Bug 713286

+++ This bug was initially created as a clone of Bug #698108 +++

Description of problem:

  The latest update to virt-manager, release 0.8.7-2.fc14, introduced some
  problem I didn't have before.  For some reason my message logs are
  filled up with messages like this:

    libvirtd: 13:13:38.083: error : interfaceGetXMLDesc:355 : internal error
    could not get interface XML description (netcf: NETLINK socket operation
    failed - couldn't find ifindex for interface `br0:1`)

  As soon as virt-manager runs, this message fills up the message log
  pretty fast, one message per second.  It does not matter if a virtual
  machine is running at the time.

  Yes, I have an interface br0:1, but it's not used by any of the virtual
  machines and it's not mentioned in any configuration so I have no idea
  why virt-manager is suddenly keen to get hold of the interface.  None of
  the older virt-manager versions I used so far has shown any interest in
  this interface, nor did any of them log such a message.

  I even tried to add this interface to the libvirt configuration, but
  the GUI doesn't accept an interface with a colon in its name.

  So, what I did for now is to downgrade virt-mananger to version
  0.8.5-1.fc14.  This fixes the problem for me.

  However, I would be more confident if I

  1) knew why this message is generated now and
  2) how to avoid it.


Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):

  0.8.7-2

How reproducible:

  Create an alias interface with seom othe IPv4 address and start
  virt-manager.

Steps to Reproduce:
1.  ifconfig br0:1 192.168.7.7 netmask 255.255.255.0 up
2.  virt-manager
3.  Observe log output
  
Actual results:

  libvirtd: 13:13:38.083: error : interfaceGetXMLDesc:355 : internal error
  could not get interface XML description (netcf: NETLINK socket operation
  failed - couldn't find ifindex for interface `br0:1`)

Expected results:

  Silence

Additional info:

--- Additional comment from berrange on 2011-04-20 06:12:43 EDT ---

This is ultimately an issue at the netcf layer. It is reporting existence of an interface 'br0:1' but is incapable of providing its config.

There are two real issues here

 - It should be more robust and always be able to provide some kind of minimal config for any interface it reports as existing

 - Alias interfaces should not actually be reported at all. These are just a figment of imagination of the legacy net-tools commands, and do not exist for the kernel or iproute tools. They should just appear as additional IPv4 addresses within the main NIC config.

--- Additional comment from crobinso on 2011-04-20 10:16:19 EDT ---

Agreed, trying to work around this in virt-manager would just be a pain. Reassigning to netcf

Laine, any thoughts?

--- Additional comment from crobinso on 2011-04-20 10:17:41 EDT ---

*** Bug 693013 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

--- Additional comment from laine on 2011-04-24 20:57:45 EDT ---

So the problem is that netcf has a single list of interfaces, and assumes that all of those interfaces will have both config file info, as well as in-kernel info - it is totally reasonable to ask for the "inactive" xml of "br0:1".

I'll need to think about this a bit, but I'm sure we can come up with some solution that makes sense.

What has changed in virt-manager that has made this a problem? Is it now displaying the live status of the interfaces rather than just the static config info?

--- Additional comment from troels on 2011-05-27 04:08:57 EDT ---

The problem exists on RHEL 6.1 (libvirt-0.8.7-18.el6.x86_64, netcf-libs-0.1.7-1.el6.x86_64), as well. And like in the closed bug 693013, it doesn't have to be related to aliased bridge interfaces: As long as there is at least one bridge interface (like "br1") which libvirt doesn't know about, there will be a storm of syslog messages when virt-manager is running.

Should a separate BZ be opened for the RHEL 6.1 case, or is this BZ sufficient?