PPC64/hugepages is not supported by nova/libvirt driver.

[Breno Leitão]

[Impact]
Nova does not recognize PPC64LE as an architecture that supports hugepaged-backed VMs.

[Test Case]
Steps to reproduce:
On an openstack environment running on PPC64LE:
1. Configure compute nodes to use hugepages, e.g.:
   echo 1024 | sudo tee /sys/kernel/mm/hugepages/hugepages-65536kB/nr_hugepages
2. Set mem_page_size="65536" for a flavor
3. Launch a VM using the above flavor.

Expected result:
VM should be launched with hugepages and the libvirt xml should have

  <memoryBacking>
      <hugepages>
        <page size='65536' unit='KiB' nodeset='0'/>
      </hugepages>
  </memoryBacking>

Actual result:
VM is launched without hugepages.

There are no error logs in nova-scheduler.

[Regression Risk]
Risk is minimized by the fact that this change is just enabling the same code for ppc64el that is already enabled for Ubuntu/x86.

[dann frazier (dannf)]

This appears to be part of the upstream release in yakkety. I've backported this support to xenial an have a package posted here:
  ppa:ce-hyperscale/cloud-mitaka

@Breno: would you be able to verify this package?

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

I'd imagine the test case here is similar to the one in bug 1623871, but could it nonetheless be documented in the bug description? Thanks!

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Hello Breno, or anyone else affected,

Accepted nova into xenial-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nova/2:13.1.2-0ubuntu2 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, and change the tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

[Breno Leitão (breno-leitao)]

I am sorry for the delay, I am testing it

[Breno Leitão (breno-leitao)]

I just tested on Xenial/ppc64el and it works fine. Thanks

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package nova - 2:13.1.2-0ubuntu2

---------------
nova (2:13.1.2-0ubuntu2) xenial; urgency=medium

  [ dann frazier ]
  * d/p/libvirt-add-hugepages-support-for-Power.patch (LP: #1568086).
  * d/p/libvirt-add-hugepages-support-for-arm64.patch (LP: #1623871).

 -- Corey Bryant <email address hidden> Tue, 18 Oct 2016 13:56:15 -0400

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

The verification of the Stable Release Update for nova has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.