[Bug 886270] Re: upstart needs about 8h to start a server

[Thomas Schweikle]

A successful boot overwrites "/var/log/boot.log" --- didn't had a chance to find out what happened, because:
* the server does not have network
* the server does not provide an interactive console
* BIOS-Console redirection doesn't work reliably enough to have a full log
* Video-Console redirection doesn't provide more than one screen
* the server is far to far away to use other ideas to get a readable log

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Foundations Bugs, which is subscribed to upstart in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/886270

Title:
  upstart needs about 8h to start a server

Status in “upstart” package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  After upgrading from Ubuntu 11.04 to 11.10 and applying all available
  updates, upstart needs about 8h to start a server. The upstart process
  hangs after while network interfaces are started. The startup takes
  longer as more cores and network interfaces are available (doesn't
  mater if virtual or real --- only the number counts).

  On a system with 2 cores and 8 network interfaces (2 real (1 wlan, 1 ethernet), 6 virtual) it takes about 3 minutes to show the prompt)
  On a system with 4 cores and 4 network interfaces (1 real, 4 virtual) it takes about 8 minutes to show the prompt)
  On a system with 16 cores and 10 network interfaces (4 real, 6 virtual) it takes about 4 hours (!) to show the prompt)

  The first and second system hang after or while initializing
  networking, the third system hangs after mounting devices. All systems
  taking a long time initializing networking. Since it is quite
  difficult to find out what really happens.

  There are some possibilities:
  1. Some events are not generated as expected, upstart waiting until these events are generated.
  2. Some events are generated, but the event queue kicks them out before they are handled
  3. Upstart starts scripts at the wrong time (networking before /run and /var are mounted
  4. Events are generated before the task, the event shall be generated by is really done
      (may be by pushing scripts or programs into background, reporting immediately they ran successfully)
  5. Events are generated, but an other part of upstart reverts the task reported as done confusing itself
      (I am seeing various multiple started, stopped, started, stopped for on and the same script while booting)

  I'd await upstart starting the system within reasonable times ---
  about a few minutes when checking disks, about a few 10seconds
  normaly, not quarters of an hour or hours!

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
  Package: upstart 1.3-0ubuntu11
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.1.0-2.3-server 3.1.0
  Uname: Linux 3.1.0-2-server x86_64
  ApportVersion: 1.25-0ubuntu1
  Architecture: amd64
  Date: Fri Nov  4 18:48:53 2011
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Server 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release amd64 (20110426)
  ProcEnviron:
   LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  SourcePackage: upstart
  UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2011-09-19 (46 days ago)

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/upstart/+bug/886270/+subscriptions