1142947 - Do we have any ESX hardware capable of running rr?

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Infrastructure & Operations :: Virtualization, task)

Description

[(not currently active) Ted Mielczarek]

roc would like to be able to run tests under rr:
https://lists.mozilla.org/pipermail/dev-platform/2015-March/008977.html

rr requires access to performance counters that require a fairly modern Intel CPU (Nehalem or newer). These performance counters can be enabled in virtual machines, but it requires specific configuration. Amazon EC2 does not provide them, so we probably have to run our own hardware. Obviously the most straightforward solution here is "buy a machine and stick it under someone's desk" but that sucks for maintenence. If we have ESX hardware with a new enough CPU we can enable performance counters for VMs on that host and that would be a lot more sustainable:
http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=2030221

Do we have such hardware available? Apologies if this isn't the right component, I figured since the goal is to run unit tests this would want to be relops-managed.

Comment 1

[Greg Cox [:gcox]]

Attachment: cranky vPMC-enabled VM

The key part of that KB is the line at the bottom:
  "You cannot enable Virtual Performance Monitoring Counters in a virtual machine that is using Enhanced vMotion Compatibility."

We run EVC (kb.vmware.com/kb/1003212) extensively because in the general compute arena, having the ability to migrate VMs without disruption is key.  This is the first time I've come across something that would negate that.

Took a test VM, enabled the virt PMC flag, and it dutifully refused to boot (screenshot).  Or:

  <cknowles> Good news, the docs are right!  Bad news: the docs are right!

So, we can't do this for you on the general cluster.  You could make a standalone VM host do this, but then you're not really leveraging the good stuff of VMware.  You're probably best off going to raw hardware.  Sorry.

Comment 2

[(not currently active) Ted Mielczarek]

Thanks, even if it's not the answer I wanted it's good to know. I guess whether we went with a standalone VM host vs. physical hardware would be up to whoever is in charge of maintaining it.