"prealloc=on" for the memory backend does not work as expected, as virtio-mem will simply discard all preallocated memory immediately again. In the best case, it's an expensive NOP. In the worst case, it's an unexpected allocation error.
Instead, "prealloc=on" should be specified for the virtio-mem device only, such that virtio-mem will try preallocating memory before plugging memory dynamically to the guest. Fail if such a memory backend is provided. Tested-by: Michal Privoznik <mpriv...@redhat.com> Signed-off-by: David Hildenbrand <da...@redhat.com> --- hw/virtio/virtio-mem.c | 6 ++++++ 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+) diff --git a/hw/virtio/virtio-mem.c b/hw/virtio/virtio-mem.c index 5c22c4b876..e0e908d392 100644 --- a/hw/virtio/virtio-mem.c +++ b/hw/virtio/virtio-mem.c @@ -772,6 +772,12 @@ static void virtio_mem_device_realize(DeviceState *dev, Error **errp) error_setg(errp, "'%s' property specifies an unsupported memdev", VIRTIO_MEM_MEMDEV_PROP); return; + } else if (vmem->memdev->prealloc) { + error_setg(errp, "'%s' property specifies a memdev with preallocation" + " enabled: %s. Instead, specify 'prealloc=on' for the" + " virtio-mem device. ", VIRTIO_MEM_MEMDEV_PROP, + object_get_canonical_path_component(OBJECT(vmem->memdev))); + return; } if ((nb_numa_nodes && vmem->node >= nb_numa_nodes) || -- 2.38.1