[Fedora-xen] HVM Performance and PV drivers

[Jim Klein]

On Feb 12, 2007, at 9:12 AM, Pasi Kärkkäinen wrote:

> On Sat, Feb 10, 2007 at 09:45:07AM -0800, Jim Klein wrote:
>>>>
>>>> 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...
>>
>
> "Novell and Intel plan to announce Monday software that improves the
> performance of Windows running atop the Xen virtualization software."
>
> http://news.com.com/Novell+offers+faster+virtualized+Windows/ 
> 2100-1012_3-6158196.html
>
> I guess that means PV drivers for windows..
>
> -- Pasi


Impressive prediction - hopefully, they will open source them so that  
all may benefit.

-- 
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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