[Fedora-xen] HVM Performance and PV drivers

[Jim Klein]

>>
>> On Thursday 08 February 2007 10:08am, Jim Klein wrote:
>>
>>> Anyone been able to get the PV drivers from Xensource to work on an
>>> FC6 created HVM. Performance is rather sluggish, even on 64bit,
>>> without these, yet they don't seem to want to work here. Or,
>>> alternatively, is Red Hat working on their own? The HVM IO is really
>>> a bit too slow for most production use without them.
>>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, 8 Feb 2007 11:26am, Lamont Peterson wrote:
>>
>>> I don't believe that you can do this.
>>>
>>> But, I'm wondering what OS you're trying to run on the HVM DomU.  
>>> If it's
>>> Linux, use a paravirtualized DomU. You'll get much better  
>>> performance
>>> (especially on things like I/O).
>>>
>>> HVM adds some emulation overhead and, thus, is slower than PV.  
>>> HVM is only
>>> necessary to run an OS for which no paravirtualized kernel is  
>>> available.
>>> -- 
>>> Lamont Peterson <lamont at gurulabs.com>
>>> Senior Instructor
>>> Guru Labs, L.C. [ http://www.GuruLabs.com/ ]
>>>
>>
>> All my Linux guests are PV (been running Xen in production for 7  
>> months - far longer
>> in testing.) I'm talking about Windows guests, which is why I  
>> would need PV drivers to work.
>> Am running 64bit Dom0 to alleviate some of the pain, but I/O is  
>> still too slow for anything
>> but lightweight applications. We're a RHEL shop, so would prefer  
>> to use RHEL as a base over
>> XenSource Commercial, but it looks like I may have to go that  
>> route if noone else is working
>> on PV drivers for Windows guests.
>>
>>
>
> Interesting point is the fact that Novell will ship Windows PV  
> drivers in
> SLES 10 SP1 when it's released in May 2007..
>
> -- Pasi
>

If only SLES didn't suck - and Novell actually kept their promises.  
But I could be wrong, maybe they'll be better now that they have  
reliable partners like Microsoft...

-- 
Jim Klein
Director Information Services & Technology
LPIC1, CNA/CNE 4-6, RHCT/RHCE
Saugus Union School District
http://www.saugus.k12.ca.us

"Finis Origine Pendet"


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