The kvm kernel module includes a number of trace events which can be
useful when debugging system behavior. Even on production systems these
trace events can be used to observe guest behavior and identify the
source of problems.
The kvm_flightrecorder script is a command-line wrapper for the
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing interface. Kernel symbols do not need to be
installed.
This script captures a fixed-size buffer of KVM trace events. Recent
events overwrite the oldest events when the buffer size is exceeded and
it is possible to leave KVM tracing enabled for any period of time with
just a fixed-size buffer. If the buffer is large enough this script is
a useful tool for collecting detailed information after an issue occurs
with a guest. Hence the name "flight recorder".
The script can also be used in 'tail' mode to simply view KVM trace
events as they occur. This is handy for development and to ensure that
the guest is indeed running.
Signed-off-by: Stefan Hajnoczi<address@hidden>
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scripts/kvm/kvm_flightrecorder | 126 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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create mode 100755 scripts/kvm/kvm_flightrecorder
diff --git a/scripts/kvm/kvm_flightrecorder b/scripts/kvm/kvm_flightrecorder
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+#!/usr/bin/env python
+#
+# KVM Flight Recorder - ring buffer tracing script
+#
+# Copyright (C) 2012 IBM Corp
+#
+# Author: Stefan Hajnoczi<address@hidden>
+#
+# This script provides a command-line interface to kvm ftrace and is designed
+# to be used as a flight recorder that is always running. To start in-memory
+# recording:
+#
+# sudo kvm_flightrecorder start 8192 # 8 MB per-cpu ring buffers
+#
+# The per-cpu ring buffer size can be given in KB as an optional argument to
+# the 'start' subcommand.
+#
+# To stop the flight recorder:
+#
+# sudo kvm_flightrecorder stop
+#
+# To dump the contents of the flight recorder (this can be done when the
+# recorder is stopped or while it is running):
+#
+# sudo kvm_flightrecorder dump>/path/to/dump.txt
+#
+# To observe the trace while it is running, use the 'tail' subcommand:
+#
+# sudo kvm_flightrecorder tail
+#
+# Note that the flight recorder may impact overall system performance by
+# consuming CPU cycles. No disk I/O is performed since the ring buffer holds a
+# fixed-size in-memory trace.
+
+import sys
+import os
+
+tracing_dir = '/sys/kernel/debug/tracing'
+
+def trace_path(*args):
+ return os.path.join(tracing_dir, *args)
+
+def write_file(path, data):
+ open(path, 'wb').write(data)
+
+def enable_event(subsystem, event, enable):
+ write_file(trace_path('events', subsystem, event, 'enable'), '1' if enable
else '0')
+
+def enable_subsystem(subsystem, enable):
+ write_file(trace_path('events', subsystem, 'enable'), '1' if enable else
'0')
+
+def start_tracing():
+ enable_subsystem('kvm', True)
+ write_file(trace_path('tracing_on'), '1')
+
+def stop_tracing():
+ write_file(trace_path('tracing_on'), '0')
+ enable_subsystem('kvm', False)
+ write_file(trace_path('events', 'enable'), '0')
+ write_file(trace_path('current_tracer'), 'nop')
+
+def dump_trace():
+ tracefile = open(trace_path('trace'), 'r')
+ try:
+ lines = True
+ while lines:
+ lines = tracefile.readlines(64 * 1024)
+ sys.stdout.writelines(lines)
+ except KeyboardInterrupt:
+ pass
+
+def tail_trace():
+ try:
+ for line in open(trace_path('trace_pipe'), 'r'):
+ sys.stdout.write(line)
+ except KeyboardInterrupt:
+ pass
+
+def usage():
+ print 'Usage: %s start [buffer_size_kb] | stop | dump | tail' % sys.argv[0]
+ print 'Control the KVM flight recorder tracing.'
+ sys.exit(0)
+
+def main():
+ if len(sys.argv)< 2:
+ usage()
+
+ cmd = sys.argv[1]
+ if cmd == '--version':
+ print 'kvm_flightrecorder version 1.0'
+ sys.exit(0)
+
+ if not os.path.isdir(tracing_dir):
+ print 'Unable to tracing debugfs directory, try:'
+ print 'mount -t debugfs none /sys/kernel/debug'
+ sys.exit(1)
+ if not os.access(tracing_dir, os.W_OK):
+ print 'Unable to write to tracing debugfs directory, please run as
root'
+ sys.exit(1)
+
+ if cmd == 'start':
+ stop_tracing() # clean up first
+
+ if len(sys.argv) == 3:
+ try:
+ buffer_size_kb = int(sys.argv[2])
+ except ValueError:
+ print 'Invalid per-cpu trace buffer size in KB'
+ sys.exit(1)
+ write_file(trace_path('buffer_size_kb'), str(buffer_size_kb))
+ print 'Per-CPU ring buffer size set to %d KB' % buffer_size_kb
+
+ start_tracing()
+ print 'KVM flight recorder enabled'
+ elif cmd == 'stop':
+ stop_tracing()
+ print 'KVM flight recorder disabled'
+ elif cmd == 'dump':
+ dump_trace()
+ elif cmd == 'tail':
+ tail_trace()
+ else:
+ usage()
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+ sys.exit(main())