RE: [Xen-users] Windows XP on Linux domain0

["Artur Linhart - Linux communication" <AL.LINUX@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello,

        I think this is not the complete answer - We run some HVM guests -
windows 2003 Server Enterprise x64 R2 and such an OS seems to work correctly
according to the CPU usage reported in Dom0... And we do not have installed
any PV drivers on that windows instance... 
        But all w2k guests behave so lie described - CPU Load in the Dom0 is
reported to be maximum possible (so, if 3 VCPUs are allocated for the
instance, then it is nearly to 300%)
        I have no clear answer for it... It is also surprise for me it wors
on any Windows without the PV drivers installed...

        Cheers, Archie

-----Original Message-----
From: xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Igor Chubin
Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2007 8:48 PM
To: Szabolcs Feczak
Cc: xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [Xen-users] Windows XP on Linux domain0

On Di, Dez 11, 2007 at 06:24:36 +1100, Szabolcs Feczak wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have installed Suse 10.3 with Xen 3.1
> Installed Windows XP on the top of it on the AMD 64 X2 dual core cpu with
svm flag
> installation went fine, however after using the guest XP os
> I have realized that during coping files and installing software onto the
> virtual windows the CPU load jumps continuously to 100%
> 
> I have moved the guest os image file to a raw partition with dd onto a
secondary physical
> device, which resulted in a bit of performance improvement, but the CPU is
still used
> above 90 percent during I/O operations ... running the same copy test
scenario
> on a vmware box was eating up "only" about 40-60% fluctuating ... 
> 
> The disks are sata 3g/s ...
> 
> Anybody else has similar problems, any hints would be appreciated
> even how to look for the source of the problem ...


This is due to the fact that Windows runs in a HVM domain, 
so I/O devices (and particulary disk controllers)
should be emulated.

A solution of the problem could be paravirtual drivers
for Windows HVM domain, which bypass emulation layer and
save great part of CPU resources. 

There are no stable opensource Xen PV-drivers for Windows. 
But there are unstable drivers which you can download and try
to play with it [1].

Also there are proprietary PV drivers for Windows, 
which are included to the proprietary versions of Xen
(e.g. to the XenExpress by XenSource).


[1]
http://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Alists.xensource.com+James+Harper+drive
rs



> 
> Thanks
> 
> 
> Sub
> 
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> 
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> 
> 
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> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users

-- 
WBR, i.m.chubin


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