|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
xen-devel
Re: [Xen-devel] AFS-based VBD backend
Hi Ian,
On Thu, Dec 23, 2004 at 11:41:08AM -0000, Ian Pratt wrote:
> > I think most of this could be done in python -- the backend
> > driver itself might be a relatively thin layer to translate
> > block addressing to and from file byte locations, talk to the
> > frontend, and do a periodic
> > fsync() on the underlying file to write the changes back to
> > the AFS server.
>
> You don't want to do it in python, but you do want to do it in user
> space to avoid the deadlocks with AFS.
I said that badly -- by "most of this" I mean ticket and token
management etc. I was still thinking C for the backend itself. But now
that you mention it...
> The blocktap backend driver is what you want. I'm not sure of it's
> current state, but the plan is to enable you to terminate a blk device
> channel in user-space.
Cool! Where was the most recent version of that?
> The kernel loop driver works fine with most file systems, but AFS is
> very 'special' and doesn't really follow the design of the other file
> systems.
Yep. :-}
> Of course, you could use 'unfsd -r' and export your AFS root file
> systems via same-machine NFS. This works pretty well, but I can't say
> I've hammered it.
I'm one of the folks who ran into the NFS root hangs early on -- trying
very hard to get off of it, hence this messing about with alternatives.
Granted, I'm not using same-machine NFS, don't know how much that would
reduce the hangs.
One variation on that theme that I have tested is an enbd server running
on an AFS client, serving block devices to dom0 on another machine. ;-)
Slow, but seems stable. Haven't tried same-machine with that either,
because it eats about 30% CPU on the enbd server under load.
Blocktap sounds closer to ideal; at least we'd get rid of the network
stack transit.
Steve
--
Stephen G. Traugott (KG6HDQ)
UNIX/Linux Infrastructure Architect, TerraLuna LLC
stevegt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.stevegt.com -- http://Infrastructures.Org
-------------------------------------------------------
SF email is sponsored by - The IT Product Guide
Read honest & candid reviews on hundreds of IT Products from real users.
Discover which products truly live up to the hype. Start reading now.
http://productguide.itmanagersjournal.com/
_______________________________________________
Xen-devel mailing list
Xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xen-devel
|
|
|
|
|