[Bug 1546565] Re: Ownership/Permissions of vhost_user sockets for openvswitch-dpdk make them unusable by libvirt/qemu/kvm

[Launchpad Bug Tracker]

This bug was fixed in the package dpdk - 2.2.0-0ubuntu9

---------------
dpdk (2.2.0-0ubuntu9) yakkety; urgency=medium

  * d/p/ubuntu-backport-[36-37] fix virtio issues (LP: #1570195):
    - don't let DPDK initialize virtio devices still in use by the kernel
    - this avoids conflicts between kernel and dpdk usage of those devices
    - an admin now has to unbind/bind devices as on physical hardware
    - this is in the dpdk 16.04 release and delta can then be dropped
    - d/dpdk-doc.README.Debian update for changes in virtio-pci handling
    - d/dpdk.interfaces update for changes in virtio-pci handling
  * d/p/ubuntu-backport-38... fix for memory leak (LP: #1570466):
    - call vhost_destroy_device on removing vhost user ports to fix memory leak
    - this likely is in the dpdk 16.07 release and delta can then be dropped
  * d/p/ubuntu-fix-vhost-user-socket-permission.patch fox (LP: #1546565):
    - when vhost_user sockets are created they are owner:group of the process
    - the DPDK api to create those has no way to specify owner:group
    - to fix that without breaking the API and potential workaround code in
      consumers of the library like openvswitch 2.6 for example. This patch
      adds an EAL commandline option to specify user:group created vhost_user
      sockets should have.

 -- Christian Ehrhardt <christian.ehrhardt at canonical.com>  Wed, 27 Apr
2016 07:52:48 -0500

** Changed in: dpdk (Ubuntu)
       Status: Triaged => Fix Released

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1546565

Title:
  Ownership/Permissions of vhost_user sockets for openvswitch-dpdk make
  them unusable by libvirt/qemu/kvm

Status in dpdk package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in openvswitch-dpdk package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged
Status in dpdk source package in Xenial:
  Fix Committed
Status in openvswitch-dpdk source package in Xenial:
  New

Bug description:
  As of today the vhost_user sockets created by openvswitch have root:root file ownership.
  In fact creation is actually done by code the DPDK lib, but the path is passed to it from openvswitch.

  The API called to DPDK has no notion of ownership/groups.
  It just "inherits" what the current running process has.
  But due to LP:1546556 the process ownership/group can't be changed the usual way openvsiwtch would when using dpdk.

  KVM as invoked by libvirt will run under libvirt-qemu:kvm and will
  thereby be unable to access these sockets.

  The current workaround is:
     1. wait after start of openvswitch (only then the sockets exist)
     2. chown all created vhost_iuser sockets that are to be used 
        e.g. sudo chown libvirt-qemu /var/run/openvswitch/vhost-user-1 
     3. if one wants to separate vhost_user sockets from the "rest" of openvswitch /var/run files use e.g.:
        DPDK_OPTS='[...] -vhost_sock_dir /var/run/openvswitch-vhost [...]
     X. this has to be redone every start/restart of oepnvswitch
     Y. if permissions are changed in a way that openvswitch can no more remove them on shutdown they won't re-initialize properly on the next start

  That is a severe shortcoming and not really applicable to a supported production environment.
  There are discussions ongoing about providing an option to specify owner/group/permissions of vhost_user sockets which would solve the issue.
  Unfortunately the patch series is blocked by a wider discussion about moving the dpdk configuration to the ovsdb (which makes sense, but stalls the acceptance of the patches providing the interface to modify permissions.

  Link to the last thread about moving dpdk config to ovsdb: http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.network.openvswitch.devel/59186
  Link to the last thread about making vhost_user socket user/group configurable - patch 4&5 of this: http://openvswitch.org/pipermail/dev/2015-December/063568.html
  But as mentioned it was decided to get the db config discussion done first.

  It is unsure if the patches once final will make it into openvswitch 2.5 - it would be great if they would.
  But even if not they shouldn't appear too much after and we might be able to cherry pick them?

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