Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 1/1] blk: do not select PFLASH device for internal snapshot

2016-01-13 Thread Laszlo Ersek
On 01/13/16 12:11, Denis V. Lunev wrote:
> On 01/13/2016 01:37 PM, Laszlo Ersek wrote:
>> meta comment here:
>>
>> On 01/12/16 16:47, Denis V. Lunev wrote:
>>
>>> P.S. Here is a summary that my colleague has receiver from libvirt
>>> list.
>>>
>>>  Forwarded Message 
>>> Subject: Re: Snapshotting OVMF guests
>>> Date: Mon, 11 Jan 2016 13:56:29 +0100
>>> From: Laszlo Ersek 
>>> To: Dmitry Andreev 
>>> CC: Michal Privoznik , Markus Armbruster
>>> 
>>>
>>> Hello Dmitry,
>>>
>>> [...]
>> Your colleague Dmitry did not receive this from the libvirt list. He
>> received the from me in private. See the headers above.
>>
>> Please do not publicize a private exchange without asking for permission
>> first.
>>
>> In the present case I don't mind it. I stand by everything I said, and I
>> would have written mostly the same if I had been contacted publicly,
>> on-list.
>>
>> But if you contact me in private *first*, then I expect the discussion
>> to remain private. If you want to forward the email to a public list,
>> please ask for permission. Otherwise I might consider it more prudent
>> for myself to answer all private queries with just "please ask me this
>> on the list instead".
>>
>> I appreciate that you guys are working on this, but let's handle emails
>> sensibly.
>>
>> Thanks
>> Laszlo
>>
> Sorry :( I have not properly checked the message :(
> 
> I am guilty..

No prob, it's just that I've burned myself a few times before, hence
I've grown to double check the address list when receiving & sending email.

"List address not present" implies "other guy wants it to be private" to
me. :)

Cheers
Laszlo



Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 1/1] blk: do not select PFLASH device for internal snapshot

2016-01-13 Thread Denis V. Lunev

On 01/13/2016 01:37 PM, Laszlo Ersek wrote:

meta comment here:

On 01/12/16 16:47, Denis V. Lunev wrote:


P.S. Here is a summary that my colleague has receiver from libvirt
list.

 Forwarded Message 
Subject: Re: Snapshotting OVMF guests
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 2016 13:56:29 +0100
From: Laszlo Ersek 
To: Dmitry Andreev 
CC: Michal Privoznik , Markus Armbruster


Hello Dmitry,

[...]

Your colleague Dmitry did not receive this from the libvirt list. He
received the from me in private. See the headers above.

Please do not publicize a private exchange without asking for permission
first.

In the present case I don't mind it. I stand by everything I said, and I
would have written mostly the same if I had been contacted publicly,
on-list.

But if you contact me in private *first*, then I expect the discussion
to remain private. If you want to forward the email to a public list,
please ask for permission. Otherwise I might consider it more prudent
for myself to answer all private queries with just "please ask me this
on the list instead".

I appreciate that you guys are working on this, but let's handle emails
sensibly.

Thanks
Laszlo


Sorry :( I have not properly checked the message :(

I am guilty..

Den



Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 1/1] blk: do not select PFLASH device for internal snapshot

2016-01-13 Thread Laszlo Ersek
On 01/12/16 18:40, Markus Armbruster wrote:
> Kevin Wolf  writes:
> 
>> Am 12.01.2016 um 17:35 hat Denis V. Lunev geschrieben:
>>> On 01/12/2016 06:47 PM, Denis V. Lunev wrote:
 On 01/12/2016 06:20 PM, Kevin Wolf wrote:
> Am 12.01.2016 um 15:59 hat Paolo Bonzini geschrieben:
>>
>> On 12/01/2016 15:16, Kevin Wolf wrote:
 Thus we should avoid selection of "pflash" drives for VM
 state saving.

 For now "pflash" is read-write raw image as it configured by libvirt.
 Thus there are no such images in the field and we could
 safely disable
 ability to save state to those images inside QEMU.
>>> This is obviously broken. If you write to the pflash, then it needs to
>>> be snapshotted in order to keep a consistent state.
>>>
>>> If you want to avoid snapshotting the image, make it read-only and it
>>> will be skipped even today.
>> Sort of.  The point of having flash is to _not_ make it read-only, so
>> that is not a solution.
>>
>> Flash is already being snapshotted as part of saving RAM state.  In
>> fact, for this reason the device (at least the one used with OVMF; I
>> haven't checked other pflash devices) can simply save it back to disk
>> on the migration destination, without the need to use "migrate -b" or
>> shared storage.
>> [...]
>> I don't like very much using IF_PFLASH this way, which is why I hadn't
>> replied to the patch so far---I hadn't made up my mind about *what* to
>> suggest instead, or whether to just accept it.  However, it does work.
>>
>> Perhaps a separate "I know what I am doing" skip-snapshot option?  Or
>> a device callback saying "not snapshotting this is fine"?
> Boy, is this ugly...
>
> What do you do with disk-only snapshots? The recovery only works as long
> as you have VM state.
>
> Kevin
 actually I am in a bit of trouble :(

 I understand that this is ugly, but I would like to make working
 'virsh snapshot' for OVFM VMs. This is necessary for us to make
 a release.

 Currently libvirt guys generate XML in the following way:

  
hvm
>>> type='pflash'>/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd
 /var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd
  

 This results in:

 qemu -drive 
 file=/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=0,readonly=on
 \
 -drive 
 file=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=1

 This obviously can not pass check in bdrv_all_can_snapshot()
 as 'pflash' is RW and raw, i.e. can not be snapshoted.

 They have discussed the switch to the following command line:

 qemu -drive 
 file=/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=0,readonly=on
 \
 -drive 
 file=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd.qcow2,if=pflash,format=qcow2,unit=1

 and say that in this case VM state could fall into PFLASH
 drive which is should not be big as the location of the
 file is different. This means that I am doomed here.

 Either we should force libvirt people to forget about their
 opinion that pflash should be small which I am unable to
 do or I should invent a way to ban VM state saving into
 pflash.

 OK. There are 2 options.

 1) Ban pflash as it was done.
 2) Add 'no-vmstate' flag to -drive (invented just now).

>>> something like this:
>>>
>>> diff --git a/block.c b/block.c
>>> index 3e1877d..8900589 100644
>>> --- a/block.c
>>> +++ b/block.c
>>> @@ -881,6 +881,11 @@ static QemuOptsList bdrv_runtime_opts = {
>>>  .help = "Block driver to use for the node",
>>>  },
>>>  {
>>> +.name = "novmstate",
>>> +.type = QEMU_OPT_BOOL,
>>> +.help = "Ignore for selecting to save VM state",
>>> +},
>>> +{
>>>  .name = BDRV_OPT_CACHE_WB,
>>>  .type = QEMU_OPT_BOOL,
>>>  .help = "Enable writeback mode",
>>> @@ -957,6 +962,7 @@ static int bdrv_open_common(BlockDriverState
>>> *bs, BdrvChild *file,
>>>  bs->request_alignment = 512;
>>>  bs->zero_beyond_eof = true;
>>>  bs->read_only = !(bs->open_flags & BDRV_O_RDWR);
>>> +bs->disable_vmstate_save = qemu_opt_get_bool(opts, "novmstate", false);
>>>
>>>  if (use_bdrv_whitelist && !bdrv_is_whitelisted(drv, bs->read_only)) {
>>>  error_setg(errp,
>>> diff --git a/block/snapshot.c b/block/snapshot.c
>>> index 2d86b88..33cdd86 100644
>>> --- a/block/snapshot.c
>>> +++ b/block/snapshot.c
>>> @@ -483,6 +483,10 @@ BlockDriverState *bdrv_all_find_vmstate_bs(void)
>>>  while (not_found && (bs = bdrv_next(bs))) {
>>>  AioContext *ctx = bdrv_get_aio_context(bs);
>>>
>>> +if (bs->disable_vmstate_save) {
>>> +continue;
>>> +}
>>> +
>>>  aio_context_acqui

Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 1/1] blk: do not select PFLASH device for internal snapshot

2016-01-13 Thread Laszlo Ersek
On 01/12/16 18:50, Kevin Wolf wrote:
> Am 12.01.2016 um 18:40 hat Markus Armbruster geschrieben:
>> Kevin Wolf  writes:
>>
>>> Am 12.01.2016 um 17:35 hat Denis V. Lunev geschrieben:
 On 01/12/2016 06:47 PM, Denis V. Lunev wrote:
> On 01/12/2016 06:20 PM, Kevin Wolf wrote:
>> Am 12.01.2016 um 15:59 hat Paolo Bonzini geschrieben:
>>>
>>> On 12/01/2016 15:16, Kevin Wolf wrote:
> Thus we should avoid selection of "pflash" drives for VM
> state saving.
>
> For now "pflash" is read-write raw image as it configured by libvirt.
> Thus there are no such images in the field and we could
> safely disable
> ability to save state to those images inside QEMU.
 This is obviously broken. If you write to the pflash, then it needs to
 be snapshotted in order to keep a consistent state.

 If you want to avoid snapshotting the image, make it read-only and it
 will be skipped even today.
>>> Sort of.  The point of having flash is to _not_ make it read-only, so
>>> that is not a solution.
>>>
>>> Flash is already being snapshotted as part of saving RAM state.  In
>>> fact, for this reason the device (at least the one used with OVMF; I
>>> haven't checked other pflash devices) can simply save it back to disk
>>> on the migration destination, without the need to use "migrate -b" or
>>> shared storage.
>>> [...]
>>> I don't like very much using IF_PFLASH this way, which is why I hadn't
>>> replied to the patch so far---I hadn't made up my mind about *what* to
>>> suggest instead, or whether to just accept it.  However, it does work.
>>>
>>> Perhaps a separate "I know what I am doing" skip-snapshot option?  Or
>>> a device callback saying "not snapshotting this is fine"?
>> Boy, is this ugly...
>>
>> What do you do with disk-only snapshots? The recovery only works as long
>> as you have VM state.
>>
>> Kevin
> actually I am in a bit of trouble :(
>
> I understand that this is ugly, but I would like to make working
> 'virsh snapshot' for OVFM VMs. This is necessary for us to make
> a release.
>
> Currently libvirt guys generate XML in the following way:
>
>  
>hvm
> type='pflash'>/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd
> /var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd
>  
>
> This results in:
>
> qemu -drive 
> file=/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=0,readonly=on
> \
> -drive 
> file=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=1
>
> This obviously can not pass check in bdrv_all_can_snapshot()
> as 'pflash' is RW and raw, i.e. can not be snapshoted.
>
> They have discussed the switch to the following command line:
>
> qemu -drive 
> file=/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=0,readonly=on
> \
> -drive 
> file=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd.qcow2,if=pflash,format=qcow2,unit=1
>
> and say that in this case VM state could fall into PFLASH
> drive which is should not be big as the location of the
> file is different. This means that I am doomed here.
>
> Either we should force libvirt people to forget about their
> opinion that pflash should be small which I am unable to
> do or I should invent a way to ban VM state saving into
> pflash.
>
> OK. There are 2 options.
>
> 1) Ban pflash as it was done.
> 2) Add 'no-vmstate' flag to -drive (invented just now).
>
 something like this:

 diff --git a/block.c b/block.c
 index 3e1877d..8900589 100644
 --- a/block.c
 +++ b/block.c
 @@ -881,6 +881,11 @@ static QemuOptsList bdrv_runtime_opts = {
  .help = "Block driver to use for the node",
  },
  {
 +.name = "novmstate",
 +.type = QEMU_OPT_BOOL,
 +.help = "Ignore for selecting to save VM state",
 +},
 +{
  .name = BDRV_OPT_CACHE_WB,
  .type = QEMU_OPT_BOOL,
  .help = "Enable writeback mode",
 @@ -957,6 +962,7 @@ static int bdrv_open_common(BlockDriverState
 *bs, BdrvChild *file,
  bs->request_alignment = 512;
  bs->zero_beyond_eof = true;
  bs->read_only = !(bs->open_flags & BDRV_O_RDWR);
 +bs->disable_vmstate_save = qemu_opt_get_bool(opts, "novmstate", 
 false);

  if (use_bdrv_whitelist && !bdrv_is_whitelisted(drv, bs->read_only)) {
  error_setg(errp,
 diff --git a/block/snapshot.c b/block/snapshot.c
 index 2d86b88..33cdd86 100644
 --- a/block/snapshot.c
 +++ b/block/snapshot.c
 @@ -483,6 +483,10 @@ BlockDriverState *bdrv_all_find_vmstate_bs(void)
  while (not_found && (bs = bdrv_next(bs))) {

Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 1/1] blk: do not select PFLASH device for internal snapshot

2016-01-13 Thread Laszlo Ersek
meta comment here:

On 01/12/16 16:47, Denis V. Lunev wrote:

> P.S. Here is a summary that my colleague has receiver from libvirt
>list.
> 
>  Forwarded Message 
> Subject: Re: Snapshotting OVMF guests
> Date: Mon, 11 Jan 2016 13:56:29 +0100
> From: Laszlo Ersek 
> To: Dmitry Andreev 
> CC: Michal Privoznik , Markus Armbruster
> 
> 
> Hello Dmitry,
> 
> [...]

Your colleague Dmitry did not receive this from the libvirt list. He
received the from me in private. See the headers above.

Please do not publicize a private exchange without asking for permission
first.

In the present case I don't mind it. I stand by everything I said, and I
would have written mostly the same if I had been contacted publicly,
on-list.

But if you contact me in private *first*, then I expect the discussion
to remain private. If you want to forward the email to a public list,
please ask for permission. Otherwise I might consider it more prudent
for myself to answer all private queries with just "please ask me this
on the list instead".

I appreciate that you guys are working on this, but let's handle emails
sensibly.

Thanks
Laszlo




Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 1/1] blk: do not select PFLASH device for internal snapshot

2016-01-13 Thread Markus Armbruster
Kevin Wolf  writes:

> Am 12.01.2016 um 18:40 hat Markus Armbruster geschrieben:
>> Kevin Wolf  writes:
>> 
>> > Am 12.01.2016 um 17:35 hat Denis V. Lunev geschrieben:
>> >> On 01/12/2016 06:47 PM, Denis V. Lunev wrote:
>> >> >On 01/12/2016 06:20 PM, Kevin Wolf wrote:
>> >> >>Am 12.01.2016 um 15:59 hat Paolo Bonzini geschrieben:
>> >> >>>
>> >> >>>On 12/01/2016 15:16, Kevin Wolf wrote:
>> >> >Thus we should avoid selection of "pflash" drives for VM
>> >> >state saving.
>> >> >
>> >> >For now "pflash" is read-write raw image as it configured by libvirt.
>> >> >Thus there are no such images in the field and we could
>> >> >safely disable
>> >> >ability to save state to those images inside QEMU.
>> >> This is obviously broken. If you write to the pflash, then it needs to
>> >> be snapshotted in order to keep a consistent state.
>> >> 
>> >> If you want to avoid snapshotting the image, make it read-only and it
>> >> will be skipped even today.
>> >> >>>Sort of.  The point of having flash is to _not_ make it read-only, so
>> >> >>>that is not a solution.
>> >> >>>
>> >> >>>Flash is already being snapshotted as part of saving RAM state.  In
>> >> >>>fact, for this reason the device (at least the one used with OVMF; I
>> >> >>>haven't checked other pflash devices) can simply save it back to disk
>> >> >>>on the migration destination, without the need to use "migrate -b" or
>> >> >>>shared storage.
>> >> >>>[...]
>> >> >>>I don't like very much using IF_PFLASH this way, which is why I hadn't
>> >> >>>replied to the patch so far---I hadn't made up my mind about *what* to
>> >> >>>suggest instead, or whether to just accept it.  However, it does work.
>> >> >>>
>> >> >>>Perhaps a separate "I know what I am doing" skip-snapshot option?  Or
>> >> >>>a device callback saying "not snapshotting this is fine"?
>> >> >>Boy, is this ugly...
>> >> >>
>> >> >>What do you do with disk-only snapshots? The recovery only works as long
>> >> >>as you have VM state.
>> >> >>
>> >> >>Kevin
>> >> >actually I am in a bit of trouble :(
>> >> >
>> >> >I understand that this is ugly, but I would like to make working
>> >> >'virsh snapshot' for OVFM VMs. This is necessary for us to make
>> >> >a release.
>> >> >
>> >> >Currently libvirt guys generate XML in the following way:
>> >> >
>> >> >  
>> >> >hvm
>> >> >> >> >type='pflash'>/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd
>> >> >/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd
>> >> >  
>> >> >
>> >> >This results in:
>> >> >
>> >> >qemu -drive 
>> >> >file=/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=0,readonly=on
>> >> >\
>> >> > -drive 
>> >> > file=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=1
>> >> >
>> >> >This obviously can not pass check in bdrv_all_can_snapshot()
>> >> >as 'pflash' is RW and raw, i.e. can not be snapshoted.
>> >> >
>> >> >They have discussed the switch to the following command line:
>> >> >
>> >> >qemu -drive 
>> >> >file=/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=0,readonly=on
>> >> >\
>> >> > -drive 
>> >> > file=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd.qcow2,if=pflash,format=qcow2,unit=1
>> >> >
>> >> >and say that in this case VM state could fall into PFLASH
>> >> >drive which is should not be big as the location of the
>> >> >file is different. This means that I am doomed here.
>> >> >
>> >> >Either we should force libvirt people to forget about their
>> >> >opinion that pflash should be small which I am unable to
>> >> >do or I should invent a way to ban VM state saving into
>> >> >pflash.
>> >> >
>> >> >OK. There are 2 options.
>> >> >
>> >> >1) Ban pflash as it was done.
>> >> >2) Add 'no-vmstate' flag to -drive (invented just now).
>> >> >
>> >> something like this:
>> >> 
>> >> diff --git a/block.c b/block.c
>> >> index 3e1877d..8900589 100644
>> >> --- a/block.c
>> >> +++ b/block.c
>> >> @@ -881,6 +881,11 @@ static QemuOptsList bdrv_runtime_opts = {
>> >>  .help = "Block driver to use for the node",
>> >>  },
>> >>  {
>> >> +.name = "novmstate",
>> >> +.type = QEMU_OPT_BOOL,
>> >> +.help = "Ignore for selecting to save VM state",
>> >> +},
>> >> +{
>> >>  .name = BDRV_OPT_CACHE_WB,
>> >>  .type = QEMU_OPT_BOOL,
>> >>  .help = "Enable writeback mode",
>> >> @@ -957,6 +962,7 @@ static int bdrv_open_common(BlockDriverState
>> >> *bs, BdrvChild *file,
>> >>  bs->request_alignment = 512;
>> >>  bs->zero_beyond_eof = true;
>> >>  bs->read_only = !(bs->open_flags & BDRV_O_RDWR);
>> >> +bs->disable_vmstate_save = qemu_opt_get_bool(opts, "novmstate", 
>> >> false);
>> >> 
>> >>  if (use_bdrv_whitelist && !bdrv_is_whitelisted(drv, bs->read_only)) {
>> >>  error_setg(errp,
>> >> diff --git a/block/snapshot.c b/block/snapshot.c
>> >> index 2d86b88..33cdd86 100644
>> >> --- a/block/snapshot.c
>> >> +++ b/block/snapshot.c

Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 1/1] blk: do not select PFLASH device for internal snapshot

2016-01-12 Thread Denis V. Lunev

On 01/12/2016 08:50 PM, Kevin Wolf wrote:

Am 12.01.2016 um 18:40 hat Markus Armbruster geschrieben:

Kevin Wolf  writes:


Am 12.01.2016 um 17:35 hat Denis V. Lunev geschrieben:

On 01/12/2016 06:47 PM, Denis V. Lunev wrote:

On 01/12/2016 06:20 PM, Kevin Wolf wrote:

Am 12.01.2016 um 15:59 hat Paolo Bonzini geschrieben:

On 12/01/2016 15:16, Kevin Wolf wrote:

Thus we should avoid selection of "pflash" drives for VM
state saving.

For now "pflash" is read-write raw image as it configured by libvirt.
Thus there are no such images in the field and we could
safely disable
ability to save state to those images inside QEMU.

This is obviously broken. If you write to the pflash, then it needs to
be snapshotted in order to keep a consistent state.

If you want to avoid snapshotting the image, make it read-only and it
will be skipped even today.

Sort of.  The point of having flash is to _not_ make it read-only, so
that is not a solution.

Flash is already being snapshotted as part of saving RAM state.  In
fact, for this reason the device (at least the one used with OVMF; I
haven't checked other pflash devices) can simply save it back to disk
on the migration destination, without the need to use "migrate -b" or
shared storage.
[...]
I don't like very much using IF_PFLASH this way, which is why I hadn't
replied to the patch so far---I hadn't made up my mind about *what* to
suggest instead, or whether to just accept it.  However, it does work.

Perhaps a separate "I know what I am doing" skip-snapshot option?  Or
a device callback saying "not snapshotting this is fine"?

Boy, is this ugly...

What do you do with disk-only snapshots? The recovery only works as long
as you have VM state.

Kevin

actually I am in a bit of trouble :(

I understand that this is ugly, but I would like to make working
'virsh snapshot' for OVFM VMs. This is necessary for us to make
a release.

Currently libvirt guys generate XML in the following way:

  
hvm
/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd
/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd
  

This results in:

qemu -drive 
file=/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=0,readonly=on
\
 -drive 
file=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=1

This obviously can not pass check in bdrv_all_can_snapshot()
as 'pflash' is RW and raw, i.e. can not be snapshoted.

They have discussed the switch to the following command line:

qemu -drive 
file=/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=0,readonly=on
\
 -drive 
file=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd.qcow2,if=pflash,format=qcow2,unit=1

and say that in this case VM state could fall into PFLASH
drive which is should not be big as the location of the
file is different. This means that I am doomed here.

Either we should force libvirt people to forget about their
opinion that pflash should be small which I am unable to
do or I should invent a way to ban VM state saving into
pflash.

OK. There are 2 options.

1) Ban pflash as it was done.
2) Add 'no-vmstate' flag to -drive (invented just now).


something like this:

diff --git a/block.c b/block.c
index 3e1877d..8900589 100644
--- a/block.c
+++ b/block.c
@@ -881,6 +881,11 @@ static QemuOptsList bdrv_runtime_opts = {
  .help = "Block driver to use for the node",
  },
  {
+.name = "novmstate",
+.type = QEMU_OPT_BOOL,
+.help = "Ignore for selecting to save VM state",
+},
+{
  .name = BDRV_OPT_CACHE_WB,
  .type = QEMU_OPT_BOOL,
  .help = "Enable writeback mode",
@@ -957,6 +962,7 @@ static int bdrv_open_common(BlockDriverState
*bs, BdrvChild *file,
  bs->request_alignment = 512;
  bs->zero_beyond_eof = true;
  bs->read_only = !(bs->open_flags & BDRV_O_RDWR);
+bs->disable_vmstate_save = qemu_opt_get_bool(opts, "novmstate", false);

  if (use_bdrv_whitelist && !bdrv_is_whitelisted(drv, bs->read_only)) {
  error_setg(errp,
diff --git a/block/snapshot.c b/block/snapshot.c
index 2d86b88..33cdd86 100644
--- a/block/snapshot.c
+++ b/block/snapshot.c
@@ -483,6 +483,10 @@ BlockDriverState *bdrv_all_find_vmstate_bs(void)
  while (not_found && (bs = bdrv_next(bs))) {
  AioContext *ctx = bdrv_get_aio_context(bs);

+if (bs->disable_vmstate_save) {
+continue;
+}
+
  aio_context_acquire(ctx);
  not_found = !bdrv_can_snapshot(bs);
  aio_context_release(ctx);
diff --git a/include/block/block_int.h b/include/block/block_int.h
index 256609d..855a209 100644
--- a/include/block/block_int.h
+++ b/include/block/block_int.h
@@ -438,6 +438,9 @@ struct BlockDriverState {
  /* do we need to tell the quest if we have a volatile write cache? */
  int enable_write_cache;

+/* skip this BDS searching for one to save VM state */
+bool disable_vmstate_save;
+
  /* the following member gives a name to every node on the bs graph. */
 

Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 1/1] blk: do not select PFLASH device for internal snapshot

2016-01-12 Thread Denis V. Lunev

On 01/12/2016 08:40 PM, Markus Armbruster wrote:

Kevin Wolf  writes:


Am 12.01.2016 um 17:35 hat Denis V. Lunev geschrieben:

On 01/12/2016 06:47 PM, Denis V. Lunev wrote:

On 01/12/2016 06:20 PM, Kevin Wolf wrote:

Am 12.01.2016 um 15:59 hat Paolo Bonzini geschrieben:

On 12/01/2016 15:16, Kevin Wolf wrote:

Thus we should avoid selection of "pflash" drives for VM
state saving.

For now "pflash" is read-write raw image as it configured by libvirt.
Thus there are no such images in the field and we could
safely disable
ability to save state to those images inside QEMU.

This is obviously broken. If you write to the pflash, then it needs to
be snapshotted in order to keep a consistent state.

If you want to avoid snapshotting the image, make it read-only and it
will be skipped even today.

Sort of.  The point of having flash is to _not_ make it read-only, so
that is not a solution.

Flash is already being snapshotted as part of saving RAM state.  In
fact, for this reason the device (at least the one used with OVMF; I
haven't checked other pflash devices) can simply save it back to disk
on the migration destination, without the need to use "migrate -b" or
shared storage.
[...]
I don't like very much using IF_PFLASH this way, which is why I hadn't
replied to the patch so far---I hadn't made up my mind about *what* to
suggest instead, or whether to just accept it.  However, it does work.

Perhaps a separate "I know what I am doing" skip-snapshot option?  Or
a device callback saying "not snapshotting this is fine"?

Boy, is this ugly...

What do you do with disk-only snapshots? The recovery only works as long
as you have VM state.

Kevin

actually I am in a bit of trouble :(

I understand that this is ugly, but I would like to make working
'virsh snapshot' for OVFM VMs. This is necessary for us to make
a release.

Currently libvirt guys generate XML in the following way:

  
hvm
/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd
/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd
  

This results in:

qemu -drive 
file=/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=0,readonly=on
\
 -drive 
file=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=1

This obviously can not pass check in bdrv_all_can_snapshot()
as 'pflash' is RW and raw, i.e. can not be snapshoted.

They have discussed the switch to the following command line:

qemu -drive 
file=/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=0,readonly=on
\
 -drive 
file=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd.qcow2,if=pflash,format=qcow2,unit=1

and say that in this case VM state could fall into PFLASH
drive which is should not be big as the location of the
file is different. This means that I am doomed here.

Either we should force libvirt people to forget about their
opinion that pflash should be small which I am unable to
do or I should invent a way to ban VM state saving into
pflash.

OK. There are 2 options.

1) Ban pflash as it was done.
2) Add 'no-vmstate' flag to -drive (invented just now).


something like this:

diff --git a/block.c b/block.c
index 3e1877d..8900589 100644
--- a/block.c
+++ b/block.c
@@ -881,6 +881,11 @@ static QemuOptsList bdrv_runtime_opts = {
  .help = "Block driver to use for the node",
  },
  {
+.name = "novmstate",
+.type = QEMU_OPT_BOOL,
+.help = "Ignore for selecting to save VM state",
+},
+{
  .name = BDRV_OPT_CACHE_WB,
  .type = QEMU_OPT_BOOL,
  .help = "Enable writeback mode",
@@ -957,6 +962,7 @@ static int bdrv_open_common(BlockDriverState
*bs, BdrvChild *file,
  bs->request_alignment = 512;
  bs->zero_beyond_eof = true;
  bs->read_only = !(bs->open_flags & BDRV_O_RDWR);
+bs->disable_vmstate_save = qemu_opt_get_bool(opts, "novmstate", false);

  if (use_bdrv_whitelist && !bdrv_is_whitelisted(drv, bs->read_only)) {
  error_setg(errp,
diff --git a/block/snapshot.c b/block/snapshot.c
index 2d86b88..33cdd86 100644
--- a/block/snapshot.c
+++ b/block/snapshot.c
@@ -483,6 +483,10 @@ BlockDriverState *bdrv_all_find_vmstate_bs(void)
  while (not_found && (bs = bdrv_next(bs))) {
  AioContext *ctx = bdrv_get_aio_context(bs);

+if (bs->disable_vmstate_save) {
+continue;
+}
+
  aio_context_acquire(ctx);
  not_found = !bdrv_can_snapshot(bs);
  aio_context_release(ctx);
diff --git a/include/block/block_int.h b/include/block/block_int.h
index 256609d..855a209 100644
--- a/include/block/block_int.h
+++ b/include/block/block_int.h
@@ -438,6 +438,9 @@ struct BlockDriverState {
  /* do we need to tell the quest if we have a volatile write cache? */
  int enable_write_cache;

+/* skip this BDS searching for one to save VM state */
+bool disable_vmstate_save;
+
  /* the following member gives a name to every node on the bs graph. */
  char node_name[32];
  /* element of the list of

Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 1/1] blk: do not select PFLASH device for internal snapshot

2016-01-12 Thread Kevin Wolf
Am 12.01.2016 um 18:40 hat Markus Armbruster geschrieben:
> Kevin Wolf  writes:
> 
> > Am 12.01.2016 um 17:35 hat Denis V. Lunev geschrieben:
> >> On 01/12/2016 06:47 PM, Denis V. Lunev wrote:
> >> >On 01/12/2016 06:20 PM, Kevin Wolf wrote:
> >> >>Am 12.01.2016 um 15:59 hat Paolo Bonzini geschrieben:
> >> >>>
> >> >>>On 12/01/2016 15:16, Kevin Wolf wrote:
> >> >Thus we should avoid selection of "pflash" drives for VM
> >> >state saving.
> >> >
> >> >For now "pflash" is read-write raw image as it configured by libvirt.
> >> >Thus there are no such images in the field and we could
> >> >safely disable
> >> >ability to save state to those images inside QEMU.
> >> This is obviously broken. If you write to the pflash, then it needs to
> >> be snapshotted in order to keep a consistent state.
> >> 
> >> If you want to avoid snapshotting the image, make it read-only and it
> >> will be skipped even today.
> >> >>>Sort of.  The point of having flash is to _not_ make it read-only, so
> >> >>>that is not a solution.
> >> >>>
> >> >>>Flash is already being snapshotted as part of saving RAM state.  In
> >> >>>fact, for this reason the device (at least the one used with OVMF; I
> >> >>>haven't checked other pflash devices) can simply save it back to disk
> >> >>>on the migration destination, without the need to use "migrate -b" or
> >> >>>shared storage.
> >> >>>[...]
> >> >>>I don't like very much using IF_PFLASH this way, which is why I hadn't
> >> >>>replied to the patch so far---I hadn't made up my mind about *what* to
> >> >>>suggest instead, or whether to just accept it.  However, it does work.
> >> >>>
> >> >>>Perhaps a separate "I know what I am doing" skip-snapshot option?  Or
> >> >>>a device callback saying "not snapshotting this is fine"?
> >> >>Boy, is this ugly...
> >> >>
> >> >>What do you do with disk-only snapshots? The recovery only works as long
> >> >>as you have VM state.
> >> >>
> >> >>Kevin
> >> >actually I am in a bit of trouble :(
> >> >
> >> >I understand that this is ugly, but I would like to make working
> >> >'virsh snapshot' for OVFM VMs. This is necessary for us to make
> >> >a release.
> >> >
> >> >Currently libvirt guys generate XML in the following way:
> >> >
> >> >  
> >> >hvm
> >> > >> >type='pflash'>/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd
> >> >/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd
> >> >  
> >> >
> >> >This results in:
> >> >
> >> >qemu -drive 
> >> >file=/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=0,readonly=on
> >> >\
> >> > -drive 
> >> > file=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=1
> >> >
> >> >This obviously can not pass check in bdrv_all_can_snapshot()
> >> >as 'pflash' is RW and raw, i.e. can not be snapshoted.
> >> >
> >> >They have discussed the switch to the following command line:
> >> >
> >> >qemu -drive 
> >> >file=/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=0,readonly=on
> >> >\
> >> > -drive 
> >> > file=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd.qcow2,if=pflash,format=qcow2,unit=1
> >> >
> >> >and say that in this case VM state could fall into PFLASH
> >> >drive which is should not be big as the location of the
> >> >file is different. This means that I am doomed here.
> >> >
> >> >Either we should force libvirt people to forget about their
> >> >opinion that pflash should be small which I am unable to
> >> >do or I should invent a way to ban VM state saving into
> >> >pflash.
> >> >
> >> >OK. There are 2 options.
> >> >
> >> >1) Ban pflash as it was done.
> >> >2) Add 'no-vmstate' flag to -drive (invented just now).
> >> >
> >> something like this:
> >> 
> >> diff --git a/block.c b/block.c
> >> index 3e1877d..8900589 100644
> >> --- a/block.c
> >> +++ b/block.c
> >> @@ -881,6 +881,11 @@ static QemuOptsList bdrv_runtime_opts = {
> >>  .help = "Block driver to use for the node",
> >>  },
> >>  {
> >> +.name = "novmstate",
> >> +.type = QEMU_OPT_BOOL,
> >> +.help = "Ignore for selecting to save VM state",
> >> +},
> >> +{
> >>  .name = BDRV_OPT_CACHE_WB,
> >>  .type = QEMU_OPT_BOOL,
> >>  .help = "Enable writeback mode",
> >> @@ -957,6 +962,7 @@ static int bdrv_open_common(BlockDriverState
> >> *bs, BdrvChild *file,
> >>  bs->request_alignment = 512;
> >>  bs->zero_beyond_eof = true;
> >>  bs->read_only = !(bs->open_flags & BDRV_O_RDWR);
> >> +bs->disable_vmstate_save = qemu_opt_get_bool(opts, "novmstate", 
> >> false);
> >> 
> >>  if (use_bdrv_whitelist && !bdrv_is_whitelisted(drv, bs->read_only)) {
> >>  error_setg(errp,
> >> diff --git a/block/snapshot.c b/block/snapshot.c
> >> index 2d86b88..33cdd86 100644
> >> --- a/block/snapshot.c
> >> +++ b/block/snapshot.c
> >> @@ -483,6 +483,10 @@ BlockDriverState *bdrv_all_find_vmstate_bs(void)
> >>  while (not_found && (bs = bdrv_next(bs))) {
> >>  

Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 1/1] blk: do not select PFLASH device for internal snapshot

2016-01-12 Thread Markus Armbruster
Kevin Wolf  writes:

> Am 12.01.2016 um 17:35 hat Denis V. Lunev geschrieben:
>> On 01/12/2016 06:47 PM, Denis V. Lunev wrote:
>> >On 01/12/2016 06:20 PM, Kevin Wolf wrote:
>> >>Am 12.01.2016 um 15:59 hat Paolo Bonzini geschrieben:
>> >>>
>> >>>On 12/01/2016 15:16, Kevin Wolf wrote:
>> >Thus we should avoid selection of "pflash" drives for VM
>> >state saving.
>> >
>> >For now "pflash" is read-write raw image as it configured by libvirt.
>> >Thus there are no such images in the field and we could
>> >safely disable
>> >ability to save state to those images inside QEMU.
>> This is obviously broken. If you write to the pflash, then it needs to
>> be snapshotted in order to keep a consistent state.
>> 
>> If you want to avoid snapshotting the image, make it read-only and it
>> will be skipped even today.
>> >>>Sort of.  The point of having flash is to _not_ make it read-only, so
>> >>>that is not a solution.
>> >>>
>> >>>Flash is already being snapshotted as part of saving RAM state.  In
>> >>>fact, for this reason the device (at least the one used with OVMF; I
>> >>>haven't checked other pflash devices) can simply save it back to disk
>> >>>on the migration destination, without the need to use "migrate -b" or
>> >>>shared storage.
>> >>>[...]
>> >>>I don't like very much using IF_PFLASH this way, which is why I hadn't
>> >>>replied to the patch so far---I hadn't made up my mind about *what* to
>> >>>suggest instead, or whether to just accept it.  However, it does work.
>> >>>
>> >>>Perhaps a separate "I know what I am doing" skip-snapshot option?  Or
>> >>>a device callback saying "not snapshotting this is fine"?
>> >>Boy, is this ugly...
>> >>
>> >>What do you do with disk-only snapshots? The recovery only works as long
>> >>as you have VM state.
>> >>
>> >>Kevin
>> >actually I am in a bit of trouble :(
>> >
>> >I understand that this is ugly, but I would like to make working
>> >'virsh snapshot' for OVFM VMs. This is necessary for us to make
>> >a release.
>> >
>> >Currently libvirt guys generate XML in the following way:
>> >
>> >  
>> >hvm
>> >> >type='pflash'>/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd
>> >/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd
>> >  
>> >
>> >This results in:
>> >
>> >qemu -drive 
>> >file=/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=0,readonly=on
>> >\
>> > -drive 
>> > file=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=1
>> >
>> >This obviously can not pass check in bdrv_all_can_snapshot()
>> >as 'pflash' is RW and raw, i.e. can not be snapshoted.
>> >
>> >They have discussed the switch to the following command line:
>> >
>> >qemu -drive 
>> >file=/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=0,readonly=on
>> >\
>> > -drive 
>> > file=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd.qcow2,if=pflash,format=qcow2,unit=1
>> >
>> >and say that in this case VM state could fall into PFLASH
>> >drive which is should not be big as the location of the
>> >file is different. This means that I am doomed here.
>> >
>> >Either we should force libvirt people to forget about their
>> >opinion that pflash should be small which I am unable to
>> >do or I should invent a way to ban VM state saving into
>> >pflash.
>> >
>> >OK. There are 2 options.
>> >
>> >1) Ban pflash as it was done.
>> >2) Add 'no-vmstate' flag to -drive (invented just now).
>> >
>> something like this:
>> 
>> diff --git a/block.c b/block.c
>> index 3e1877d..8900589 100644
>> --- a/block.c
>> +++ b/block.c
>> @@ -881,6 +881,11 @@ static QemuOptsList bdrv_runtime_opts = {
>>  .help = "Block driver to use for the node",
>>  },
>>  {
>> +.name = "novmstate",
>> +.type = QEMU_OPT_BOOL,
>> +.help = "Ignore for selecting to save VM state",
>> +},
>> +{
>>  .name = BDRV_OPT_CACHE_WB,
>>  .type = QEMU_OPT_BOOL,
>>  .help = "Enable writeback mode",
>> @@ -957,6 +962,7 @@ static int bdrv_open_common(BlockDriverState
>> *bs, BdrvChild *file,
>>  bs->request_alignment = 512;
>>  bs->zero_beyond_eof = true;
>>  bs->read_only = !(bs->open_flags & BDRV_O_RDWR);
>> +bs->disable_vmstate_save = qemu_opt_get_bool(opts, "novmstate", false);
>> 
>>  if (use_bdrv_whitelist && !bdrv_is_whitelisted(drv, bs->read_only)) {
>>  error_setg(errp,
>> diff --git a/block/snapshot.c b/block/snapshot.c
>> index 2d86b88..33cdd86 100644
>> --- a/block/snapshot.c
>> +++ b/block/snapshot.c
>> @@ -483,6 +483,10 @@ BlockDriverState *bdrv_all_find_vmstate_bs(void)
>>  while (not_found && (bs = bdrv_next(bs))) {
>>  AioContext *ctx = bdrv_get_aio_context(bs);
>> 
>> +if (bs->disable_vmstate_save) {
>> +continue;
>> +}
>> +
>>  aio_context_acquire(ctx);
>>  not_found = !bdrv_can_snapshot(bs);
>>  aio_context_release(ctx);
>> diff --git a/include/block/block_int.h b/inclu

Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 1/1] blk: do not select PFLASH device for internal snapshot

2016-01-12 Thread Denis V. Lunev

On 01/12/2016 07:52 PM, Kevin Wolf wrote:

Am 12.01.2016 um 17:35 hat Denis V. Lunev geschrieben:

On 01/12/2016 06:47 PM, Denis V. Lunev wrote:

On 01/12/2016 06:20 PM, Kevin Wolf wrote:

Am 12.01.2016 um 15:59 hat Paolo Bonzini geschrieben:

On 12/01/2016 15:16, Kevin Wolf wrote:

Thus we should avoid selection of "pflash" drives for VM
state saving.

For now "pflash" is read-write raw image as it configured by libvirt.
Thus there are no such images in the field and we could
safely disable
ability to save state to those images inside QEMU.

This is obviously broken. If you write to the pflash, then it needs to
be snapshotted in order to keep a consistent state.

If you want to avoid snapshotting the image, make it read-only and it
will be skipped even today.

Sort of.  The point of having flash is to _not_ make it read-only, so
that is not a solution.

Flash is already being snapshotted as part of saving RAM state.  In
fact, for this reason the device (at least the one used with OVMF; I
haven't checked other pflash devices) can simply save it back to disk
on the migration destination, without the need to use "migrate -b" or
shared storage.
[...]
I don't like very much using IF_PFLASH this way, which is why I hadn't
replied to the patch so far---I hadn't made up my mind about *what* to
suggest instead, or whether to just accept it.  However, it does work.

Perhaps a separate "I know what I am doing" skip-snapshot option?  Or
a device callback saying "not snapshotting this is fine"?

Boy, is this ugly...

What do you do with disk-only snapshots? The recovery only works as long
as you have VM state.

Kevin

actually I am in a bit of trouble :(

I understand that this is ugly, but I would like to make working
'virsh snapshot' for OVFM VMs. This is necessary for us to make
a release.

Currently libvirt guys generate XML in the following way:

  
hvm
/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd
/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd
  

This results in:

qemu -drive 
file=/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=0,readonly=on
\
 -drive 
file=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=1

This obviously can not pass check in bdrv_all_can_snapshot()
as 'pflash' is RW and raw, i.e. can not be snapshoted.

They have discussed the switch to the following command line:

qemu -drive 
file=/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=0,readonly=on
\
 -drive 
file=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd.qcow2,if=pflash,format=qcow2,unit=1

and say that in this case VM state could fall into PFLASH
drive which is should not be big as the location of the
file is different. This means that I am doomed here.

Either we should force libvirt people to forget about their
opinion that pflash should be small which I am unable to
do or I should invent a way to ban VM state saving into
pflash.

OK. There are 2 options.

1) Ban pflash as it was done.
2) Add 'no-vmstate' flag to -drive (invented just now).


something like this:

diff --git a/block.c b/block.c
index 3e1877d..8900589 100644
--- a/block.c
+++ b/block.c
@@ -881,6 +881,11 @@ static QemuOptsList bdrv_runtime_opts = {
  .help = "Block driver to use for the node",
  },
  {
+.name = "novmstate",
+.type = QEMU_OPT_BOOL,
+.help = "Ignore for selecting to save VM state",
+},
+{
  .name = BDRV_OPT_CACHE_WB,
  .type = QEMU_OPT_BOOL,
  .help = "Enable writeback mode",
@@ -957,6 +962,7 @@ static int bdrv_open_common(BlockDriverState
*bs, BdrvChild *file,
  bs->request_alignment = 512;
  bs->zero_beyond_eof = true;
  bs->read_only = !(bs->open_flags & BDRV_O_RDWR);
+bs->disable_vmstate_save = qemu_opt_get_bool(opts, "novmstate", false);

  if (use_bdrv_whitelist && !bdrv_is_whitelisted(drv, bs->read_only)) {
  error_setg(errp,
diff --git a/block/snapshot.c b/block/snapshot.c
index 2d86b88..33cdd86 100644
--- a/block/snapshot.c
+++ b/block/snapshot.c
@@ -483,6 +483,10 @@ BlockDriverState *bdrv_all_find_vmstate_bs(void)
  while (not_found && (bs = bdrv_next(bs))) {
  AioContext *ctx = bdrv_get_aio_context(bs);

+if (bs->disable_vmstate_save) {
+continue;
+}
+
  aio_context_acquire(ctx);
  not_found = !bdrv_can_snapshot(bs);
  aio_context_release(ctx);
diff --git a/include/block/block_int.h b/include/block/block_int.h
index 256609d..855a209 100644
--- a/include/block/block_int.h
+++ b/include/block/block_int.h
@@ -438,6 +438,9 @@ struct BlockDriverState {
  /* do we need to tell the quest if we have a volatile write cache? */
  int enable_write_cache;

+/* skip this BDS searching for one to save VM state */
+bool disable_vmstate_save;
+
  /* the following member gives a name to every node on the bs graph. */
  char node_name[32];
  /* element of the list of named nodes building the gra

Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 1/1] blk: do not select PFLASH device for internal snapshot

2016-01-12 Thread Kevin Wolf
Am 12.01.2016 um 17:35 hat Denis V. Lunev geschrieben:
> On 01/12/2016 06:47 PM, Denis V. Lunev wrote:
> >On 01/12/2016 06:20 PM, Kevin Wolf wrote:
> >>Am 12.01.2016 um 15:59 hat Paolo Bonzini geschrieben:
> >>>
> >>>On 12/01/2016 15:16, Kevin Wolf wrote:
> >Thus we should avoid selection of "pflash" drives for VM
> >state saving.
> >
> >For now "pflash" is read-write raw image as it configured by libvirt.
> >Thus there are no such images in the field and we could
> >safely disable
> >ability to save state to those images inside QEMU.
> This is obviously broken. If you write to the pflash, then it needs to
> be snapshotted in order to keep a consistent state.
> 
> If you want to avoid snapshotting the image, make it read-only and it
> will be skipped even today.
> >>>Sort of.  The point of having flash is to _not_ make it read-only, so
> >>>that is not a solution.
> >>>
> >>>Flash is already being snapshotted as part of saving RAM state.  In
> >>>fact, for this reason the device (at least the one used with OVMF; I
> >>>haven't checked other pflash devices) can simply save it back to disk
> >>>on the migration destination, without the need to use "migrate -b" or
> >>>shared storage.
> >>>[...]
> >>>I don't like very much using IF_PFLASH this way, which is why I hadn't
> >>>replied to the patch so far---I hadn't made up my mind about *what* to
> >>>suggest instead, or whether to just accept it.  However, it does work.
> >>>
> >>>Perhaps a separate "I know what I am doing" skip-snapshot option?  Or
> >>>a device callback saying "not snapshotting this is fine"?
> >>Boy, is this ugly...
> >>
> >>What do you do with disk-only snapshots? The recovery only works as long
> >>as you have VM state.
> >>
> >>Kevin
> >actually I am in a bit of trouble :(
> >
> >I understand that this is ugly, but I would like to make working
> >'virsh snapshot' for OVFM VMs. This is necessary for us to make
> >a release.
> >
> >Currently libvirt guys generate XML in the following way:
> >
> >  
> >hvm
> > >type='pflash'>/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd
> >/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd
> >  
> >
> >This results in:
> >
> >qemu -drive 
> >file=/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=0,readonly=on
> >\
> > -drive 
> > file=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=1
> >
> >This obviously can not pass check in bdrv_all_can_snapshot()
> >as 'pflash' is RW and raw, i.e. can not be snapshoted.
> >
> >They have discussed the switch to the following command line:
> >
> >qemu -drive 
> >file=/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=0,readonly=on
> >\
> > -drive 
> > file=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd.qcow2,if=pflash,format=qcow2,unit=1
> >
> >and say that in this case VM state could fall into PFLASH
> >drive which is should not be big as the location of the
> >file is different. This means that I am doomed here.
> >
> >Either we should force libvirt people to forget about their
> >opinion that pflash should be small which I am unable to
> >do or I should invent a way to ban VM state saving into
> >pflash.
> >
> >OK. There are 2 options.
> >
> >1) Ban pflash as it was done.
> >2) Add 'no-vmstate' flag to -drive (invented just now).
> >
> something like this:
> 
> diff --git a/block.c b/block.c
> index 3e1877d..8900589 100644
> --- a/block.c
> +++ b/block.c
> @@ -881,6 +881,11 @@ static QemuOptsList bdrv_runtime_opts = {
>  .help = "Block driver to use for the node",
>  },
>  {
> +.name = "novmstate",
> +.type = QEMU_OPT_BOOL,
> +.help = "Ignore for selecting to save VM state",
> +},
> +{
>  .name = BDRV_OPT_CACHE_WB,
>  .type = QEMU_OPT_BOOL,
>  .help = "Enable writeback mode",
> @@ -957,6 +962,7 @@ static int bdrv_open_common(BlockDriverState
> *bs, BdrvChild *file,
>  bs->request_alignment = 512;
>  bs->zero_beyond_eof = true;
>  bs->read_only = !(bs->open_flags & BDRV_O_RDWR);
> +bs->disable_vmstate_save = qemu_opt_get_bool(opts, "novmstate", false);
> 
>  if (use_bdrv_whitelist && !bdrv_is_whitelisted(drv, bs->read_only)) {
>  error_setg(errp,
> diff --git a/block/snapshot.c b/block/snapshot.c
> index 2d86b88..33cdd86 100644
> --- a/block/snapshot.c
> +++ b/block/snapshot.c
> @@ -483,6 +483,10 @@ BlockDriverState *bdrv_all_find_vmstate_bs(void)
>  while (not_found && (bs = bdrv_next(bs))) {
>  AioContext *ctx = bdrv_get_aio_context(bs);
> 
> +if (bs->disable_vmstate_save) {
> +continue;
> +}
> +
>  aio_context_acquire(ctx);
>  not_found = !bdrv_can_snapshot(bs);
>  aio_context_release(ctx);
> diff --git a/include/block/block_int.h b/include/block/block_int.h
> index 256609d..855a209 100644
> --- a/include/block/block_int.h
> +++ b/include/block/block_int.h
> @@ -438,6 +438,9 @@ struct Bl

Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 1/1] blk: do not select PFLASH device for internal snapshot

2016-01-12 Thread Denis V. Lunev

On 01/12/2016 06:47 PM, Denis V. Lunev wrote:

On 01/12/2016 06:20 PM, Kevin Wolf wrote:

Am 12.01.2016 um 15:59 hat Paolo Bonzini geschrieben:


On 12/01/2016 15:16, Kevin Wolf wrote:
Thus we should avoid selection of "pflash" drives for VM state 
saving.


For now "pflash" is read-write raw image as it configured by libvirt.
Thus there are no such images in the field and we could safely 
disable

ability to save state to those images inside QEMU.

This is obviously broken. If you write to the pflash, then it needs to
be snapshotted in order to keep a consistent state.

If you want to avoid snapshotting the image, make it read-only and it
will be skipped even today.

Sort of.  The point of having flash is to _not_ make it read-only, so
that is not a solution.

Flash is already being snapshotted as part of saving RAM state.  In
fact, for this reason the device (at least the one used with OVMF; I
haven't checked other pflash devices) can simply save it back to disk
on the migration destination, without the need to use "migrate -b" or
shared storage.
[...]
I don't like very much using IF_PFLASH this way, which is why I hadn't
replied to the patch so far---I hadn't made up my mind about *what* to
suggest instead, or whether to just accept it.  However, it does work.

Perhaps a separate "I know what I am doing" skip-snapshot option?  Or
a device callback saying "not snapshotting this is fine"?

Boy, is this ugly...

What do you do with disk-only snapshots? The recovery only works as long
as you have VM state.

Kevin

actually I am in a bit of trouble :(

I understand that this is ugly, but I would like to make working
'virsh snapshot' for OVFM VMs. This is necessary for us to make
a release.

Currently libvirt guys generate XML in the following way:

  
hvm
type='pflash'>/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd

/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd
  

This results in:

qemu -drive 
file=/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=0,readonly=on 
\
 -drive 
file=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=1


This obviously can not pass check in bdrv_all_can_snapshot()
as 'pflash' is RW and raw, i.e. can not be snapshoted.

They have discussed the switch to the following command line:

qemu -drive 
file=/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=0,readonly=on 
\
 -drive 
file=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd.qcow2,if=pflash,format=qcow2,unit=1


and say that in this case VM state could fall into PFLASH
drive which is should not be big as the location of the
file is different. This means that I am doomed here.

Either we should force libvirt people to forget about their
opinion that pflash should be small which I am unable to
do or I should invent a way to ban VM state saving into
pflash.

OK. There are 2 options.

1) Ban pflash as it was done.
2) Add 'no-vmstate' flag to -drive (invented just now).


something like this:

diff --git a/block.c b/block.c
index 3e1877d..8900589 100644
--- a/block.c
+++ b/block.c
@@ -881,6 +881,11 @@ static QemuOptsList bdrv_runtime_opts = {
 .help = "Block driver to use for the node",
 },
 {
+.name = "novmstate",
+.type = QEMU_OPT_BOOL,
+.help = "Ignore for selecting to save VM state",
+},
+{
 .name = BDRV_OPT_CACHE_WB,
 .type = QEMU_OPT_BOOL,
 .help = "Enable writeback mode",
@@ -957,6 +962,7 @@ static int bdrv_open_common(BlockDriverState *bs, 
BdrvChild *file,

 bs->request_alignment = 512;
 bs->zero_beyond_eof = true;
 bs->read_only = !(bs->open_flags & BDRV_O_RDWR);
+bs->disable_vmstate_save = qemu_opt_get_bool(opts, "novmstate", false);

 if (use_bdrv_whitelist && !bdrv_is_whitelisted(drv, bs->read_only)) {
 error_setg(errp,
diff --git a/block/snapshot.c b/block/snapshot.c
index 2d86b88..33cdd86 100644
--- a/block/snapshot.c
+++ b/block/snapshot.c
@@ -483,6 +483,10 @@ BlockDriverState *bdrv_all_find_vmstate_bs(void)
 while (not_found && (bs = bdrv_next(bs))) {
 AioContext *ctx = bdrv_get_aio_context(bs);

+if (bs->disable_vmstate_save) {
+continue;
+}
+
 aio_context_acquire(ctx);
 not_found = !bdrv_can_snapshot(bs);
 aio_context_release(ctx);
diff --git a/include/block/block_int.h b/include/block/block_int.h
index 256609d..855a209 100644
--- a/include/block/block_int.h
+++ b/include/block/block_int.h
@@ -438,6 +438,9 @@ struct BlockDriverState {
 /* do we need to tell the quest if we have a volatile write cache? */
 int enable_write_cache;

+/* skip this BDS searching for one to save VM state */
+bool disable_vmstate_save;
+
 /* the following member gives a name to every node on the bs graph. */
 char node_name[32];
 /* element of the list of named nodes building the graph */



Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 1/1] blk: do not select PFLASH device for internal snapshot

2016-01-12 Thread Denis V. Lunev

On 01/12/2016 06:20 PM, Kevin Wolf wrote:

Am 12.01.2016 um 15:59 hat Paolo Bonzini geschrieben:


On 12/01/2016 15:16, Kevin Wolf wrote:

Thus we should avoid selection of "pflash" drives for VM state saving.

For now "pflash" is read-write raw image as it configured by libvirt.
Thus there are no such images in the field and we could safely disable
ability to save state to those images inside QEMU.

This is obviously broken. If you write to the pflash, then it needs to
be snapshotted in order to keep a consistent state.

If you want to avoid snapshotting the image, make it read-only and it
will be skipped even today.

Sort of.  The point of having flash is to _not_ make it read-only, so
that is not a solution.

Flash is already being snapshotted as part of saving RAM state.  In
fact, for this reason the device (at least the one used with OVMF; I
haven't checked other pflash devices) can simply save it back to disk
on the migration destination, without the need to use "migrate -b" or
shared storage.
[...]
I don't like very much using IF_PFLASH this way, which is why I hadn't
replied to the patch so far---I hadn't made up my mind about *what* to
suggest instead, or whether to just accept it.  However, it does work.

Perhaps a separate "I know what I am doing" skip-snapshot option?  Or
a device callback saying "not snapshotting this is fine"?

Boy, is this ugly...

What do you do with disk-only snapshots? The recovery only works as long
as you have VM state.

Kevin

actually I am in a bit of trouble :(

I understand that this is ugly, but I would like to make working
'virsh snapshot' for OVFM VMs. This is necessary for us to make
a release.

Currently libvirt guys generate XML in the following way:

  
hvm
/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd
/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd
  

This results in:

qemu -drive 
file=/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=0,readonly=on \
 -drive 
file=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=1

This obviously can not pass check in bdrv_all_can_snapshot()
as 'pflash' is RW and raw, i.e. can not be snapshoted.

They have discussed the switch to the following command line:

qemu -drive 
file=/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE_new.fd,if=pflash,format=raw,unit=0,readonly=on \
 -drive 
file=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram/f20efi_VARS.fd.qcow2,if=pflash,format=qcow2,unit=1

and say that in this case VM state could fall into PFLASH
drive which is should not be big as the location of the
file is different. This means that I am doomed here.

Either we should force libvirt people to forget about their
opinion that pflash should be small which I am unable to
do or I should invent a way to ban VM state saving into
pflash.

OK. There are 2 options.

1) Ban pflash as it was done.
2) Add 'no-vmstate' flag to -drive (invented just now).

Den


P.S. Here is a summary that my colleague has receiver from libvirt
   list.

 Forwarded Message 
Subject: Re: Snapshotting OVMF guests
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 2016 13:56:29 +0100
From: Laszlo Ersek 
To: Dmitry Andreev 
CC: Michal Privoznik , Markus Armbruster 



Hello Dmitry,

(Cc: Markus.)

> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1180955

I have now re-read that BZ. In comment 7 I wrote,


However, if Michal's v2 libvirt patchset was applied, and the varstore
drive was qcow2, then qemu would dump the *entire VM state*, including
memory and device state, into the varstore drive (the 6th drive) under
the command line visible in comment #0. That's *completely* bogus;
much worse than rejecting the snapshot request.


It is bogus for size and configuration reasons.

It is true that a pflash drive is "just a drive" *internally* to QEMU.
It is also true that it more or less takes the same -drive options as
any other *disk* drive. But those facts are just implementation details.

The relevant trait of pflash storage files is that they are not *disk
images*, on the libvirt domain XML level. They are not created in
storage pools, you cannot specify their caching attributes, you don't
specify their guest-visible frontend in separation (like virtio-blk /
virtio-scsi / pflash). Those details are hidden (on purpose).

Consequently, pflash storage files are expected to be *small* in size
(in practice: identically sized to the varstore template they are
instantiated from). They are created under /var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram.
Although you can edit their path in the domain XML, they are not
considered disks.

This is also reflected in the way they are migrated. They are not
migrated with NBD / live storage migration / blockdev migration.
Instead, on the target host, when the in-migration completes, the entire
contents of the flash drive are written out in one shot to the target
host file.

Please see:
- the pflash_post_load() function in QEMU's "hw/block/pflash_cfi01.c",
- and QEMU commit 4c0cfc72.

Storing large amounts or data in the pflash storage file would be
incompatible with this conc

Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 1/1] blk: do not select PFLASH device for internal snapshot

2016-01-12 Thread Paolo Bonzini


On 12/01/2016 16:20, Kevin Wolf wrote:
> > Flash is already being snapshotted as part of saving RAM state.  In 
> > fact, for this reason the device (at least the one used with OVMF; I 
> > haven't checked other pflash devices) can simply save it back to disk 
> > on the migration destination, without the need to use "migrate -b" or 
> > shared storage.
> 
> Boy, is this ugly...
> 
> What do you do with disk-only snapshots? The recovery only works as long
> as you have VM state.

Turns out I had misunderstood Denis's patch, but FWIW this _is_ done as
part of migration or savevm, so the VM state is available.

Paolo



Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 1/1] blk: do not select PFLASH device for internal snapshot

2016-01-12 Thread Kevin Wolf
Am 12.01.2016 um 16:10 hat Denis V. Lunev geschrieben:
> On 01/12/2016 05:16 PM, Kevin Wolf wrote:
> >Am 12.01.2016 um 07:03 hat Denis V. Lunev geschrieben:
> >>There is a long-long story. OVMF VMs can not be snapsotted using
> >>'virsh snapshot' as they have "pflash" device which is configured as
> >>"raw" image. There was a discussion in the past about that.
> >>
> >>Good description has been provided on topic by Laszlo Ersek, see below:
> >>
> >>"It is true that a pflash drive is "just a drive" *internally* to QEMU.
> >>It is also true that it more or less takes the same -drive options as
> >>any other *disk* drive. But those facts are just implementation details.
> >>
> >>The relevant trait of pflash storage files is that they are not *disk
> >>images*, on the libvirt domain XML level. They are not created in
> >>storage pools, you cannot specify their caching attributes, you don't
> >>specify their guest-visible frontend in separation (like virtio-blk /
> >> virtio-scsi / pflash). Those details are hidden (on purpose).
> >>
> >>Consequently, pflash storage files are expected to be *small* in size
> >>(in practice: identically sized to the varstore template they are
> >>instantiated from). They are created under /var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram.
> >>Although you can edit their path in the domain XML, they are not
> >>considered disks."
> >>
> >>Thus we should avoid selection of "pflash" drives for VM state saving.
> >>
> >>For now "pflash" is read-write raw image as it configured by libvirt.
> >>Thus there are no such images in the field and we could safely disable
> >>ability to save state to those images inside QEMU.
> >This is obviously broken. If you write to the pflash, then it needs to
> >be snapshotted in order to keep a consistent state.
> >
> >If you want to avoid snapshotting the image, make it read-only and it
> >will be skipped even today.
> >
> >Kevin
> you interpret the patch a bit wrong.
> 
> It will be snapshoted once I'll raw image with qcow2 image, but this image
> will not be selected for state saving, i.e. it will remain compact.

Sorry, I misunderstood. That's more reasonable indeed.

Kevin



Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 1/1] blk: do not select PFLASH device for internal snapshot

2016-01-12 Thread Kevin Wolf
Am 12.01.2016 um 16:16 hat Peter Maydell geschrieben:
> On 12 January 2016 at 15:13, Denis V. Lunev  wrote:
> > The idea of this patch was trivial. First of all, I would like to keep
> > this image internally snapshoted. That is why the ultimate goal
> > was to switch from raw to qcow2 to keep changes inside the
> > image.
> >
> > Though in this case this drive could be selected to save VM
> > state, which could be big. The function being changed selects
> > the image for VM state saving.
> >
> > here I would like to skip IP_PFLASH from being selected to keep
> > it small as required by libvirt guys.
> 
> This has to be a board specific decision. Some of our machine
> models might have no backing storage other than an IP_PFLASH
> drive, but it's still nice to be able to do vmsave/vmload on them.

Maybe we can give flash images lower priority than other images?

I'm not sure if we don't break compatibility with such a change, though.
loadvm on existing snapshots could fail now. We might need to change
that first so that it can find snapshots even on images that wouldn't be
the VM state image for new snapshots any more.

Kevin



Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 1/1] blk: do not select PFLASH device for internal snapshot

2016-01-12 Thread Kevin Wolf
Am 12.01.2016 um 15:59 hat Paolo Bonzini geschrieben:
> 
> 
> On 12/01/2016 15:16, Kevin Wolf wrote:
> >> Thus we should avoid selection of "pflash" drives for VM state saving.
> >>
> >> For now "pflash" is read-write raw image as it configured by libvirt.
> >> Thus there are no such images in the field and we could safely disable
> >> ability to save state to those images inside QEMU.
> > 
> > This is obviously broken. If you write to the pflash, then it needs to
> > be snapshotted in order to keep a consistent state.
> > 
> > If you want to avoid snapshotting the image, make it read-only and it
> > will be skipped even today.
> 
> Sort of.  The point of having flash is to _not_ make it read-only, so 
> that is not a solution.
> 
> Flash is already being snapshotted as part of saving RAM state.  In 
> fact, for this reason the device (at least the one used with OVMF; I 
> haven't checked other pflash devices) can simply save it back to disk 
> on the migration destination, without the need to use "migrate -b" or 
> shared storage.
> [...]
> I don't like very much using IF_PFLASH this way, which is why I hadn't
> replied to the patch so far---I hadn't made up my mind about *what* to
> suggest instead, or whether to just accept it.  However, it does work.
> 
> Perhaps a separate "I know what I am doing" skip-snapshot option?  Or
> a device callback saying "not snapshotting this is fine"?

Boy, is this ugly...

What do you do with disk-only snapshots? The recovery only works as long
as you have VM state.

Kevin



Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 1/1] blk: do not select PFLASH device for internal snapshot

2016-01-12 Thread Peter Maydell
On 12 January 2016 at 15:13, Denis V. Lunev  wrote:
> The idea of this patch was trivial. First of all, I would like to keep
> this image internally snapshoted. That is why the ultimate goal
> was to switch from raw to qcow2 to keep changes inside the
> image.
>
> Though in this case this drive could be selected to save VM
> state, which could be big. The function being changed selects
> the image for VM state saving.
>
> here I would like to skip IP_PFLASH from being selected to keep
> it small as required by libvirt guys.

This has to be a board specific decision. Some of our machine
models might have no backing storage other than an IP_PFLASH
drive, but it's still nice to be able to do vmsave/vmload on them.

thanks
-- PMM



Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 1/1] blk: do not select PFLASH device for internal snapshot

2016-01-12 Thread Denis V. Lunev

On 01/12/2016 05:59 PM, Paolo Bonzini wrote:


On 12/01/2016 15:16, Kevin Wolf wrote:

Thus we should avoid selection of "pflash" drives for VM state saving.

For now "pflash" is read-write raw image as it configured by libvirt.
Thus there are no such images in the field and we could safely disable
ability to save state to those images inside QEMU.

This is obviously broken. If you write to the pflash, then it needs to
be snapshotted in order to keep a consistent state.

If you want to avoid snapshotting the image, make it read-only and it
will be skipped even today.

Sort of.  The point of having flash is to _not_ make it read-only, so
that is not a solution.

Flash is already being snapshotted as part of saving RAM state.  In
fact, for this reason the device (at least the one used with OVMF; I
haven't checked other pflash devices) can simply save it back to disk
on the migration destination, without the need to use "migrate -b" or
shared storage.

See commit 4c0cfc72b31a79f737a64ebbe0411e4b83e25771:

 Author: Laszlo Ersek 
 Date:   Sat Aug 23 12:19:07 2014 +0200

 pflash_cfi01: write flash contents to bdrv on incoming migration
 
 A drive that backs a pflash device is special:

 - it is very small,
 - its entire contents are kept in a RAMBlock at all times, covering the
   guest-phys address range that provides the guest's view of the emulated
   flash chip.
 
 The pflash device model keeps the drive (the host-side file) and the

 guest-visible flash contents in sync. When migrating the guest, the
 guest-visible flash contents (the RAMBlock) is migrated by default, but on
 the target host, the drive (the host-side file) remains in full sync with
 the RAMBlock only if:
 - the source and target hosts share the storage underlying the pflash
   drive,
 - or the migration requests full or incremental block migration too, which
   then covers all drives.
 
 Due to the special nature of pflash drives, the following scenario makes

 sense as well:
 - no full nor incremental block migration, covering all drives, alongside
   the base migration (justified eg. by shared storage for "normal" (big)
   drives),
 - non-shared storage for pflash drives.
 
 In this case, currently only those portions of the flash drive are updated

 on the target disk that the guest reprograms while running on the target
 host.
 
 In order to restore accord, dump the entire flash contents to the bdrv in

 a post_load() callback.
 
 - The read-only check follows the other call-sites of pflash_update();

 - both "pfl->ro" and pflash_update() reflect / consider the case when
   "pfl->bs" is NULL;
 - the total size of the flash device is calculated as in
   pflash_cfi01_realize().
 
 When using shared storage, or requesting full or incremental block

 migration along with the normal migration, the patch should incur a
 harmless rewrite from the target side.
 
 It is assumed that, on the target host, RAM is loaded ahead of the call to

 pflash_post_load().

I don't like very much using IF_PFLASH this way, which is why I hadn't
replied to the patch so far---I hadn't made up my mind about *what* to
suggest instead, or whether to just accept it.  However, it does work.

Perhaps a separate "I know what I am doing" skip-snapshot option?  Or
a device callback saying "not snapshotting this is fine"?

Paolo

Paolo,

it looks I have made a bad description :(

The idea of this patch was trivial. First of all, I would like to keep
this image internally snapshoted. That is why the ultimate goal
was to switch from raw to qcow2 to keep changes inside the
image.

Though in this case this drive could be selected to save VM
state, which could be big. The function being changed selects
the image for VM state saving.

here I would like to skip IP_PFLASH from being selected to keep
it small as required by libvirt guys.

Den



Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 1/1] blk: do not select PFLASH device for internal snapshot

2016-01-12 Thread Denis V. Lunev

On 01/12/2016 05:16 PM, Kevin Wolf wrote:

Am 12.01.2016 um 07:03 hat Denis V. Lunev geschrieben:

There is a long-long story. OVMF VMs can not be snapsotted using
'virsh snapshot' as they have "pflash" device which is configured as
"raw" image. There was a discussion in the past about that.

Good description has been provided on topic by Laszlo Ersek, see below:

"It is true that a pflash drive is "just a drive" *internally* to QEMU.
It is also true that it more or less takes the same -drive options as
any other *disk* drive. But those facts are just implementation details.

The relevant trait of pflash storage files is that they are not *disk
images*, on the libvirt domain XML level. They are not created in
storage pools, you cannot specify their caching attributes, you don't
specify their guest-visible frontend in separation (like virtio-blk /
 virtio-scsi / pflash). Those details are hidden (on purpose).

Consequently, pflash storage files are expected to be *small* in size
(in practice: identically sized to the varstore template they are
instantiated from). They are created under /var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram.
Although you can edit their path in the domain XML, they are not
considered disks."

Thus we should avoid selection of "pflash" drives for VM state saving.

For now "pflash" is read-write raw image as it configured by libvirt.
Thus there are no such images in the field and we could safely disable
ability to save state to those images inside QEMU.

This is obviously broken. If you write to the pflash, then it needs to
be snapshotted in order to keep a consistent state.

If you want to avoid snapshotting the image, make it read-only and it
will be skipped even today.

Kevin

you interpret the patch a bit wrong.

It will be snapshoted once I'll raw image with qcow2 image, but this image
will not be selected for state saving, i.e. it will remain compact.

Den



Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 1/1] blk: do not select PFLASH device for internal snapshot

2016-01-12 Thread Paolo Bonzini


On 12/01/2016 15:16, Kevin Wolf wrote:
>> Thus we should avoid selection of "pflash" drives for VM state saving.
>>
>> For now "pflash" is read-write raw image as it configured by libvirt.
>> Thus there are no such images in the field and we could safely disable
>> ability to save state to those images inside QEMU.
> 
> This is obviously broken. If you write to the pflash, then it needs to
> be snapshotted in order to keep a consistent state.
> 
> If you want to avoid snapshotting the image, make it read-only and it
> will be skipped even today.

Sort of.  The point of having flash is to _not_ make it read-only, so 
that is not a solution.

Flash is already being snapshotted as part of saving RAM state.  In 
fact, for this reason the device (at least the one used with OVMF; I 
haven't checked other pflash devices) can simply save it back to disk 
on the migration destination, without the need to use "migrate -b" or 
shared storage.

See commit 4c0cfc72b31a79f737a64ebbe0411e4b83e25771:

Author: Laszlo Ersek 
Date:   Sat Aug 23 12:19:07 2014 +0200

pflash_cfi01: write flash contents to bdrv on incoming migration

A drive that backs a pflash device is special:
- it is very small,
- its entire contents are kept in a RAMBlock at all times, covering the
  guest-phys address range that provides the guest's view of the emulated
  flash chip.

The pflash device model keeps the drive (the host-side file) and the
guest-visible flash contents in sync. When migrating the guest, the
guest-visible flash contents (the RAMBlock) is migrated by default, but on
the target host, the drive (the host-side file) remains in full sync with
the RAMBlock only if:
- the source and target hosts share the storage underlying the pflash
  drive,
- or the migration requests full or incremental block migration too, which
  then covers all drives.

Due to the special nature of pflash drives, the following scenario makes
sense as well:
- no full nor incremental block migration, covering all drives, alongside
  the base migration (justified eg. by shared storage for "normal" (big)
  drives),
- non-shared storage for pflash drives.

In this case, currently only those portions of the flash drive are updated
on the target disk that the guest reprograms while running on the target
host.

In order to restore accord, dump the entire flash contents to the bdrv in
a post_load() callback.

- The read-only check follows the other call-sites of pflash_update();
- both "pfl->ro" and pflash_update() reflect / consider the case when
  "pfl->bs" is NULL;
- the total size of the flash device is calculated as in
  pflash_cfi01_realize().

When using shared storage, or requesting full or incremental block
migration along with the normal migration, the patch should incur a
harmless rewrite from the target side.

It is assumed that, on the target host, RAM is loaded ahead of the call to
pflash_post_load().

I don't like very much using IF_PFLASH this way, which is why I hadn't
replied to the patch so far---I hadn't made up my mind about *what* to
suggest instead, or whether to just accept it.  However, it does work.

Perhaps a separate "I know what I am doing" skip-snapshot option?  Or
a device callback saying "not snapshotting this is fine"?

Paolo



Re: [Qemu-devel] [PATCH 1/1] blk: do not select PFLASH device for internal snapshot

2016-01-12 Thread Kevin Wolf
Am 12.01.2016 um 07:03 hat Denis V. Lunev geschrieben:
> There is a long-long story. OVMF VMs can not be snapsotted using
> 'virsh snapshot' as they have "pflash" device which is configured as
> "raw" image. There was a discussion in the past about that.
> 
> Good description has been provided on topic by Laszlo Ersek, see below:
> 
> "It is true that a pflash drive is "just a drive" *internally* to QEMU.
> It is also true that it more or less takes the same -drive options as
> any other *disk* drive. But those facts are just implementation details.
> 
> The relevant trait of pflash storage files is that they are not *disk
> images*, on the libvirt domain XML level. They are not created in
> storage pools, you cannot specify their caching attributes, you don't
> specify their guest-visible frontend in separation (like virtio-blk /
> virtio-scsi / pflash). Those details are hidden (on purpose).
> 
> Consequently, pflash storage files are expected to be *small* in size
> (in practice: identically sized to the varstore template they are
> instantiated from). They are created under /var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram.
> Although you can edit their path in the domain XML, they are not
> considered disks."
> 
> Thus we should avoid selection of "pflash" drives for VM state saving.
> 
> For now "pflash" is read-write raw image as it configured by libvirt.
> Thus there are no such images in the field and we could safely disable
> ability to save state to those images inside QEMU.

This is obviously broken. If you write to the pflash, then it needs to
be snapshotted in order to keep a consistent state.

If you want to avoid snapshotting the image, make it read-only and it
will be skipped even today.

Kevin



[Qemu-devel] [PATCH 1/1] blk: do not select PFLASH device for internal snapshot

2016-01-11 Thread Denis V. Lunev
There is a long-long story. OVMF VMs can not be snapsotted using
'virsh snapshot' as they have "pflash" device which is configured as
"raw" image. There was a discussion in the past about that.

Good description has been provided on topic by Laszlo Ersek, see below:

"It is true that a pflash drive is "just a drive" *internally* to QEMU.
It is also true that it more or less takes the same -drive options as
any other *disk* drive. But those facts are just implementation details.

The relevant trait of pflash storage files is that they are not *disk
images*, on the libvirt domain XML level. They are not created in
storage pools, you cannot specify their caching attributes, you don't
specify their guest-visible frontend in separation (like virtio-blk /
virtio-scsi / pflash). Those details are hidden (on purpose).

Consequently, pflash storage files are expected to be *small* in size
(in practice: identically sized to the varstore template they are
instantiated from). They are created under /var/lib/libvirt/qemu/nvram.
Although you can edit their path in the domain XML, they are not
considered disks."

Thus we should avoid selection of "pflash" drives for VM state saving.

For now "pflash" is read-write raw image as it configured by libvirt.
Thus there are no such images in the field and we could safely disable
ability to save state to those images inside QEMU.

Signed-off-by: Denis V. Lunev 
CC: Kevin Wolf 
CC: Paolo Bonzini 
CC: Laszlo Ersek 
CC: qemu-bl...@nongnu.org
---
 block/snapshot.c | 7 +++
 1 file changed, 7 insertions(+)

diff --git a/block/snapshot.c b/block/snapshot.c
index 2d86b88..1a03581 100644
--- a/block/snapshot.c
+++ b/block/snapshot.c
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 #include "block/snapshot.h"
 #include "block/block_int.h"
 #include "qapi/qmp/qerror.h"
+#include "sysemu/blockdev.h"
 
 QemuOptsList internal_snapshot_opts = {
 .name = "snapshot",
@@ -481,8 +482,14 @@ BlockDriverState *bdrv_all_find_vmstate_bs(void)
 BlockDriverState *bs = NULL;
 
 while (not_found && (bs = bdrv_next(bs))) {
+DriveInfo *dinfo;
 AioContext *ctx = bdrv_get_aio_context(bs);
 
+dinfo = bs->blk != NULL ? blk_legacy_dinfo(bs->blk) : NULL;
+if (dinfo != NULL && dinfo->type == IF_PFLASH) {
+continue;
+}
+
 aio_context_acquire(ctx);
 not_found = !bdrv_can_snapshot(bs);
 aio_context_release(ctx);
-- 
2.5.0