WARNING - OLD ARCHIVES

This is an archived copy of the Xen.org mailing list, which we have preserved to ensure that existing links to archives are not broken. The live archive, which contains the latest emails, can be found at http://lists.xen.org/
   
 
 
Xen 
 
Home Products Support Community News
 
   
 

xen-users

RE: [Xen-users] GPLPV drivers problem

To: Luís Fernandes <lfernandes@xxxxxxxx>, <xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: [Xen-users] GPLPV drivers problem
From: "James Harper" <james.harper@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 11:15:29 +1100
Cc:
Delivery-date: Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:16:10 -0800
Envelope-to: www-data@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In-reply-to: <D2467430-CC1F-4B58-8C94-FD0D7A5B296D@xxxxxxxx>
List-help: <mailto:xen-users-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=help>
List-id: Xen user discussion <xen-users.lists.xensource.com>
List-post: <mailto:xen-users@lists.xensource.com>
List-subscribe: <http://lists.xensource.com/mailman/listinfo/xen-users>, <mailto:xen-users-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=subscribe>
List-unsubscribe: <http://lists.xensource.com/mailman/listinfo/xen-users>, <mailto:xen-users-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=unsubscribe>
References: <D2467430-CC1F-4B58-8C94-FD0D7A5B296D@xxxxxxxx>
Sender: xen-users-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thread-index: AclvYcg1fWQ8OvSoRMScZaBMq8109QAMcokQ
Thread-topic: [Xen-users] GPLPV drivers problem
> 
> Hello.
> I've been using Xen with some virtual machines for at least 2 years
> now. When we all gone to VT-X, the xen world was introduced to windows
> and we all enjoyed that... until we realized we needed drivers for it
> to work =) We need to thank to James Harper for his efforts in making
> the GPL PV drivers, so thanks!

Thanks

> 
> Today I installed 0.9.12-pre13 to test the performance - again the
> performance is very similar with or without the pv drivers (screenshot
> of device manager: http://uplink.lvengine.com/device.jpg )
> I've benchmarked the network with iperf between Xen virtual machines
> (pv machines, not hvm) and I get 2.5gbps ~ 3.0gbps, but with windows I
> get around 40mb/s. My kernel times are almost 100% all the time and
> disk performance is relatively slow (benchmarked with some windows
> app, hd_speed, got me around 11mb/s - not bad, but the kernel times
> are always up there... see http://uplink.lvengine.com/disk.jpg for a
> screenshot).
> 
> I use Xen 3.2.1, on a gentoo linux, so xen is compiled from source
> (for gentoo people, I have ioemu and pygrub use flags). I'm using
> kernel 2.6.21 - I think this patchset was made by Red Hat, and
> recently gentoo masked this version (or the version was already
> masked), but i needed to use the .21 kernel because .18 doesn't have
> support for one of my nic's and for the sata driver I think.
>
<snip>
>
> I've tried using ioemu: in the "hda" device and it's the same. I've
> removed the /gplpv entry from boot.ini as -pre13 doesn't need it
> anymore.
> I must be configuring something wrong, maybe it's the ACPI
> Multiprocessor PC kernel? (I installed this system a long time ago,
> before the PV drivers - changing the acpi setting now could be bad...
> - but if it must, I can try changing it...)
> Something odd is that cpu-z reports to me that the cpu has only
> 812mhz, but windows detects it's a 2.24ghz processor (single
> processor, i know the drivers have problems with smp and I don't need
> smp anyway)
> 
> I basically only run SQL server in this machine, and for a machine
> with 1.5gb of memory it runs really slow :/
> 

What OS are you using? If it's 2003 then make sure sp2 is installed.

Switching to the 'Standard PC' hal is easy enough. Switching back is a bit of a 
pain but you could just try it on an lvm snapshot.

James

_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users