have I conclusively determined that the problem lies in
> HP''s BIOS and not having anything to do with Xen?
I don''t know how the bios of this particular proliant model is setup,
but
an all recent x86 platforms i''ve seen so long, there is the need of
turning
on svm (amd) or vmx (intel) at the bios. I''ve never had problems with
supermicro or tyan, but there have been discussions on the list which
generally shows that if there''s no bios option, there''s no
svm/vmx at all.

> 
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-users mailing list
> Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users

-- 
Stephan Seitz
Senior System Administrator

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97074 würzburg

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On Sat, 12 Jan 2008, Stephan Seitz wrote:
>> (XEN) AMD SVM Extension is disabled in BIOS.
>>
>> I went through the trouble of commenting out the check in the xen
kernel
>> for the bios disable flag and basically lie to xen and it panics
>> horribly on boot.
>
> As expected. You can''t paint a traffic light green and expect not
to crash ;)
>
>> I''ve also flashed the bios to the latest version from the hp
site as of
>> today and gone through it hunting for anything to do with
>> virtualization, but can''t find an option there.  I''ve
also had someone
>> else look for the option and he failed to find it as well.
>>
>> At this point have I conclusively determined that the problem lies in
>> HP''s BIOS and not having anything to do with Xen?
>
> I don''t know how the bios of this particular proliant model is
setup, but
> an all recent x86 platforms i''ve seen so long, there is the need
of turning
> on svm (amd) or vmx (intel) at the bios. I''ve never had problems
with
> supermicro or tyan, but there have been discussions on the list which
> generally shows that if there''s no bios option, there''s
no svm/vmx at all.
There were some previous discussions I found which seemed to be claiming 
that SVM always worked and that you didn''t need a BIOS option and that
if
it showed up /proc/cpuinfo it should just work.  Hence, my test of 
painting the traffic light green to see if the cars would just magically 
avoid each other or not...

Clearly, for both SVM and VMX the BIOS needs to support HVM and there 
should be a switch in the BIOS to enable/disable it.  And the DL145g3 BIOS 
does not support SVM/HVM at this time.

I''ve got a request into our vendor to pester HP about this issue and
try
to see if HP might have an internal beta BIOS which enables SVM...

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official word from hp is that "hp has intentially left amd-v disabled 
on the dl145 in order to maintain its status as a low-end system". 
apparently, the dl145g5 will have amd-v enabled in the future.

however, in other words some marketing VP at HP made a decision that if 
you really want HVM you can''t buy a dl145 and have to spend more on a 
dl3xx.  there''s not lot of reason for it -- i can understand not having
the backup BIOS and online flash and other ''enterprise''
features on the
dl145 since that really translates to cost savings -- but they''re just 
disabling the bit in the BIOS and not letting you have HVM...

i don''t understand the suicidal behavior of marketing departments. 
i''m
really not that dumb and can see right though this.

at least HP does this much less often than Dell does...


On Mon, 14 Jan 2008, Lamont Granquist wrote:
> On Sat, 12 Jan 2008, Stephan Seitz wrote:
>>> (XEN) AMD SVM Extension is disabled in BIOS.
>>> 
>>> I went through the trouble of commenting out the check in the xen
kernel
>>> for the bios disable flag and basically lie to xen and it panics
>>> horribly on boot.
>> 
>> As expected. You can''t paint a traffic light green and expect
not to crash
>> ;)
>> 
>>> I''ve also flashed the bios to the latest version from the
hp site as of
>>> today and gone through it hunting for anything to do with
>>> virtualization, but can''t find an option there. 
I''ve also had someone
>>> else look for the option and he failed to find it as well.
>>> 
>>> At this point have I conclusively determined that the problem lies
in
>>> HP''s BIOS and not having anything to do with Xen?
>> 
>> I don''t know how the bios of this particular proliant model is
setup, but
>> an all recent x86 platforms i''ve seen so long, there is the
need of
>> turning
>> on svm (amd) or vmx (intel) at the bios. I''ve never had
problems with
>> supermicro or tyan, but there have been discussions on the list which
>> generally shows that if there''s no bios option,
there''s no svm/vmx at all.
>
> There were some previous discussions I found which seemed to be claiming
that
> SVM always worked and that you didn''t need a BIOS option and that
if it
> showed up /proc/cpuinfo it should just work.  Hence, my test of painting
the
> traffic light green to see if the cars would just magically avoid each
other
> or not...
>
> Clearly, for both SVM and VMX the BIOS needs to support HVM and there
should
> be a switch in the BIOS to enable/disable it.  And the DL145g3 BIOS does
not
> support SVM/HVM at this time.
>
> I''ve got a request into our vendor to pester HP about this issue
and try to
> see if HP might have an internal beta BIOS which enables SVM...
>
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-users mailing list
> Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
>
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