From KVM

Contents 1 Stable Guest ABI 2 Detailed 2.1 Why is it useful? 2.2 How to run 2.3 How to test 2.4 Potential migration issues 2.5 Backward/forward compatibility issues 2.6 Specific issues with some releases 3 Test cases 4 Links

Stable Guest ABI

Allow guest virtual machines to be presented with the same ABI across QEMU upgrades.

Detailed

Why is it useful?

Changing guest ABI can confuse or break guests.

This is particularly relevant for Windows guests where a guest ABI change may require Windows installs to be reactivated.

How to run

libvirt takes care of it.

How to test

Requirement: At least one guest image installed before executing this case.

  1)  Edit an existing guests configuration using virsh edit
  2) Set the machine attribute to pc e.g.

               <os>
                 <type arch='x86_64' machine='pc'>hvm</type>

  3) Check the newly saved configuration using virsh dumpxml
  4) Verify the machine attribute is now pc-0.11 e.g.

               <os>
                 <type arch='x86_64' machine='pc-0.11'>hvm</type>

  5) Start the guest and verify that it boots correctly as before.

Potential migration issues

Backward/forward compatibility issues

Specific issues with some releases

Test cases

Links

For additional information, see Features/KVM Stable Guest ABI and Features/KVM Stable PCI Addresses on the Fedora Project Wiki.