High CPU use 2003 Server Enterprise

[donty]

Hi All

I have installed a Dell 8 core server with 8GB memory and 500GB RAID5+1 and the Proxmox install 1.3 goes well and joins my existing cluster and syncs fine.

When I install w2k3 enterprise on a kvm instance with 1CPU 3GB ram and 100GB HDD the install takes an age and the even when done, updated and with virtio block/nic and acpi off it is still 96% cpu when resting!

The underlying netcards are Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5721.

Any clues? Proxmox is apt-get upgraded and no other vm is on the machine.

K

 

[tom]

Hi All

I have installed a Dell 8 core server with 8GB memory and 500GB RAID5+1 and the Proxmox install 1.3 goes well and joins my existing cluster and syncs fine.

When I install w2k3 enterprise on a kvm instance with 1CPU 3GB ram and 100GB HDD the install takes an age and the even when done, updated and with virtio block/nic and acpi off it is still 96% cpu when resting!

The underlying netcards are Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5721.

Any clues? Proxmox is apt-get upgraded and no other vm is on the machine.

K

win2003 is known to work well.

just a few things to check:

• update the Dell BIOS to the latest release
• post your VM setting (cat /etc/qemu-server/VMID.conf)
• run pveperf (when the server is idle), post results
• maybe try the newest Kernel (download manually from pvetest via ftp) - includes some new drivers

 

[donty]

Thanks for geting back to me. I have other W2k3 vms running on other parts of the cluster but they were migrations not fresh installs. They all work fine!

Just trying to re-install again, takes about 2hrs to install, so this is the current conf:

name: winhost
ide2: win32entserver.iso,media=cdrom
smp: 4
ostype: w2k3
memory: 3000
onboot: 1
boot: da
freeze: 0
cpuunits: 1000
acpi: 1
kvm: 1
vlan0: virtio=32:1D:80:6B:29:FB
ide0: vm-114-disk.qcow2
ide1: vm-114-disk-1.qcow2

Presumably one newest pve kernel won't create problems in the cluster?

Its a new box with current bios and whilst installing (reg components) pveperf is showing:

/etc/qemu-server# pveperf
CPU BOGOMIPS: 31923.60
REGEX/SECOND: 538022
HD SIZE: 94.49 GB (/dev/pve/root)
BUFFERED READS: 218.80 MB/sec
AVERAGE SEEK TIME: 4.06 ms
FSYNCS/SECOND: 2646.53
DNS EXT: 13.84 ms
DNS INT: 1.07 ms

None of that looks 'bad' to me...

Any ideas?

 

[resignation]

Try again using 1 CPU and the e1000 network driver

 

[donty]

Thanks, yep tried that and the same slow responses, took nearly 3 hrs to install the previous VM and this one is about the same. never has the estimated 39mins install bar seemed so deceitful ;-)

I may try migrating one of the other win32 instances to this host and see if it is an install thing or a host issue.

I am very open to other ideas!

K

 

[tom]

Thanks, yep tried that and the same slow responses, took nearly 3 hrs to install the previous VM and this one is about the same. never has the estimated 39mins install bar seemed so deceitful ;-)

I may try migrating one of the other win32 instances to this host and see if it is an install thing or a host issue.

I am very open to other ideas!

K

based on your hardware (pveperf results), the install of a win2003 should be done in 10 minutes - so something is wrong on your side.

 

[donty]

That's what I thought.

Anyhow changed the install and now getting odd soap errors on the beta 1.4 that are preventing sync on the cluster at the moment.

Not one of those smooth days!

K

 

[tom]

That's what I thought.

Anyhow changed the install and now getting odd soap errors on the beta 1.4 that are preventing sync on the cluster at the moment.

Not one of those smooth days!

K

what soap errors? can you post the logs?

 

[donty]

I have just removed it from the cluster and started it standalone. I dont have a record of the soap errors at the moment but I will see if I can dig back at them.

Just rebooting the server after all the kernel upgrades etc being reapplied and I will see what comes of that and get back to you with logs soon.

K

 

[donty]

OK, some progress!

Seems the hardware installer hadn't enabled vt support on the bios, no idea how it worked before as a KVM host in the 1.3 cluster. The bios issue showed up once I had removed the host from the cluster and installed 1.4beta as an error message when trying to select kvm as virt type.

Now I have a standalone 1.4 beta machine that should work. However I cant get the thing to join the cluster as it seems that 1.4 beta wont join in as 1.3 master can't read the cluster table of a 1.4. Is that to be expected?

K

 

[donty]

Thanks for everyones help.

Now with 1.4 beta it is installing w2k3 in about 10mins so that is good!

Still not joining cluster and the virtio driver for block devices doesnt seem to work in 2003. No boot device available. Virtio net is fine.

Is that expected on 1.4 at the moment?

 

[tom]

OK, some progress!

Seems the hardware installer hadn't enabled vt support on the bios, no idea how it worked before as a KVM host in the 1.3 cluster. The bios issue showed up once I had removed the host from the cluster and installed 1.4beta as an error message when trying to select kvm as virt type.

Now I have a standalone 1.4 beta machine that should work. However I cant get the thing to join the cluster as it seems that 1.4 beta wont join in as 1.3 master can't read the cluster table of a 1.4. Is that to be expected?

K

all nodes need the same version, so joining 1.4 to 1.3 will not work.

virtio-block for windows 2003:
you need to install with IDE first and change later, I posted a howto in the virtio thread

 

[donty]

Thanks for clearing that up, I will wait til 1.4 is released and update the cluster then.

The process mentioned is the one I followed which worked well on 1.3 but I got boot errors on the windows VM on 1.4.

I will take a copy of the new VM and try again to switch to the virtio drivers from the IDE ones and let this thread know what happened next!

K

 

[Omny_Devi]

What is Raid 5+1?

 

[dietmar]

A quick guess is: 5+1 = 6

 

[alain]

My guess : raid 5 + spare

 

[dietmar]

Or: http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/raid/levels/multLevel15-c.html

 

[dietmar]

See http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

(RAID 51)

 

[Omny_Devi]

Hrm, I installed Server2k8 at home twice. All went well. I am using the 1.4B.

I use LVM, (too broke to afford a good raid card) but wondering if raid could do this?

Your machine specs are far superior to my home ProxMox server machine.

 

[Omny_Devi]

After reading
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/perf/raid/levels/multLevel15-c.html
(thanks Dietmar) that would be the first thing I play with. It would call for a complete and utter reinstall/reconfig, but could also get your system running how it should.

Seems a bit of overkill though in general. (to me) If I recall the thread correctly, you have a cluster set? Might be a bit easier to setup backups/failovers in the cluster itself than running a raid 5+1 with a cluster available.

Just a suggestion mate, hope you find any of it helpful sooner or later