Testing KVM with kvm autotest

kvm-autotest is an effort by KVM developers to create a suite of regression tests for KVM.

Fedora virtualization testers can help improve KVM by running kvm-autotest on their own hardware. The kvm-autotest wiki contains some instructions on doing this, but to get started quickly try the following:

 $> yum install qemu-system-x86 qemu-img

 $> mkdir -p ~/autotest/iso && cd ~/autotest/iso
 $> wget http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/8/Fedora/i386/iso/Fedora-8-i386-DVD.iso
 $> cd ..
 $> git clone git://github.com/ehabkost/autotest.git

 $> mkdir -p /tmp/kvm_autotest_root/{iso/linux,images}
 $> ln -s ~/autotest/iso/Fedora-8-i386-DVD.iso /tmp/kvm_autotest_root/iso/linux/
 $> ln -s /usr/bin/qemu-kvm /tmp/kvm_autotest_root/qemu
 $> ln -s /usr/bin/qemu-img /tmp/kvm_autotest_root/qemu-img

 $> cd kvm-autotest/client/tests/kvm
 $> cp kvm_tests.cfg.sample kvm_tests.cfg

 # FIXME: this is lame, just disables kvm_install
 $> sed -e 's/^\(r = job.run_test\)/#\1/' < control > control.fedora

and then as root:

 $> ../../bin/autotest ./control.fedora

Any errors encountered should be reported via bugzilla.

Note: this requires Fedora rawhide and at least qemu-0.10-5.fc11.

Common Problem:

If kvm_autotest fails with an error similar the one below it may be the fact your machine is slower than the one use to generate the step files:

20090429-143237 Fedora.8.32.install: ERROR: barrier_2: Barrier failed at step 3 after 85 seconds (timeout)

you can use the step editor to edit the step file and increase the time-out:

 
[kvm_runtest_2]# ./stepeditor.py steps/Fedora-8-i386.steps