Re: [Qemu-block] [Qemu-devel] Question about odd snapshot behaviour

[Kevin Wolf]

[ CC: qemu-block ]

Am 19.10.2015 um 07:27 hat Sam Bobroff geschrieben:
> Hi all,
> 
> While working through the QEMU code that saves and loads snapshots, I've
> noticed some confusing behaviour when using named VM snapshots that may need 
> to
> be fixed somehow. This is what I've noticed:
> 
> * If I create two empty qcow2 filesystems: fs1.qcow2 and fs2.qcow2:
>       * e.g. qemu-image create -f qcow2 fs1.qcow2 10G
>       * e.g. qemu-image create -f qcow2 fs2.qcow2 10G
> * Then boot the guest with the above filesystems as hda and hdb (my guest's 
> rootfs
>   is an initramfs, not either of these):
>       * e.g. qemu-system-ppc64 ... -hda fs1.qcow2 -hdb fs2.qcow2
> * In the QEMU monitor, create a blockdev snapshot on hd2 called "foo":
>       e.g. snapshot_blkdev_internal scsi0-hd1 foo
> * Check fs2 on the host command line:
>       e.g. qemu-img snapshot -l fs2.qcow2
>       Snapshot list:
>       ID        TAG                 VM SIZE                DATE       VM CLOCK
>       1         foo                       0 2015-10-19 15:56:29   00:00:20.969
> * In the QEMU monitor, save the vm state as "bar":
>       e.g. savevm bar
> * Check the snapshot on fs1:
>       e.g. info snapshots
>       ID        TAG                 VM SIZE                DATE       VM CLOCK
>       1         bar                    215M 2015-10-19 04:57:13   00:01:05.589
> * Check fs2 again on the host command line:
>       e.g. qemu-img snapshot -l fs2.qcow2
>       Snapshot list:
>       ID        TAG                 VM SIZE                DATE       VM CLOCK
>       1         foo                       0 2015-10-19 15:56:29   00:00:20.969
>       2         bar                       0 2015-10-19 15:57:13   00:01:05.589
> 
> * Now the fun part: overwrite the bar snapshot on fs1 by ID:
>       * savevm 1
> * Examine the results from the monitor:
>       * e.g. info snapshots
>       There is no suitable snapshot available
> * Examine fs1 and fs2 from the command line:
>       * e.g. qemu-img snapshot -l fs1.qcow2 
>       Snapshot list:
>       ID        TAG                 VM SIZE                DATE       VM CLOCK
>       1         bar                    215M 2015-10-19 16:00:45   00:04:36.065
>       * e.g. qemu-img snapshot -l fs2.qcow2 
>       Snapshot list:
>       ID        TAG                 VM SIZE                DATE       VM CLOCK
>       2         bar                       0 2015-10-19 15:57:13   00:01:05.589
>       3         bar                       0 2015-10-19 16:00:45   00:04:36.065

I must admit that I wouldn't have been able to predict this result. :-)

Generally, internal snapshots with multiple disks are somewhat tricky
because we have individual names and IDs in every image file, and each
file can individually be snapshotted, but need to create a consistent
view from it.

> So what seems odd is:
> 
> * QEMU has lost the bar snapshot on fs1, although qemu-img still shows
>   it and it re-appears in QEMU if the guest is started with only
>   hd1.qcow attached.

This one I think is a feature: A snapshot can only be loaded if it's
present on all image files. Loading the snapshot only on some disks and
leaving the other disks alone is likely to result in an inconsistent
state.

> * QEMU has deleted the snapshot named "foo" on hd2, even though we issued
>   "savevm 1" and the old snapshot (on hd1) with ID 1 was named "bar". This
>   surprised me.

You mean we should check whether a snapshot identified by an ID has the
same name on all image files before it's considered valid? That might be
a reasonable constraint.

What I would have expected is that the old snapshot with ID 1 indeed
gets deleted, but a new one with ID 1 is created again. I'm not sure if
I would have expected "foo" or "bar" as its name, I could argue either
way.

> * QEMU has created a snapshot on hd2 with a duplicate name ("bar") and if we
>   issue a "loadvm bar" QEMU loads the snapshot with ID 1 on hd1 and the first
>   snapshot with the name "bar" on hd2 which is the one with ID 2. That is not
>   the snapshot that matches the vm state (which is the one with ID 3) and
>   presumably can lead to filesystem corruption on hd2.

Yup, this doesn't seem very nice. I'm not sure whether we can forbid
duplicate names, though, without breaking compatibility in an
unacceptable way.

On the other hand, IDs and names don't really mix well and make it too
easy to shoot yourself in the foot. Maybe it's bad enough to justify
even some incompatibilities.

> Do these seem like bugs? Should I try to find a way to fix some or all of 
> them?
> 
> (Note: I checked the launchpad bug list but didn't see these listed.)

I'm not sure whether to call them bugs, but there's definitely a safety
check or two missing. Let's discuss what the exact behaviour should be,
and then you can go ahead and write the fixes to get that behaviour.

Kevin