Debian and Hyper-V VM drivers

[Mike Sterling]

(actually adding KY and Tom this time)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Sterling
> Sent: Sunday, June 24, 2012 9:07 PM
> To: 'Ben Hutchings'
> Cc: Andy Whitcroft; debian-kernel at lists.debian.org; Ubuntu kernel team
> Subject: RE: Debian and Hyper-V VM drivers
> 
> On Saturday, June 23, 2012 9:37 PM, Ben Hutchings
> [mailto:ben at decadent.org.uk] wrote:
> > On Sun, 2012-06-10 at 16:18 +0100, Ben Hutchings wrote:
> > [...]
> > > The problems I've found so far (by inspection):
> > >
> > > 1. The daemon leaks a file handle on every configuration update.
> >
> > Fixed by the attached 'tools-hv-fix-file-handle-leak.patch'
> >
> > > 2. It doesn't check for write failures, and it doesn't check
> > > correctly for read failures.
> >
> > Fixed by the attached 'tools-hv-check-for-read-write-errors.patch'.
> >
> > > 3. It stores state in /var/opt/hyperv, which is only appropriate for
> > > programs installed in /opt.  This should be configurable at build time.
> >
> > Changed by the attached 'tools-hv-fix-var-subdirectory.patch', but not
> > made configurable (because I don't see the need).
> >
> > > 4. The protocol between driver and daemon does not appear to be
> stable.
> > > Do they need to be upgraded in lockstep, or will either be backward-
> > > compatible with older versions of the other?
> >
> > Please answer this.
> >
> > > 5. The daemon uses incorrect types for strings, resulting in a large
> > > number of compiler warnings when building with 'gcc -Wall' (which is
> > > generally good practice).
> >
> > Fixed by the attached 'tools-hv-fix-string-types.patch'.
> >
> > > 6. When and how should the daemon be started?  There is no init
> > > script (or upstart job) provided, either in the linux source or the
> > > Ubuntu packaging.
> >
> > I downloaded the Linux Integration Services from
> > <https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=28188>
> and
> > found an init script in that.
> >
> > I also found
> > <https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/hv-kvp-daemon-init>,
> > but this is not useful for Debian (we don't use upstart by default).
> >
> > > [Less important:]
> > > 7. There is no Makefile, and the one added by Ubuntu is incorrect
> > > (make install doesn't respect $(DESTDIR)).
> >
> > Still TBD.
> >
> > > 8. The daemon doesn't detect or parse the OS release correctly
> > > (even, so far as I can see, on the distributions which it has
> > > explicit support for).
> >
> > Fixed by the attached 'tools-hv-parse-etc-os-release.patch'.
> >
> > > 9. Permissions of S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR | S_IROTH (octal 604) make no
> sense.
> >
> > Fixed by the attached 'tools-hv-fix-permissions.patch'.
> >
> > > According to the manual page, 'This pairing allows the Hyper-V host
> > > to pass configuration information (such as IP addresses) to the guest...'
> > > but I don't see any sign that the daemon actually applies any
> > > configuration.  Is this intended to be done by some other 'guest tool'
> > > distributed by Microsoft?  Is that the reason for (3) and/or (6)?
> >
> > I'm assuming this is not the case, since the package I downloaded from
> > MS did not contain any extra tools.  So the manual page should
> > probably be fixed too.
> >
> > I have *not* tested these changes beyond actually compiling, as I
> > don't have a Hyper-V installation on which to test.  Would you be able
> > to test a binary package, or provide remote access to a suitable VM?
> >
> > It is still important that I get an answer to question 4.
> 
> Hi Ben,
> 
> Thanks for following up. I'm on holiday this week, and then I'll be starting in
> a new role. I'm adding two of my colleagues in the Open Source Group, KY
> Srinivasan (developer) and Tom Hanrahan (program manager) who will own
> this moving forward.
> 
> KY will be best to answer #4, and we should be able to test a binary package
> or provide SSH access to a VM. However, without access to the host, there's
> not a lot of value in just having access to the VM.
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