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

[Daniel P. Berrange]

On Fri, Apr 05, 2013 at 11:13:17AM +0200, Peter Krempa wrote:
> 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 2) qemuGetMaxVCPUs() is obsolete and doesn't report apropriate numbers.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.

Ok, that makes sense now.


Daniel
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