James Roman
2008-Aug-11  15:31 UTC
[Xen-users] tap interface shuts down for unknown reasons
One of our guest servers has recently begun to disappear from the 
network after working properly for various periods of time. It seems 
that for some reason the tap interface for the guest domain disables 
itself. I have recently changed our network setup, but I am not sure 
that it is related.
Our current network configuration assigns a eth0 to Dom0. The guest 
domains use two bonded NICs (eth2 and eth3) which are bonded together 
(mode 4 across a Cisco channel group) into bond0. The guest domains 
bridge to bond0. eth0 and bond0 connect to two different VLANs. I have 
NOT configured trunking across any interface.
When the guests are started they are accessible by the network. After a 
period of time one of the guest domains (win2k3) disappears. I have two 
guest domains running (1 win2k3 and 1 Centos Linux), and it seems to 
only affect the windows guest. The event log on the guest server shows 
nothing unusual (in fact it appears to be functioning normally based on 
CPU and memory usage via xm list.)  The message log on Dom0 shows the 
following:
    Aug 11 10:08:00 vs-001 kernel: xenbr0: port 3(tap1) entering
    disabled state
    Aug 11 10:08:00 vs-001 kernel: device tap1 left promiscuous mode
    Aug 11 10:08:00 vs-001 kernel: xenbr0: port 3(tap1) entering
    disabled state
    Aug 11 10:08:00 vs-001 avahi-daemon[4269]: Interface tap1.IPv6 no
    longer relevant for mDNS.
    Aug 11 10:08:00 vs-001 avahi-daemon[4269]: Leaving mDNS multicast
    group on interface tap1.IPv6 with address fe80::60a5:51ff:feb5:bf10.
    Aug 11 10:08:00 vs-001 avahi-daemon[4269]: Withdrawing address
    record for fe80::60a5:51ff:feb5:bf10 on tap1.
ifconfig on Dom0 no longer lists tap1 (which is associated with the 
windows guest). Not knowing how to manually rebuild the interface, the 
only method I can find to restore contact to the guest domain is to 
destroy it and bring it back up. Dom0 message log shows the following 
and the guest domain is once again accessible via network and via VNC 
console port.
    Aug 11 10:32:26 vs-001 kernel: xenbr0: port 6(vif5.0) entering
    disabled state
    Aug 11 10:32:26 vs-001 kernel: device vif5.0 left promiscuous mode
    Aug 11 10:32:26 vs-001 kernel: xenbr0: port 6(vif5.0) entering
    disabled state
    Aug 11 10:32:29 vs-001 kernel: device tap1 entered promiscuous mode
    Aug 11 10:32:29 vs-001 kernel: xenbr0: port 3(tap1) entering
    learning state
    Aug 11 10:32:29 vs-001 kernel: xenbr0: topology change detected,
    propagating
    Aug 11 10:32:29 vs-001 kernel: xenbr0: port 3(tap1) entering
    forwarding state
    Aug 11 10:32:30 vs-001 kernel: device vif6.0 entered promiscuous mode
    Aug 11 10:32:30 vs-001 kernel: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): vif6.0: link is
    not ready
    Aug 11 10:32:31 vs-001 avahi-daemon[4269]: New relevant interface
    tap1.IPv6 for mDNS.
    Aug 11 10:32:31 vs-001 avahi-daemon[4269]: Joining mDNS multicast
    group on interface tap1.IPv6 with address fe80::20e8:6ff:fe68:45ca.
    Aug 11 10:32:31 vs-001 avahi-daemon[4269]: Registering new address
    record for fe80::20e8:6ff:fe68:45ca on tap1.
First, is there any way to manually rebuild the tap interface when it 
goes down, so that I don''t have to destroy the guest domain?
Second, is there any way to determine why the tap interface for that 
guest keeps going down? Is there a fundamental problem with the current 
network configuartion that is causing this anomaly?
Vitals:
Dom0 Centos 5.2
xen-3.0.3-64.el5_2.1
-- 
James D. Roman
Sr. Network Administrator
Science Systems and Application, Inc.
Phone: 301-867-2101
_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users