[Users] Shutdown problems

[Scott Dowdle]

Greetings,

----- "HostGIS Support" <support at hostgis.com> wrote:
> To clarify further on versions:
> 
> The HN is 2.6.24 ovz009.1 on Fedora 9.
> 
> We must use 2.6.24 despite its "development" status because 2.6.18
> lacks support for AMCC/3ware RAID controllers. Aside from this shutdown
> issue, we have used it for 14 months now under high loads without issue.
> Aside from this shutdown issue, we consider it stable and production-grade.

As you may know, Red Hat updates their 2.6.18 kernel about ever6 six months with their update releases (example going from RHEL 5.2 -> 5.3) and in the process they backport a lot of drivers... although granted, the OpenVZ Project lags behind Red Hat releases.  My point is though, have you tried the current OpenVZ RHEL5-based kernel to see if it is compatible with your hardware?

I'm a Fedora fan, in fact I'm wearing a Fedora tee-shirt as I type this... and I love it on the desktop (used on the laptop I'm typing this from)... but it isn't a server OS unless you want to upgrade at least once a year.  As you probably know, Fedora has a rapid 6 month release cycle and a very limited support cycle (2 months after a new release comes out, 2 releases back is EOLed).  You said you are using Fedora 9 and that was EOLed a while ago.

Now to actually address your issue... have you searched for a bug report or checked the forums?  Has this issue been reported?  I could have looked myself but I'd rather encourage you to get familiar with the OpenVZ bugzilla system (http://bugzilla.openvz.org/).

You mentioned you are using veth devices... which I assume you had need to use... since they are more of a security risk than venet devices and have slightly more overhead.  So, what are you running in the containers that require veth?  I'm just wondering if we can find what processes, if any, are leading to your problem... although you did mention that all of the processes in the container are stopped.  What distro or distros are you running in your containers?

I believe the 2.6.24 kernel stays on the devel list (rather than being moved to retired status) because it is used in Ubuntu 8.04x LTS.  2.6.26 is available as a devel because it is used by Debian 5.  2.6.27 is there because the mainline kernel developers have stated they plan to maintain 2.6.27 for at least two more years.  I don't know how much commitment from OpenVZ/Parallels exists for these devel kernels... although 2.6.27 does look lke the most natural target to make it to "stable".  I also assume when RHEL6 comes out (whenever that might be), whatever kernel it is based on will also be a target for an OpenVZ stable kernel branch.

I think your best bet is to join an existing bug report (if one exists) or start a new one... and work with the kernel developers to gather information about the problem so they can solve it... assuming that the latest RHEL5-based kernel still doesn't support your RAID hardware.  Of course if the finding-a-fix process doesn't work out well for you within a reasonable amount of time, perhaps switching RAID cards would be an option... to something that is well supported in the RHEL5-based kernel.

TYL,
-- 
Scott Dowdle
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