[libvirt] [PATCH] qemu: Remove maximum cpu limit when setting processor count using the API

[Peter Krempa]

On 04/05/13 10:37, Daniel P. Berrange wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 05, 2013 at 12:11:31AM +0200, Peter Krempa wrote:
>> When setting processor count for a domain using the API libvirt enforced
>> a maximum processor count, while it isn't enforced when taking the XML path.
>>
>> This patch removes the check to match the API.
>
> Do you mean  s/API/XML/ here ?

Indeed.

>
> I'm not sure whether removing this check is a good idea. Should we not
> instead make the guest startup code also validate max CPU count when
> generating the CLI args ?

Well, I don't think so. Adding the check to the CLI generator would 
introduce more problems than it would solve:

1) chicken and egg problem: we can't use the new QMP query-cpu-max 
command as we need a running qemu for this and in order to start a qemu 
you already need to provide the desired number of cpus:

$ qemu-system-x86_64 -smp 256 -M pc -S --monitor stdio
Unsupported number of maxcpus
$ qemu-system-x86_64 -smp 255 -M pc -S --monitor stdio
QEMU 1.4.50 monitor - type 'help' for more information
(qemu) info cpu_max
Maximum number of CPUs is 255
(qemu) quit
$

2) qemuGetMaxVCPUs() is obsolete and doesn't report apropriate numbers.
For non-kvm guests this would limit us to 16 cpus per guest and for kvm 
guests it depends if the kernel supports the KVM_CAP_MAX_VCPUS ioctl 
(introduced in linux-3.2) and reports a correct value or we return the 
recommended value of processors (KVM_CAP_NR_VCPUS ioctl) that is 
hardcoded to 160. If neither of the ioctls is supported, 4 will be 
returned as the maximum count (according to kernel docs).

qemuGetMaxVCPUs(virConnectPtr conn ATTRIBUTE_UNUSED, const char *type) {
     if (!type)
         return 16;

     if (STRCASEEQ(type, "qemu"))
         return 16;

     if (STRCASEEQ(type, "kvm"))
         return kvmGetMaxVCPUs();

     if (STRCASEEQ(type, "kqemu"))
         return 1;

...


I don't see a way how we could reliably determine the maximum for a 
guest before we start it and it doesn't make sense to start it to find 
out. I think we should just remove the check and let qemu handle the limit.

Peter