Error: Failed to assign device since pod is enabled

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 Service Pack 1
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11

Situation

The host system/Dom0 has been upgraded from SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11 to SLES 11 Service Pack (SP) 1.
Starting a DomU that is utilizing PCI passthrough of devices fails with :

Error: Failed to assign device since pod is enabled

The Dom0 is running on a machine with Intel (R) VT-d technology enabled.

Resolution

Populate-on-demand (PoD) memory is a new part of the memory ballooning feature in Xen and was introduced with Xen 4.0 in SLES 11 SP1.
This causes a change in the memory handling, which does not allow PoD if PCI passthrough on a DomU if PCI passthrough (using VT-d) is used. For reference see the Xen development discussion here.

To disable PoD for a DomU, simply make sure the value of the memory key/option is equal to the value of the maxmem key/option in the domain configuration.
This can be done either in the Virtual Machine Manager or (file based) as described in section 5.3 Configuring a Virtual Machine by Modifying its Xend Settings in the SLES virtualization guide.

Disclaimer

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