Enabled qemu memory balloon stats when boot instance¶
https://blueprints.launchpad.net/nova/+spec/enabled-qemu-memballoon-stats
We can get vm memory stats from libvirt API ‘virDomainMemoryStats’, it help telemetry module like as: Ceilometer to collect vm memory usage, but by default the memory statistical feature is disable in qemu, we need to add stats period in order to enabled memory statistical.
Problem description¶
By default, the memory statistical feature is disable in qemu, we need to add stats period in order to enabled memory statistical, like this:
<memballoon model='virtio'>
<stats period='10'/>
</memballoon>
Add memballoon device stat period in libvirt.xml when boot instance.
Actual memory statistical works on libvirt 1.1.1+ and qemu 1.5+, and need a guest driver that supports the feature, but booting instance with memory stats period does not lead to be failure on libvirt 0.9.6+ and qemu 1.0+.
Refer to [1] for libvirt API ‘virDomainMemoryStats’ details.
Refer to [2] for memballoon details in libvirt.xml.
Details of enabled memory stats: [3]
Proposed change¶
Add the option ‘mem_stats_period_seconds’ into nova.conf(libvirt section).
Enable stats period of memballoon device, if user boot instance when mem_stats_period_seconds > 0. mem_stats_period_seconds is number of seconds to memory usage statistics period. By default mem_stats_period_seconds=10.
Alternatives¶
None
Data model impact¶
None
REST API impact¶
None
Security impact¶
None
Notifications impact¶
None
Other end user impact¶
User need to prepare suitable balloon driver in image, particularly for windows guests, most modern Linuxes have it built in. Booting instance will be successful without image balloon driver, just can’t get guest memory stat from ‘virDomainMemoryStats’ API.
Performance Impact¶
None
Other deployer impact¶
Add a new option ‘mem_stats_period_seconds’ in nova.conf libvirt section. By default mem_stats_period_seconds=10, the stats feature is enable, mem_stats_period_seconds is number of seconds to memory usage statistics period. If mem_stats_period_seconds <= 0, the feature is disable.
Developer impact¶
None
Implementation¶
Assignee(s)¶
- Primary assignee:
<kiwik-chenrui>
Work Items¶
Add a LibvirtConfigMemoryBalloon class inherit from LibvirtConfigGuestDevice.
Changes to be made to the libvirt driver get_guest_config method to check the option ‘mem_stats_period_seconds’ in nova.conf, during the boot of the instance.
If mem_stats_period_seconds>0, set stats period of memory balloon device in the instance.
Dependencies¶
libvirt 1.1.1+
qemu 1.5+
guest driver that supports memory balloon stats
Testing¶
Unit tests and tempest tests will verify this function. Compatibility will be verified, boot instance with ‘mem_stats_period_seconds’ on current devstack environment(libvirt0.9.8 and qemu1.0.0).
Memory stats don’t work in current gate environment, see details in Dependencies section. Full test need to ensure the devstack VM gate has updated libvirt, qemu versions and guest driver compatibility.
Documentation Impact¶
By default this feature is enabled, ‘mem_stats_period_seconds’=10. If you want to change the stat period, please modify nova.conf.
mem_stats_period_seconds is number of seconds to memory usage statistics period.
If you set mem_stats_period_seconds<=0, the memory stats will be disabled, by default mem_stats_period_seconds=10.
This blueprint just add stats period into memory balloon device, it is not sufficient to guarantee this feature will work because you need to meet the requirements in dependencies section, and you need to handle the case where the API ‘virDomainMemoryStats’ call returns no data(not in scope of this bp).
