Hi All.
I'm trying to setup a guest within my hypervisor that acts as a Console Server, using 10 USB to Serial adapters. The Host is all setup and can access each Serial Port without problems.
I have attempted to add the Serial Connections to a Guest, using both Virtual Machine Manager and by editing the .XML file, and I can add up to 4 Serial devices (Including one for console access to the guest) without any issues at all. However when I try to add a fifth , the virtual machine refuses to start
The Host-
Distro: Ubuntu 13.04Kernel: 3.8.0-33-generic
libvirtd: 1.0.2
QEMU:1.4.0 (Debian 1.4.0+dfsg-1expubuntu4)
The log-
4 Serial Devices
2013-11-17 17:37:45.901+0000: starting up
LC_ALL=C PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/bin QEMU_AUDIO_DRV=none /usr/bin/kvm -name Ubuntu12.04-Cisco -S -M pc-1.0 -m 1024 -smp 2,sockets=2,cores=1,threads=1 -uuid 1837c56f-6f84-2abe-8bdd-d7c974803b84 -no-user-config -nodefaults -chardev socket,id=charmonitor,path=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/Ubuntu12.04-Cisco.monitor,server,nowait -mon chardev=charmonitor,id=monitor,mode=control -rtc base=utc -no-shutdown -device piix3-usb-uhci,id=usb,bus=pci.0,addr=0x1.0x2 -drive file=/mnt/DiskRepo/Ubuntu12.04-TFTP.qcow2,if=none,id=drive-virtio-disk0,format=qcow2 -device virtio-blk-pci,scsi=off,bus=pci.0,addr=0x4,drive=drive-virtio-disk0,id=virtio-disk0,bootindex=1 -drive if=none,id=drive-ide0-1-0,readonly=on,format=raw -device ide-cd,bus=ide.1,unit=0,drive=drive-ide0-1-0,id=ide0-1-0 -netdev tap,fd=31,id=hostnet0,vhost=on,vhostfd=32 -device virtio-net-pci,netdev=hostnet0,id=net0,mac=52:54:00:e6:9c:c0,bus=pci.0,addr=0x3 -chardev pty,id=charserial0 -device isa-serial,chardev=charserial0,id=serial0 -chardev tty,id=charserial1,path=/dev/c1841-A -device isa-serial,chardev=charserial1,id=serial1 -chardev tty,id=charserial2,path=/dev/c2620-A -device isa-serial,chardev=charserial2,id=serial2 -chardev tty,id=charserial3,path=/dev/c2620-B -device isa-serial,chardev=charserial3,id=serial3 -vnc 0.0.0.0:0 -vga cirrus -device virtio-balloon-pci,id=balloon0,bus=pci.0,addr=0x5
W: kvm binary is deprecated, please use qemu-system-x86_64 instead
char device redirected to /dev/pts/0 (label charserial0)
5 Serial Devices
2013-11-17 18:05:59.925+0000: starting up
LC_ALL=C PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/bin QEMU_AUDIO_DRV=none /usr/bin/kvm -name Ubuntu12.04-Cisco -S -M pc-1.0 -m 1024 -smp 2,sockets=2,cores=1,threads=1 -uuid 1837c56f-6f84-2abe-8bdd-d7c974803b84 -no-user-config -nodefaults -chardev socket,id=charmonitor,path=/var/lib/libvirt/qemu/Ubuntu12.04-Cisco.monitor,server,nowait -mon chardev=charmonitor,id=monitor,mode=control -rtc base=utc -no-shutdown -device piix3-usb-uhci,id=usb,bus=pci.0,addr=0x1.0x2 -drive file=/mnt/DiskRepo/Ubuntu12.04-TFTP.qcow2,if=none,id=drive-virtio-disk0,format=qcow2 -device virtio-blk-pci,scsi=off,bus=pci.0,addr=0x4,drive=drive-virtio-disk0,id=virtio-disk0,bootindex=1 -drive if=none,id=drive-ide0-1-0,readonly=on,format=raw -device ide-cd,bus=ide.1,unit=0,drive=drive-ide0-1-0,id=ide0-1-0 -netdev tap,fd=31,id=hostnet0,vhost=on,vhostfd=32 -device virtio-net-pci,netdev=hostnet0,id=net0,mac=52:54:00:e6:9c:c0,bus=pci.0,addr=0x3 -chardev pty,id=charserial0 -device isa-serial,chardev=charserial0,id=serial0 -chardev tty,id=charserial1,path=/dev/c1841-A -device isa-serial,chardev=charserial1,id=serial1 -chardev tty,id=charserial2,path=/dev/c2620-A -device isa-serial,chardev=charserial2,id=serial2 -chardev tty,id=charserial3,path=/dev/c2620-B -device isa-serial,chardev=charserial3,id=serial3 -chardev tty,id=charserial4,path=/dev/c2950-A -device isa-serial,chardev=charserial4,id=serial4 -vnc 0.0.0.0:0 -vga cirrus -device virtio-balloon-pci,id=balloon0,bus=pci.0,addr=0x5
W: kvm binary is deprecated, please use qemu-system-x86_64 instead
char device redirected to /dev/pts/0 (label charserial0)
qemu-system-x86_64: -device isa-serial,chardev=charserial4,id=serial4: Device 'isa-serial' could not be initialized
2013-11-17 18:06:00.314+0000: shutting down
Does anyone have any idea what's causing this? I have attempted using different Serial to USB adapters to rule out a hardware / configuration issue on one of the adapters, but it makes no difference. If I try to start more than 4 Serial Devices, it refuses to start up.
Thanks for your time,
Matthew