I am not sure Nova is the best candidate for this, but reporting nevertheless. Feel free to move to another project that is a better fit.
This happened in gate in Queens.
http://logs.openstack.org/74/495974/4/check/gate-tempest-dsvm-neutron-full-ubuntu-xenial/c61f703/logs/testr_results.html.gz
In instance console log, we can see:
[ 0.732045] ..TIMER: vector=0x30 apic1=0 pin1=2 apic2=-1 pin2=-1
[ 0.736045] ..MP-BIOS bug: 8254 timer not connected to IO-APIC
[ 0.736045] ...trying to set up timer (IRQ0) through the 8259A ...
[ 0.736045] ..... (found apic 0 pin 2) ...
[ 0.736045] ....... failed.
[ 0.736045] ...trying to set up timer as Virtual Wire IRQ...
[ 0.744045] ..... failed.
[ 0.744045] ...trying to set up timer as ExtINT IRQ...
[ 0.752046] ..... failed :(.
[ 0.752046] Kernel panic - not syncing: IO-APIC + timer doesn't work! Boot with apic=debug and send a report. Then try booting with the 'noapic' option.
[ 0.752046]
[ 0.752046] Pid: 1, comm: swapper/0 Not tainted 3.2.0-80-virtual #116-Ubuntu
[ 0.752046] Call Trace:
[ 0.752046] [<ffffffff8164639e>] panic+0x91/0x1a4
[ 0.752046] [<ffffffff81d0b1ae>] setup_IO_APIC+0x651/0x693
[ 0.752046] [<ffffffff81d07651>] native_smp_prepare_cpus+0x1c4/0x207
[ 0.752046] [<ffffffff81cf9ca4>] kernel_init+0x8c/0x169
[ 0.752046] [<ffffffff81669234>] kernel_thread_helper+0x4/0x10
[ 0.752046] [<ffffffff81cf9c18>] ? start_kernel+0x3c7/0x3c7
[ 0.752046] [<ffffffff81669230>] ? gs_change+0x13/0x13
Kernel panics in guests are unlikely to be Nova bugs. This is probably an underlying kvm / libvirt issue.