[Bug 1337873] Re: Precise, Trusty, Utopic - ifupdown initialization problems caused by race condition

Dariusz Gadomski 1337873 at bugs.launchpad.net
Tue Nov 10 10:32:06 UTC 2015


Adding SRU proposal for Xenial.

** Patch added: "xenial_ifupdown_0.7.54ubuntu2.debdiff"
   https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ifupdown/+bug/1337873/+attachment/4515989/+files/xenial_ifupdown_0.7.54ubuntu2.debdiff

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1337873

Title:
  Precise, Trusty, Utopic - ifupdown initialization problems caused by
  race condition

Status in ifupdown package in Ubuntu:
  In Progress
Status in ifupdown source package in Precise:
  Confirmed
Status in ifupdown source package in Trusty:
  Confirmed
Status in ifupdown source package in Vivid:
  Confirmed
Status in ifupdown package in Debian:
  New

Bug description:
  [Impact]

   * Lack of proper synchronization in ifupdown causes a race condition
  resulting in occasional incorrect network interface initialization
  (e.g. in bonding case - wrong bonding settings, network unavailable
  because slave<->master interfaces initialization order was wrong

   * This is very annoying in case of large deployments (e.g. when
  bringing up 1000 machines it is almost guaranteed that at least a few
  of them will end up with network down).

   * It has been fixed by introducing hierarchical and per-interface
  locking mechanism ensuring the right order (along with the correct
  order in the /e/n/interfaces file) of initialization

  [Test Case]

   1. Create a VM with bonding configured with at least 2 slave interfaces.
   2. Reboot.
   3. If all interfaces are up - go to 2.

  [Regression Potential]

   * This change has been introduced upstream in Debian.
   * It does not require any config changes to existing installations.

  [Other Info]

  Original bug description:

  * please consider my bonding examples are using eth1 and eth2 as slave
   interfaces.

  ifupdown some race conditions explained bellow. ifenslave does not
  behave well with sysv networking and upstart network-interface scripts
  running together.

  !!!!
  case 1)
  (a) ifup eth0 (b) ifup -a for eth0
  -----------------------------------------------------------------
  1-1. Lock ifstate.lock file.
                                    1-1. Wait for locking ifstate.lock
                                        file.
  1-2. Read ifstate file to check
       the target NIC.
  1-3. close(=release) ifstate.lock
       file.
  1-4. Judge that the target NIC
       isn't processed.
                                    1-2. Read ifstate file to check
                                         the target NIC.
                                    1-3. close(=release) ifstate.lock
                                         file.
                                    1-4. Judge that the target NIC
                                         isn't processed.
  2. Lock and update ifstate file.
     Release the lock.
                                    2. Lock and update ifstate file.
                                       Release the lock.
  !!!

  to be explained

  !!!
  case 2)
  (a) ifenslave of eth0			 (b) ifenslave of eth0
  ------------------------------------------------------------------
  3. Execute ifenslave of eth0.	 3. Execute ifenslave of eth0.
  4. Link down the target NIC.
  5. Write NIC id to
     /sys/class/net/bond0/bonding
     /slaves then NIC gets up
                                    4. Link down the target NIC.
                                    5. Fails to write NIC id to
                                       /sys/class/net/bond0/bonding/
                                       slaves it is already written.
  !!!

  #####################################################################

  #### My setup:

  root at provisioned:~# cat /etc/modprobe.d/bonding.conf
  alias bond0 bonding options bonding mode=1 arp_interval=2000

  Both, /etc/init.d/networking and upstart network-interface begin
  enabled.

  #### Beginning:

  root at provisioned:~# cat /etc/network/interfaces
  # /etc/network/interfaces

  auto lo
  iface lo inet loopback

  auto eth0
  iface eth0 inet dhcp

  I'm able to boot with both scripts (networking and network-interface
  enabled) with no problem. I can also boot with only "networking"
  script enabled:

  ---
  root at provisioned:~# initctl list | grep network
  network-interface stop/waiting
  networking start/running
  ---

  OR only the script "network-interface" enabled:

  ---
  root at provisioned:~# initctl list | grep network
  network-interface (eth2) start/running
  network-interface (lo) start/running
  network-interface (eth0) start/running
  network-interface (eth1) start/running
  ---

  #### Enabling bonding:

  Following ifenslave configuration example (/usr/share/doc/ifenslave/
  examples/two_hotplug_ethernet), my /etc/network/interfaces has to
  look like this:

  ---
  auto eth1
  iface eth1 inet manual
      bond-master bond0

  auto eth2
  iface eth2 inet manual
      bond-master bond0

  auto bond0
  iface bond0 inet static
      bond-mode 1
      bond-miimon 100
      bond-primary eth1 eth2
   address 192.168.169.1
   netmask 255.255.255.0
   broadcast 192.168.169.255
  ---

  Having both scripts running does not make any difference since we
  are missing "bond-slaves" keyword on slave interfaces, for ifenslave
  to work, and they are set to "manual".

  Ifenslave code:

  """
  for slave in $BOND_SLAVES ; do
  ...
  # Ensure $slave is down.
  ip link set "$slave" down 2>/dev/null
  if ! sysfs_add slaves "$slave" 2>/dev/null ; then
   echo "Failed to enslave $slave to $BOND_MASTER. Is $BOND_MASTER
     ready and a bonding interface ?" >&2
  else
   # Bring up slave if it is the target of an allow-bondX stanza.
   # This is usefull to bring up slaves that need extra setup.
   if [ -z "$(which ifquery)" ] || ifquery --allow \"$BOND_MASTER\"
    --list | grep -q $slave; then
    ifup $v --allow "$BOND_MASTER" "$slave"
   fi
  """

  Without the keyword "bond-slaves" on the master interface declaration,
  ifenslave will NOT bring any slave interface up on the "master"
  interface ifup invocation.

  *********** Part 1

  So, having networking sysv init script AND upstart network-interface
  script running together... the following example works:

  ---
  root at provisioned:~# cat /etc/network/interfaces
  # /etc/network/interfaces

  auto lo
  iface lo inet loopback

  auto eth0
  iface eth0 inet dhcp

  auto eth1
  iface eth1 inet manual
      bond-master bond0

  auto eth2
  iface eth2 inet manual
      bond-master bond0

  auto bond0
  iface bond0 inet static
      bond-mode 1
      bond-miimon 100
      bond-primary eth1
      bond-slaves eth1 eth2
      address 192.168.169.1
      netmask 255.255.255.0
      broadcast 192.168.169.255
  ---

  Ifenslave script sets link down to all slave interfaces, declared by
  "bond-slaves" keyword, and assigns them to correct bonding. Ifenslave
  script ONLY tries to make a reentrant call to ifupdown if the slave
  interfaces have "allow-bondX" stanza (not our case).

  So this should not work, since when the master bonding interface
  (bond0) is called, ifenslave does not configure slaves without
  "allow-bondX" stanza. What is happening, why is it working ?

  If we disable upstart "network-interface" script.. our bonding stops
  to work on the boot. This is because upstart was the one setting
  the slave interfaces up (with the configuration above) and not
  sysv networking scripts.

  It is clear that ifenslave from sysv script invocation can set the
  slave interface down anytime (even during upstart script execution)
  so it might work and might not:

  """
  ip link set "$slave" down 2>/dev/null
  """

  root at provisioned:~# initctl list | grep network-interface
  network-interface (eth2) start/running
  network-interface (lo) start/running
  network-interface (bond0) start/running
  network-interface (eth0) start/running
  network-interface (eth1) start/running

  Since having the interface down is a requirement to slave it,
  running both scripts together (upstart and sysv) could create a
  situation where upstart puts slave interface online but ifenslave
  from sysv script puts it down and never bring it up again (because
  it does not have "allow-bondX" stanza).

  *********** Part 2

  What if I disable upstart "network-interface", stay only with the sysv
  script but introduce the "allow-bondX" stanza to slave interfaces ?

  The funny part begins... without upstart, the ifupdown tool calls
  ifenslave, for bond0 interface, and ifenslave calls this line:

  """
  for slave in $BOND_SLAVES ; do
  ...
   if [ -z "$(which ifquery)" ] || ifquery --allow \"$BOND_MASTER\"
    --list | grep -q $slave; then
    ifup $v --allow "$BOND_MASTER" "$slave"
   fi
  """

  But ifenslave stays waiting for the bond0 interface to be online
  forever. We do have a chicken egg situation now:

  * ifupdown trys to put bond0 interface online.
  * we are not running upstart network-interface script.
  * ifupdown for bond0 calls ifenslave.
  * ifenslave tries to find interfaces with "allow-bondX" stanza
  * ifenslave tries to ifup slave interfaces with that stanza
  * slave interfaces keep forever waiting for the master
  * master is waiting for the slave interface
  * slave interface is waiting for the master interface
  ... :D

  And we have an infinite loop for ifenslave:

  """
  # Wait for the master to be ready
  [ ! -f /run/network/ifenslave.$BOND_MASTER ] &&
   echo "Waiting for bond master $BOND_MASTER to be ready"
  while :; do
      if [ -f /run/network/ifenslave.$BOND_MASTER ]; then
          break
      fi
      sleep 0.1
  done
  """

  *********** Conclusion

  That can be achieved if correct triggers are set (like the ones I just
  showed). Not having ifupdown parallel executions (sysv and upstart,
  for example) can make an infinite loop to happen during the boot.

  Having parallel ifupdown executions can trigger race conditions
  between:

  1) ifupdown itself (case a on the bug description).
  2) ifupdown and ifenslave script (case b on the bug description).

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