Bug 633380

Summary: [6.2 FEAT] Include QED image format for KVM guests
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Reporter: IBM Bug Proxy <bugproxy>
Component: qemu-kvmAssignee: Anthony Liguori <aliguori>
Status: CLOSED ERRATA QA Contact: Virtualization Bugs <virt-bugs>
Severity: medium Docs Contact:
Priority: medium    
Version: 6.2CC: amit.shah, bsarathy, jjarvis, juzhang, knoel, mkenneth, nobody+PNT0273897, sbest, shuang, tburke, virt-maint
Target Milestone: betaKeywords: FutureFeature, OtherQA
Target Release: 6.2   
Hardware: x86_64   
OS: All   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: qemu-kvm-0.12.1.2-2.181.el6 Doc Type: Enhancement
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of: Environment:
Last Closed: 2011-12-06 15:43:31 UTC Type: ---
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
Bug Depends On:    
Bug Blocks: 580953, 633370, 638197, 659725, 693510    

Description IBM Bug Proxy 2010-09-13 16:53:34 UTC
1. Feature Overview:
Feature Id: [67243]
a. Name of Feature: [6.1 FEAT] Include QED image format for KVM guests
b. Feature Description
QED is a disk image format that supports sparse images and backing files at new levels of
performance and data integrity which are not available in existing formats. It also provides a base
for improved block migration/streaming (see separately filed features).


2. Feature Details:
Sponsor: LTC Open Virtualization
Architectures:  x86_64, 

Arch Specificity: purely common code
Affects Kernel Modules: Field does not exist
Delivery Mechanism: Direct from Community
Category: other
Request Type: Package - Update Version
d. Upstream Acceptance: Field does not exist
Sponsor Priority P3
f. Severity: normal
IBM Confidential: No
Code Contribution: IBM code
g. Component Version Target:---

3. Business Case
A high performance and reliable disk format that supports fast provisioning is needed for the IBM
public cloud to reduce the time for VM deployment.

4. Primary contact at Red Hat:
John Jarvis jjarvis

5. Primary contacts at Partner:
Project Management Contact:
Michael W. Wortman, wortman.com

Technical contact(s):
Stefan Hajnoczi, stefan.hajnoczi.com

Comment 2 John Jarvis 2010-09-21 21:21:53 UTC
What is the component for this and is it upstream?  Please provide more details
about is being requested here.

Comment 3 IBM Bug Proxy 2010-09-21 21:31:03 UTC
------- Comment From ryanh.com 2010-09-21 17:28 EDT-------
Sorry, our BZ doesn't have much in the component bucket for userspace changes.  This is a patchset to qemu.  It isn't upstream yet; RFC posted to community, mergable patches coming out this week.

------- Comment From aliguori.com 2010-09-21 17:30 EDT-------
The component is QEMU, the patches have been posted and are expected to be accepted upstream shortly.

We don't have the ability to select a component in our BZ strangely enough.

Comment 4 John Jarvis 2010-09-21 21:42:27 UTC
Great, thanks.

Comment 5 IBM Bug Proxy 2010-10-04 16:21:39 UTC
------- Comment From rsisk.com 2010-10-04 11:22 EDT-------
Code Upstream Status: Submitted

Comment 7 Dor Laor 2010-11-17 15:17:10 UTC
We need to be fully convinced that the QED perf/functionality cannot be provided with qcow2. That's why for the moment it's in conditional_nak state by design.

Comment 10 Dor Laor 2011-02-02 20:35:44 UTC
After long evaluation period we came to conclusion that it's too early to include QED in rhel6.1 and we rather try improve qcow2/qcow3 in order to get to similar performance figures.

Comment 11 IBM Bug Proxy 2011-02-04 23:30:59 UTC
------- Comment From ryanh.com 2011-02-04 18:22 EDT-------
The IBM Public Compute Cloud requires a image format that has both strong data integrity as well as very high (raw) performance that can be used to eliminate image deployment time.  This capability has a direct impact on Compute Cloud revenue generation and is a critical, must-have feature.  Currently qcow2 does not meet the above requirements w.r.t performance and data integrity.  The deficiencies have been discussed in great detail in technical interlocks in the community and between IBM and RedHat.  Furthermore, the current planning around qcow3 is not a sufficient alternative due to the time-frame in which this feature is needed for the IBM Compute Cloud business.

The IBM Public Compute Cloud is scheduled to deploy this feature in 2011 based on RHEL6.1.

The requested feature is already available and committed upstream in QEMU.

IBM is requesting this upstream feature be included as Tech Preview in RHEL6.1.

Comment 12 IBM Bug Proxy 2011-02-05 18:50:56 UTC
------- Comment From tpnoonan.com 2011-02-05 13:44 EDT-------
(In reply to comment #12)
> The IBM Public Compute Cloud requires a image format that has both strong data
> integrity as well as very high (raw) performance that can be used to eliminate
> image deployment time.  This capability has a direct impact on Compute Cloud
> revenue generation and is a critical, must-have feature.  Currently qcow2 does
> not meet the above requirements w.r.t performance and data integrity.  The
> deficiencies have been discussed in great detail in technical interlocks in the
> community and between IBM and RedHat.  Furthermore, the current planning around
> qcow3 is not a sufficient alternative due to the time-frame in which this
> feature is needed for the IBM Compute Cloud business.
> The IBM Public Compute Cloud is scheduled to deploy this feature in 2011 based
> on RHEL6.1.
> The requested feature is already available and committed upstream in QEMU.
> IBM is requesting this upstream feature be included as Tech Preview in RHEL6.1.

Bottom line QEMU
delivers the required provisioning performance while qcow2 does not.

Comment 16 Suqin Huang 2011-08-16 02:16:48 UTC
Hi Anthony,
QED is mainly developed and tested by IBM, can IBM test it?

Thanks
Suqin

Comment 17 John Jarvis 2011-08-16 12:33:16 UTC
IBM is signed up to test and provide feedback, setting OtherQA.

Comment 18 John Jarvis 2011-08-16 12:34:18 UTC
This enhancement request was evaluated by the full Red Hat Enterprise Linux
team for inclusion in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux minor release.   As a result
of this evaluation, Red Hat has tentatively approved inclusion of this feature
in the next Red Hat Enterprise Linux Update minor release.   While it is a goal
to include this enhancement in the next minor release of Red Hat Enterprise
Linux, the enhancement is not yet committed for inclusion in the next minor
release pending the next phase of actual code integration and successful Red
Hat and partner testing.

Comment 20 IBM Bug Proxy 2011-10-04 12:41:03 UTC
------- Comment From stefan.hajnoczi.com 2011-10-04 08:34 EDT-------
I have verified this feature with:
* RHEL 6.2 guest install
* Fedora 16 LXDE guest install
* qemu-iotests

Comment 23 errata-xmlrpc 2011-12-06 15:43:31 UTC
Since the problem described in this bug report should be
resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a
resolution of ERRATA.

For information on the advisory, and where to find the updated
files, follow the link below.

If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report.

http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2011-1531.html