Mailing List Archive

Re: [openstack-dev] Create VMs with Power architecture(ppc64) on OpenStack running on x86_64 nodes??
(not sure if my answer has been sent, sorry if duplicate)
I don't touch ppc for a while but AFAIK this should work as long as you run
full emulation (qemu, not kvm) as libvirt_type in nova.conf and get the
qemu-system-ppc64le installed in the compute node. Assume also you get the
ppc64le image to launch your instance. Expect poor performance though.

On Mon, Nov 19, 2018 at 4:12 PM Sean Mooney <smooney@redhat.com> wrote:

> adding openstack dev.
> On Mon, 2018-11-19 at 18:08 +0000, Sean Mooney wrote:
> > On Mon, 2018-11-19 at 11:57 -0500, Ken D'Ambrosio wrote:
> > > On 2018-11-19 11:25, Yedhu Sastri wrote:
> > > > Hello All,
> > > >
> > > > I have some use-cases which I want to test in PowerPC
> architecture(ppc64). As I dont have any Power machines I
> > > > would
> > > > like to try it with ppc64 VM's. Is it possible to run these kind of
> VM's on my OpenStack cluster(Queens) which
> > > > runs
> > > > on X86_64 architecture nodes(OS RHEL 7)??
> > > >
> > >
> > > I'm not 100% sure, but I'm 95% sure that the answer to your question
> is "No." While there's much emulation that
> > > occurs, the CPU isn't so much emulated, but more abstracted.
> Constructing and running a modern CPU in software
> > > would
> > > be non-trivial.
> >
> > you can do this but not with kvm.
> > you need to revert the virt dirver in the nova.conf back to qemu to
> disable kvm to allow emulation of other
> > plathforms.
> > that said i have only emulated power on x86_64 using libvirt or qemu
> idrectly never with openstack but i belive we
> > used
> > to support this i just hav enot done it personally.
> > >
> > > -Ken
> > >
> > > > I set the image property architecture=ppc64 to the ppc64 image I
> uploaded to glance but no success in launching VM
> > > > with those images. I am using KVM as hypervisor(qemu 2.10.0) in my
> compute nodes and I think it is not built to
> > > > support power architecture. For testing without OpenStack I manually
> built qemu on a x86_64 host with ppc64
> > > > support(qemu-ppc64) and then I am able to host the ppc64 VM. But I
> dont know how to do this on my OpenStack
> > > > cluster.
> > > > Whether I need to manually build qemu on compute nodes with ppc64
> support or I need to add some lines in my
> > > > nova.conf to do this?? Any help to solve this issue would be much
> appreciated.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > Thank you for your time and have a nice day,
> > > >
> > > > With kind regards,
> > > > Yedhu Sastri
> > > >
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > Mailing list:
> http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack
> > > > Post to : openstack@lists.openstack.org
> > > > Unsubscribe :
> http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack
> > >
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> > > Post to : openstack@lists.openstack.org
> > > Unsubscribe :
> http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack
>
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--
Rafael Folco
Senior Software Engineer
Re: [openstack-dev] Create VMs with Power architecture(ppc64) on OpenStack running on x86_64 nodes?? [ In reply to ]
On Mon, 2018-11-19 at 17:25 -0200, Rafael Folco wrote:
> (not sure if my answer has been sent, sorry if duplicate)
> I don't touch ppc for a while but AFAIK this should work as long as you run full emulation (qemu, not kvm) as
> libvirt_type in nova.conf and get the qemu-system-ppc64le installed in the compute node. Assume also you get the
> ppc64le image to launch your instance. Expect poor performance though.
that is my understanding also.
the perfromace is accepable but not great if you can enabled the multithread tcg backend instead of the default
singel tread tcg backend that is used when in qemu only mode but it still wont match kvm accleration or power on power
performance.

i dont think we have a way to enabel the multi thread accleration for qemu only backend via nova unfortunetly
it would be triavial to add but no one has asked as far as i am aware.

>
> On Mon, Nov 19, 2018 at 4:12 PM Sean Mooney <smooney@redhat.com> wrote:
> > adding openstack dev.
> > On Mon, 2018-11-19 at 18:08 +0000, Sean Mooney wrote:
> > > On Mon, 2018-11-19 at 11:57 -0500, Ken D'Ambrosio wrote:
> > > > On 2018-11-19 11:25, Yedhu Sastri wrote:
> > > > > Hello All,
> > > > >
> > > > > I have some use-cases which I want to test in PowerPC architecture(ppc64). As I dont have any Power machines I
> > > > > would
> > > > > like to try it with ppc64 VM's. Is it possible to run these kind of VM's on my OpenStack cluster(Queens) which
> > > > > runs
> > > > > on X86_64 architecture nodes(OS RHEL 7)??
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > I'm not 100% sure, but I'm 95% sure that the answer to your question is "No." While there's much emulation that
> > > > occurs, the CPU isn't so much emulated, but more abstracted. Constructing and running a modern CPU in software
> > > > would
> > > > be non-trivial.
> > >
> > > you can do this but not with kvm.
> > > you need to revert the virt dirver in the nova.conf back to qemu to disable kvm to allow emulation of other
> > > plathforms.
> > > that said i have only emulated power on x86_64 using libvirt or qemu idrectly never with openstack but i belive we
> > > used
> > > to support this i just hav enot done it personally.
> > > >
> > > > -Ken
> > > >
> > > > > I set the image property architecture=ppc64 to the ppc64 image I uploaded to glance but no success in
> > launching VM
> > > > > with those images. I am using KVM as hypervisor(qemu 2.10.0) in my compute nodes and I think it is not built
> > to
> > > > > support power architecture. For testing without OpenStack I manually built qemu on a x86_64 host with ppc64
> > > > > support(qemu-ppc64) and then I am able to host the ppc64 VM. But I dont know how to do this on my OpenStack
> > > > > cluster.
> > > > > Whether I need to manually build qemu on compute nodes with ppc64 support or I need to add some lines in my
> > > > > nova.conf to do this?? Any help to solve this issue would be much appreciated.
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > --
> > > > > Thank you for your time and have a nice day,
> > > > >
> > > > > With kind regards,
> > > > > Yedhu Sastri
> > > > >
> > > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > > Mailing list: http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack
> > > > > Post to : openstack@lists.openstack.org
> > > > > Unsubscribe : http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack
> > > >
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > Mailing list: http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack
> > > > Post to : openstack@lists.openstack.org
> > > > Unsubscribe : http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack
> >
> > __________________________________________________________________________
> > OpenStack Development Mailing List (not for usage questions)
> > Unsubscribe: OpenStack-dev-request@lists.openstack.org?subject:unsubscribe
> > http://lists.openstack.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/openstack-dev
>
>
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