[libvirt-users] Windows Server 2008 - KVM

Fri May 20 13:32:44 UTC 2016

We run a bunch of windows guests on KVM.  Generally speaking, they don’t really “calm down” for some time after boot.  I haven’t really looked too deeply into the issue yet because it’s more of an annoyance than a problem for us, but I would wager it’s the search index building at boot every single time.   After running for about an hour, the guests idle almost as well as any other OS type.  

Of course, this is all just entirely anecdotal. 

-Daniel

> On May 20, 2016, at 9:07 AM, Thiago Oliveira <cpv.thiago at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi there!
> 
> Although the guest has 2GB memory, the windows guest was adjusted to support this.
> 
> I guess that the LVM is the best choice! I will save all images to other disk and re-build the partition with LVM. Do you recomend to use ext4 or zfs ?
> 
> - About the apparmor, I have my doubts, I will try to disable and see what will happen!
> - About the tablet input device, I removed! Some forums say that consuming idle cpu time.
> - About the guest agent, I have installed, but the first service can´t start! 
> The error says: A timeout was reached (30000 milliseconds) while waiting for the QEMU Guest Agent service to connect.
> 
> <image.png>
> 
> I´m using the virtio-win-0.1.117.iso, but I don´t know if this is updated.
> 
> Thanks for your reply and your help!
> 
> Thiago Oliveira
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 2016-05-20 8:31 GMT-03:00 Dominique Ramaekers <dominique.ramaekers at cometal.be>:
> Please check virtual memory usage in the guest. 2Gb memory is very low. I think your Windows guest is ‘swapping’ constantly. This combined with the less performant qcow format… Reading and writing to qcow takes up host cpu…
> 
>  
> 
> I don’t go under 3,5Gb for Windows Guests…
> 
>  
> 
> Tip: Take the time to learn LVM. Changing from an image file to LVM really pays off. I have a virtual host with RAID10 local storage. Changing to LVM gave me more than 25% performance boost.
> 
>  
> 
> For the rest, it seems ok.
> 
>  
> 
> Less important:
> 
> I have disabled apparmor security. This was done while using an older version of virsh and I had trouble with apparmor. I don’t know if apparmor has big performance influence.
> 
>  
> 
> Wasn’t there a tablet input device? Did you delete this device? I think it’s better to leave it. It has something to do with mouse usage in virt-viewer or vnc…
> 
>  
> 
> Install the guest agent on the guest and insert the needed XML-directives. It gives you more possibilities managing your guest like a backup with external snapshots.
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Van: Thiago Oliveira [mailto:cpv.thiago at gmail.com] 
> Verzonden: vrijdag 20 mei 2016 13:07
> Aan: Dominique Ramaekers
> CC: libvirt-users at redhat.com
> Onderwerp: Re: [libvirt-users] Windows Server 2008 - KVM
> 
>  
> 
> Hi there!
> 
>  
> 
> Sure......see below.
> 
>  
> 
> # virsh version
> 
> Compiled against library: libvirt 1.3.1
> 
> Using library: libvirt 1.3.1
> 
> Using API: QEMU 1.3.1
> 
> Running hypervisor: QEMU 2.5.0
> 
>  
> 
> # uname -a
> 
> Linux 4.4.0-22-generic #40-Ubuntu 16
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> <domain type='kvm' id='8'>
> 
>   <name>W2k8</name>
> 
>   <uuid>a148a0b7-eefb-9a5b-8e83-8efaf19f9899</uuid>
> 
>   <description>None</description>
> 
>   <memory unit='KiB'>2097152</memory>
> 
>   <currentMemory unit='KiB'>2097152</currentMemory>
> 
>   <vcpu placement='static'>2</vcpu>
> 
>   <resource>
> 
>     <partition>/machine</partition>
> 
>   </resource>
> 
>   <os>
> 
>     <type arch='x86_64' machine='pc-i440fx-trusty'>hvm</type>
> 
>     <boot dev='hd'/>
> 
>     <boot dev='cdrom'/>
> 
>     <bootmenu enable='yes'/>
> 
>   </os>
> 
>   <features>
> 
>     <acpi/>
> 
>     <apic/>
> 
>     <pae/>
> 
>   </features>
> 
>   <cpu mode='host-passthrough'>
> 
>     <topology sockets='1' cores='2' threads='1'/>
> 
>   </cpu>
> 
>   <clock offset='localtime'/>
> 
>   <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
> 
>   <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
> 
>   <on_crash>restart</on_crash>
> 
>   <devices>
> 
>     <emulator>/usr/bin/kvm-spice</emulator>
> 
>     <disk type='file' device='disk'>
> 
>       <driver name='qemu' type='qcow2' cache='none' io='native'/>
> 
>       <source file='/mnt/VM_SAS/w2k8.img'/>
> 
>       <backingStore/>
> 
>       <target dev='vda' bus='virtio'/>
> 
>       <alias name='virtio-disk0'/>
> 
>       <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x04' function='0x0'/>
> 
>     </disk>
> 
>     <disk type='file' device='disk'>
> 
>       <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/>
> 
>       <source file='/mnt/VM_SAS/second_HD.raw'/>
> 
>       <backingStore/>
> 
>       <target dev='vdb' bus='virtio'/>
> 
>       <alias name='virtio-disk1'/>
> 
>       <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x06' function='0x0'/>
> 
>     </disk>
> 
>     <disk type='file' device='cdrom'>
> 
>       <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/>
> 
>       <backingStore/>
> 
>       <target dev='hda' bus='ide' tray='open'/>
> 
>       <readonly/>
> 
>       <alias name='ide0-1-1'/>
> 
>       <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='1' target='0' unit='1'/>
> 
>     </disk>
> 
>     <controller type='pci' index='0' model='pci-root'>
> 
>       <alias name='pci.0'/>
> 
>     </controller>
> 
>     <controller type='ide' index='0'>
> 
>       <alias name='ide'/>
> 
>       <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x01' function='0x1'/>
> 
>     </controller>
> 
>     <controller type='usb' index='0'>
> 
>       <alias name='usb'/>
> 
>       <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x01' function='0x2'/>
> 
>     </controller>
> 
>     <interface type='network'>
> 
>       <mac address='52:54:00:c3:c9:f3'/>
> 
>       <source network='network_win' bridge='virbr0'/>
> 
>       <target dev='vnet1'/>
> 
>       <model type='virtio'/>
> 
>       <alias name='net0'/>
> 
>       <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x03' function='0x0'/>
> 
>     </interface>
> 
>     <serial type='pty'>
> 
>       <source path='/dev/pts/1'/>
> 
>       <target port='0'/>
> 
>       <alias name='serial0'/>
> 
>     </serial>
> 
>     <console type='pty' tty='/dev/pts/1'>
> 
>       <source path='/dev/pts/1'/>
> 
>       <target type='serial' port='0'/>
> 
>       <alias name='serial0'/>
> 
>     </console>
> 
>     <input type='mouse' bus='ps2'/>
> 
>     <input type='keyboard' bus='ps2'/>
> 
>     <graphics type='vnc' port='5901' autoport='yes' listen='0.0.0.0'>
> 
>       <listen type='address' address='0.0.0.0'/>
> 
>     </graphics>
> 
>     <video>
> 
>       <model type='cirrus' vram='16384' heads='1'/>
> 
>       <alias name='video0'/>
> 
>       <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x02' function='0x0'/>
> 
>     </video>
> 
>     <memballoon model='virtio'>
> 
>       <alias name='balloon0'/>
> 
>       <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x05' function='0x0'/>
> 
>     </memballoon>
> 
>   </devices>
> 
>   <seclabel type='dynamic' model='apparmor' relabel='yes'>
> 
>     <label>libvirt-a148a0b7-eefb-9a5b-8e83-8efaf19f9899</label>
> 
>     <imagelabel>libvirt-a148a0b7-eefb-9a5b-8e83-8efaf19f9899</imagelabel>
> 
>   </seclabel>
> 
> </domain>
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> 2016-05-20 3:57 GMT-03:00 Dominique Ramaekers <dominique.ramaekers at cometal.be>:
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Van: libvirt-users-bounces at redhat.com [mailto:libvirt-users-bounces at redhat.com] Namens Thiago Oliveira
> Verzonden: vrijdag 20 mei 2016 4:09
> Aan: libvirt-users at redhat.com
> Onderwerp: [libvirt-users] Windows Server 2008 - KVM
> 
>  
> 
> Hi folks!
> 
>  
> 
> When I start the Windows Server 2008 guest, the host cpu grown up the utilization and the host load average too. Are there some tips to use Windows Server with libvirt?
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Thiago
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Could you send the XML and the result of ‘virsh version’?
> 
>  
> 
> 
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