Re: [Xen-devel] QLogic Fibre Channel HBA Support

[Ian Pratt <Ian.Pratt@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> On Sun, Jul 04, 2004 at 10:11:38AM +0100, Ian Pratt wrote:
> > 
> > > Still hunting for better alternatives vs. NFS roots -- does anyone know
> > > what I'd need to do to get the driver for QLogic fibre HBA's working, so
> > > I can host VBD's from a SAN?  
> > 
> > If there's a driver in Linux, it should just work if you use the
> > unstable-xeno tree and modify the config for the domain 0 linux
> > to add the driver. 
> 
> So, how stable is unstable these days?  I.E. would you trust it to host
> other people's guests?

I think Xen and XenLinux 2.4.26 are pretty damn stable -- at
least I know of no outstanding bugs that have been posted to the
list.

The new control tools still have a few stability issues, but
since they're restartable its typically not a show stopper.
Armed with good bug reports I'm sure Mike will be able to resolve
this.  There are a few extra features and fixes we need to get
into the tools, then I think we'll be ready for a 2.0-alpha
release. I'd hope that all users of 1.2 would test it out for
us. 
 
> > In the new tree, rather than using our own virtual disk code we're
> > planning on using standard Linux's standard LVM2 code to enable
> > physical partitions to be sliced and diced. The tool support for
> > this isn't quite there yet.
> 
> That sounds good -- you mean tools support as in python?  I should be
> able to help if that's the case.

Having other people who understand the new xend and xm tool would
be very helpful. It's all a bit to object-oriented for me to
understand :-)

> > An alternative to using a FCAL SAN is to use iSCSI. I've found
> > that the Linux Cisco iSCSI initiator code works nicely, and can
> > either talk to a hardware iSCSI target or to the Ardistech Linux
> > iSCSI s/w target. I've generally configured it such that the
> > domain talks iSCSI directly (using an initrd to enable root to be
> > on the iSCSI volume). Others have configured iSCSI in domain 0
> > and then exported the partitions to other domains as block
> > devices using the normal VBD mechanism.
> 
> I'd need to use the iSCSI in domain 0 approach (other people's
> guests...), haven't tried it due to lack of hardware targets, didn't get
> warm fuzzies from Ardistech's code -- you've had no problems with it
> though?

I've mainly used a NetApp filer h/w target, so I haven't really
got enough experience to says whether the Ardistech code is
stable or not. There's always enbd, nbd, gnbd which are all
simple enough to believe that they work...

Ian


-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.Net email sponsored by Black Hat Briefings & Training.
Attend Black Hat Briefings & Training, Las Vegas July 24-29 - 
digital self defense, top technical experts, no vendor pitches, 
unmatched networking opportunities. Visit www.blackhat.com
_______________________________________________
Xen-devel mailing list
Xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xen-devel