ubuntu 8.0.4 server guest freezes with no load, after 10-20 minutes, on dell 1950 and 2950 hosts, but not on r905 - esx 3.5u2 build 110268

[johnshen]

I installed the server with all default options except for adding ssh server from stock server installation disk.

The guest server runs fine for a while, and then both the guest and host cpu and memory will suddenly (the performance monitoring lines are almost vertical) max out, and the vm will just freeze. There is no load in the vm.

The same guest cloned to r905, however, works just fine.

vmware-tools installation has no effect (before and after, the vm behaves exactly the same way).

other distributions (centos 5.2, suse 10) that i tested do not have this problem on any hosts.

i googled and searched the kb without finding anything. ubuntu 64 bit is in the installation list so i assume it is supported.

neither the guest vmware.log nor the host log shows anything. the host continues to run other guests just fine

any help is greatly appreciated.

~$ uname -a

Linux sv4vweb151 2.6.24-19-server #1 SMP Wed Aug 20 18:43:06 UTC 2008 x86_64 GNU/Linux

~$ cat /etc/issue

Ubuntu 8.04.1 \n \l

[Texiwill]

Hello,

What kernel options are used when you boot the VM? There are some that control time that make a difference. Also, I find that USB controllers within VMs, as well as so of the unneeded daemons cause some odd issues. I usually disable most if not all daemons that are unnecessary. Check for bluetooth, apmd, xend, xendomains, etc.

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.

CIO Virtualization Blog: http://www.cio.com/blog/index/topic/168354

As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

[johnshen]

actually i found out that it is a known problem. it has something to do with xeon processor and newer kernel. the solution is using a single vcpu

[http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=882246|http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=882246&highlight=ubuntuhardydell+esx]

so far, no one seems to know how to use more than 1 vcpu for ubuntu hardy heron on these 64bit xeon boxes in ESX 3. this is a fairly common hw platform and ubuntu is a top linux distribution, so it is a bit odd.