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KVM: destroy with vm.destroy.forcestop leaves the instance running when its host is briefly disconnected

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Assessment

Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Newbie friendliness
45/100
Issue type
Bug
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
java
Domain
backend, cloud

Research direction

The issue is in the destroy path when vm.destroy.forcestop=true. Start by examining the UserVmManagerImpl.destroyVm, VirtualMachineManagerImpl.destroy(), and VirtualMachineManagerImpl.advanceExpunge() methods, focusing on advanceStop() and releaseVmResources(). Look at how host states (Disconnected, Connecting, Alert, Rebalancing, Up) are handled versus terminal states (Down, Removed). The fix likely involves checking the host state before deciding to force-stop and release resources. Run tests related to VM destruction and host state transitions to verify the behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

ISSUE TYPE
  • Bug Report
COMPONENT NAME
engine-orchestration, destroyVirtualMachine, KVM
CLOUDSTACK VERSION
4.22
CONFIGURATION

vm.destroy.forcestop=true. KVM hosts. Any rolling restart of the agents or the management servers while instances are being destroyed.

OS / ENVIRONMENT

KVM / libvirt.

SUMMARY

With vm.destroy.forcestop=true, destroying an instance whose host is briefly disconnected releases the instance's NICs, IP addresses and volumes without stopping it. The domain keeps running on the host with no record in CloudStack. Its IP is handed to the next instance, so two live instances answer for the same address, and its root volume stays in Destroy because the delete fails while the domain holds the image.

Same end state as #14206, different trigger. #14206 is a stale power report during start; this one is the destroy path itself.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE
  1. Set vm.destroy.forcestop=true.
  2. Restart cloudstack-agent on a KVM host (or a management server, which disconnects the agents connected to it while they rebalance).
  3. While the host is Disconnected, destroy a running instance on it with expunge=true.

Any client that destroys instances routinely hits this on every rolling upgrade.

EXPECTED RESULTS

The destroy fails, the instance stays Running, and the caller retries once the host is back. Or the destroy waits for the host.

ACTUAL RESULTS

From a real occurrence on 4.22, during a rolling package upgrade:

13:39:02 WARN  Unable to stop VM instance {"id":3645123,...,"state":"Stopping"} due to [AgentUnavailableException:
               Resource [Host:110] is unreachable: Host 110: Host with specified id is not in the right state: Disconnected]
13:39:02 WARN  Unable to actually stop VM instance {"id":3645123,...} but continue with release because it's a force stop
13:39:02 DEBUG VM instance {"id":3645123,...} is stopped on the host.  Proceeding to release resource held.
13:39:02 DEBUG Successfully released network resources for the VM ...
13:39:15 DEBUG Expunged VM instance {"id":3645123,...}
13:41:58 WARN  Host reports 9 instance(s) that do not exist in CloudStack DB, they are running unmanaged. host: hv104, instances: [i-625-3645123-VM, ...]

Across two rolling upgrades, 31 instances on 6 hosts were left running this way, and new instances were given their addresses within hours.

CAUSE

UserVmManagerImpl.destroyVm(DestroyVMCmd), VirtualMachineManagerImpl.destroy() and VirtualMachineManagerImpl.advanceExpunge() all stop the instance with cleanUpEvenIfUnableToStop = vm.destroy.forcestop. In advanceStop(), a forced stop that gets AgentUnavailableException or OperationTimedoutException releases the resources and marks the instance stopped:

} catch (AgentUnavailableException | OperationTimedoutException e) {
    logger.warn("Unable to stop {} due to [{}].", ...);
} finally {
    if (!stopped) {
        if (!cleanUpEvenIfUnableToStop) { ... throw ... }
        else { logger.warn("Unable to actually stop {} but continue with release because it's a force stop", vm); ... }
    }
}
releaseVmResources(profile, cleanUpEvenIfUnableToStop);

A forced stop means "the host cannot tell us, treat the instance as stopped". That is right when the host is gone (Down, Removed). It is wrong when the host is only unreachable for a while, whatever its status says: Disconnected, Connecting, Alert or Rebalancing, and also Up while a crashed management server's hosts have not yet been taken over or a disconnect investigation is inconclusive. Those hosts are expected back with their domains still running.

vm.destroy.forcestop is a global setting applied to every destroy, not a statement by the caller that it knows the host is gone. It should not bypass that distinction.

IMPACT
  • an instance runs unmanaged and invisible
  • its IP is reassigned, giving an address conflict between two live instances
  • its root volume stays in Destroy and the storage cleanup fails on it every run
Dominant language
Java
Stars
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Forks
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Avg merge
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Merged PRs (30d)
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