GPU VM Cold Migration / Resize Fails: Insufficient Compute Resources

Problem

A GPU Passthrough VM transitions to the ERROR state during cold migration or resize. The operation fails even when the destination host has sufficient physical GPU resources available.

Environment

• Self-Hosted Private Cloud Director Virtualization — v2025.10-180 and above

• Private Cloud Director Virtualization — v2025.10-180 and above

• Components: GPU and Compute Service

Diagnostics

• Check the PCI configuration, and verify the GPU passthrough device (type-PF).

  /opt/pf9/etc/nova/nova.conf

  [pci]
  alias = {"vendor_id": "[VENDOR_ID]", "product_id": "[PRODUCT_ID]", "device_type": "type-PF","name": "[DEVICE_NAME]", "live_migratable": "yes"}  

• Check ostackhost.log on the destination compute host for the following log entries:

  /var/log/pf9/ostackhost.log

  INFO  nova.compute.claims   [instance: [INSTANCE_UUID]] Failed to claim: Claim pci failed
  ERROR nova.compute.manager  [instance: [INSTANCE_UUID]] Setting instance vm_state to ERROR: nova.exception.ComputeResourcesUnavailable: Insufficient compute resources: Claim pci failed.

• Enable debug logging and re-check ostackhost.log. With debug logging enabled, look for:

  /var/log/pf9/ostackhost.log

  DEBUG nova.pci.stats  PCI claim: Starting with 1 devices, request count: 1
  DEBUG nova.pci.stats  PCI claim: Request spec: [{'vendor_id': '[VENDOR_ID]', 'product_id': '[PRODUCT_ID]','dev_type': 'type-PF', 'live_migratable': 'true'}]
  DEBUG nova.pci.utils  PCI attribute check: key=live_migratable, spec_value=true, device_value=None
  DEBUG nova.pci.utils  PCI attribute mismatch: live_migratable spec="true" != device="None"
  DEBUG nova.pci.stats  Dropped 1 device(s) due to mismatched PCI attribute(s)
  DEBUG nova.pci.stats  Not enough PCI devices left to satisfy request after spec filtering
  DEBUG nova.pci.stats  PCI claim: Available: 0, Required: 1

Key Indicator: The live_migratable attribute is present in the PCI request spec (true) but is absent (None) from the available device pool — causing Nova to drop all matching devices and fail the claim.

Cause

This is a regression introduced in v2025.10-180, where the live_migratable=yes flag was introduced to the PCI alias configuration (nova.conf) for GPU passthrough devices (type-PF). This flag is only valid for type-VF (vGPU / SR-IOV Virtual Function) devices that support live migration via kernel variant drivers.

For type-PF (PCI Passthrough / Physical Function) devices, live migration is NOT supported. When live_migratable=yes is set in the alias, Nova's PCI filter includes this attribute in the request spec. Since the physical device pool does not carry the live_migratable attribute, the comparison fails, and all available GPU devices are dropped — resulting in Available: 0.

Affected Configuration

The problematic configuration is present in /opt/pf9/etc/nova/nova.conf on GPU compute hosts in v2025.10-180:

/opt/pf9/etc/nova/nova.conf

[pci]
alias = {"vendor_id": "[VENDOR_ID]", "product_id": "[PRODUCT_ID]", "device_type": "type-PF","name": "[DEVICE_NAME]", "live_migratable": "yes"}   ← INCORRECT

Attribute Mismatch Flow

During the issue, the below configuration is fed.

{'vendor_id': '[VENDOR_ID]', 'product_id': '[PRODUCT_ID]', 'dev_type': 'type-PF', 'live_migratable': 'true'}

However, the below configurations are only supported in the device pool configurations:

{'vendor_id': '[VENDOR_ID]', 'product_id': '[PRODUCT_ID]', 'dev_type': 'type-PF'}
# 'live_migratable' key is ABSENT

As a result:

PCI attribute mismatch: live_migratable spec="true" != device="None" → Device dropped → Claim pci failed

Resolution

• Live migration for GPU passthrough (type-PF) is not supported yet; live_migratable is reserved for the future type-VF (vGPU) support and is tracked in PCD-6249.

Workaround

1

Remove device_spec from nova.conf under [pci] section

Only remove the device_spec line — do not delete the entire [pci] section.

GPU Host

# Backup first
cp /opt/pf9/etc/nova/nova.conf /opt/pf9/etc/nova/nova.conf.bak

# Edit nova.conf and remove only the device_spec line under [pci]:
# device_spec = {"vendor_id": "<VENDOR_ID>", "product_id": "<PRODUCT_ID>"}
vi /opt/pf9/etc/nova/nova.conf

2

Add the corrected PCI config to nova-override.conf (without live_migratable)

GPU Host

# Backup first
cp /opt/pf9/etc/nova/nova-override.conf /opt/pf9/etc/nova/nova-override.conf.bak

# Append correct [pci] section
cat >> /opt/pf9/etc/nova/nova-override.conf << 'EOF'
[pci]
device_spec = {"vendor_id": "<VENDOR_ID>", "product_id": "<PRODUCT_ID>"}
alias = {"vendor_id": "<VENDOR_ID>", "product_id": "<PRODUCT_ID>", "device_type": "type-PF", "name": "<DEVICE_NAME>"}
report_in_placement = True
EOF

Do NOT include live_migratable in the alias.

3

Remove any existing pci.conf from conf.d - if present.

GPU Host

if [ -f /opt/pf9/etc/nova/conf.d/pci.conf ]; then
    mv /opt/pf9/etc/nova/conf.d/pci.conf \
       /opt/pf9/etc/nova/conf.d/pci.conf.bak
fi

4

Restart the Compute Service

GPU Host

sudo systemctl restart pf9-ostackhost
sudo systemctl status pf9-ostackhost

5

Verify the Hostagent convergence state.

GPU Host

systemctl status pf9-hostagent
tail -100 /var/log/pf9/hostagent.log | grep -i "converge\|error\|fail"

6

Validate cold migration and resize

After the service restarts successfully, test the following:

• Cold migration of a GPU VM between hosts

• GPU flavor resize (e.g., 8 GPU → 4 GPU)

Validation

To confirm the fix is applied, Enable debug logging and re-check ostackhost.log to verify the PCI claim no longer includes live_migratable in the request spec. A successful claim should show

/var/log/pf9/ostackhost.log

DEBUG nova.pci.stats  PCI claim: Request spec: [{'vendor_id': '[VENDOR_ID]', 'product_id': '[PRODUCT_ID]','dev_type': 'type-PF'}]
# No 'live_migratable' key present
DEBUG nova.pci.stats  PCI claim: Available: 1, Required: 1

Compare with the failure pattern in the Diagnosticssection.

Additional Information

• This issue affects all GPU PCI passthrough configurations using type-PF in v2025.10-180 — not just NVIDIA H200.

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