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I collected some logs from grenache-1:3, it looks like a ssh issue

[2023-03-30T09:41:31.421356+02:00] [debug] [pid:754318] Wait for SSH on host grenache-4.qa.suse.de (timeout: 120)
[2023-03-30T09:43:31.511924+02:00] [debug] [pid:754318] grenache-4.qa.suse.de does not seems to have an active SSH server. Continuing anyway.
xterm PID is 757340
[2023-03-30T09:43:31.519706+02:00] [debug] [pid:754318] <<< backend::baseclass::start_ssh_serial(hostname="grenache-4.qa.suse.de", username="root", password="SECRET")
[2023-03-30T09:43:31.520774+02:00] [debug] [pid:754318] <<< backend::baseclass::new_ssh_connection(password="SECRET", hostname="grenache-4.qa.suse.de", username="root")
[2023-03-30T09:45:40.840506+02:00] [debug] [pid:754318] Could not connect to root@grenache-4.qa.suse.de, Retrying after some seconds...

This backend has been perfectly working until this was fixed: https://progress.opensuse.org/issues/124685#note-26
I got answer on that ticket that there is not correlation, but anyway from the same date is happening, in latest build is even less stable, restarting 3 times automatically is not enough to make pass a job.

I could check that this was happening (not an exact list):
NOVALINK_LPAR_ID 4,5,6,10 were working fine.
NOVALINK_LPAR_ID 7,8,9 fail consistently.

This is our salt configuration: https://gitlab.suse.de/openqa/salt-pillars-openqa/-/blob/master/openqa/workerconf.sls

Adding more information from:
https://sd.suse.com/servicedesk/customer/portal/1/SD-118372

from Michal Suchanek:

The redcurrant machine is a very strange configuration. There is Novalink installed but the management is taken by powerhmc1 (which means that hmc1 can manage the machine but hmc2 or the management partition cannot). The Novalink management partition is not even booted.

From the HMC LPARS redcurrant-1 to redcurrant-12 appear configured and running.

lssyscfg -m redcurrant -r lpar -F lpar_id,name,state
1,vios,Running
2,novalink,Open Firmware
3,redcurrant-1,Running
4,redcurrant-2,Running
5,redcurrant-3,Running
6,redcurrant-4,Running
7,redcurrant-10,Running
8,redcurrant-5,Running
9,redcurrant-12,Running
10,redcurrant-11,Running
11,redcurrant-6,Running
12,redcurrant-8,Running
13,redcurrant-9,Running
14,redcurrant-7,Running
15,Multipath-test,Not Activated
16,VIOS2,Not Activated

No grub configuration was provided to grub, grub finished, nothing was booted.

MR to disabling failing instance for NOVALINK:
https://gitlab.suse.de/openqa/salt-pillars-openqa/-/merge_requests/520

I took grenache-5 to experiment. I realized that the IP config in the PowerPC Firmware war missing and reconfigured it with the following values:

Server IP.....................10.162.0.1
Client IP.....................10.162.6.241
Gateway IP....................10.162.63.254
Subnet Mask...................255.255.192.0

Afterwards I could still observe the same issue and checked with tcpdump that all files are served correctly from qanet which is the case. However, I found https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/could-not-allocate-memory-rtas-grub-or-yaboot-ppcbe and tried the described steps in "Resolving The Problem" to reset the nvram content which indeed worked. I'm now able to boot into our grub PXE menu again. However I have no clue what caused this - the article mentions "Memory fragmentation" but I didn't see the described error messages, just the symptoms where the same.

I did the same now for grenache-6 and 7 (not sure why 7 was disabled in https://gitlab.suse.de/openqa/salt-pillars-openqa/-/merge_requests/520 as it was reported as "working")

I think we're seeing the same with the nessberry LPARs: https://openqa.suse.de/tests/10957776.

It does seem to work sporadically; from the latest 10 runs https://openqa.suse.de/tests/10957776#next_previous over the past 2 weeks, it has worked 3 times.

BTW, is tftpd active in qanet? I see it configured in qanet:/etc/sysconfig/tftp, but there's no service running (that I could see) and it's also not configured as part of xinetd.

acarvajal wrote:

I think we're seeing the same with the nessberry LPARs: https://openqa.suse.de/tests/10957776.

It does seem to work sporadically; from the latest 10 runs https://openqa.suse.de/tests/10957776#next_previous over the past 2 weeks, it has worked 3 times.

Not sure if it is actually the same. The symptoms look a little bit different. But you could also try a nvram reset described in https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/could-not-allocate-memory-rtas-grub-or-yaboot-ppcbe - afterwards make sure to configure TFTP/BOOTP in the SMS menu again properly. I also saw some settings regarding block-size in there - you could try to set it from 512 to 1024, it might help loading the required files in a more stable manner.

I have yet to find out why this happens. Maybe this is a firmware issue from PPC machines or maybe it is caused by many re-installs from our side.

nicksinger wrote:

acarvajal wrote:

I think we're seeing the same with the nessberry LPARs: https://openqa.suse.de/tests/10957776.

It does seem to work sporadically; from the latest 10 runs https://openqa.suse.de/tests/10957776#next_previous over the past 2 weeks, it has worked 3 times.

Not sure if it is actually the same. The symptoms look a little bit different. But you could also try a nvram reset described in https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/could-not-allocate-memory-rtas-grub-or-yaboot-ppcbe - afterwards make sure to configure TFTP/BOOTP in the SMS menu again properly. I also saw some settings regarding block-size in there - you could try to set it from 512 to 1024, it might help loading the required files in a more stable manner.

I have yet to find out why this happens. Maybe this is a firmware issue from PPC machines or maybe it is caused by many re-installs from our side.

never mind these steps. I realized that tftpd was down on qanet. I restarted this service and the job and it looks better now: https://openqa.suse.de/tests/10958779 - could you confirm @acarvajal ?

nicksinger wrote:

never mind these steps. I realized that tftpd was down on qanet. I restarted this service and the job and it looks better now: https://openqa.suse.de/tests/10958779 - could you confirm @acarvajal ?

Just restarted the test. I'll check later how it goes. Thanks for the help.