|  |  | 
  
    |  |  | 
 
  |   |  | 
  
    |  |  | 
  
    |  |  | 
  
    |   xen-devel
[Xen-devel] Re: [RFC PATCH 35/35] Add Xen virtual block device	driver. 
| To: | Alan Cox <alan@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> |  
| Subject: | [Xen-devel] Re: [RFC PATCH 35/35] Add Xen virtual block device	driver. |  
| From: | Jeff Garzik <jeff@xxxxxxxxxx> |  
| Date: | Fri, 24 Mar 2006 07:38:43 -0500 |  
| Cc: | Ian Pratt <m+Ian.Pratt@xxxxxxxxxxxx>, xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,	SCSI Mailing List <linux-scsi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,	Ian Pratt <ian.pratt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>,	linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Chris Wright <chrisw@xxxxxxxxxxxx>,	virtualization@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx |  
| Delivery-date: | Fri, 24 Mar 2006 16:44:53 +0000 |  
| Envelope-to: | www-data@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx |  
| In-reply-to: | <1143202673.18986.5.camel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> |  
| List-help: | <mailto:xen-devel-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=help> |  
| List-id: | Xen developer discussion <xen-devel.lists.xensource.com> |  
| List-post: | <mailto:xen-devel@lists.xensource.com> |  
| List-subscribe: | <http://lists.xensource.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xen-devel>,	<mailto:xen-devel-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=subscribe> |  
| List-unsubscribe: | <http://lists.xensource.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xen-devel>,	<mailto:xen-devel-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=unsubscribe> |  
| References: | <A95E2296287EAD4EB592B5DEEFCE0E9D4B9E8A@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>		<4421D943.1090804@xxxxxxxxxx>	<1143202673.18986.5.camel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> |  
| Sender: | xen-devel-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx |  
| User-agent: | Thunderbird 1.5 (X11/20060313) |  
| 
Alan Cox wrote:
 
On Mer, 2006-03-22 at 18:09 -0500, Jeff Garzik wrote:
 An IBM hypervisor on ppc64 communicates uses SCSI RPC messages.  I think 
this would be quite nice for Xen, because SCSI (a) is a message-based 
model, and (b) implementing block using SCSI has a very high Just 
Works(tm) value which cannot be ignored.  And perhaps (c) SCSI target 
code already exists, so implementing the server side doesn't require 
starting from scratch, but rather simply connecting the Legos.
 
A pure SCSI abstraction doesn't allow for shared head scheduling which
you will need to scale Xen sanely on typical PC boxes.
 
Not true at all.  If you can do it with a block device, you can do it 
with a SCSI block device. 
In fact, SCSI should make a few things easier, because the notion of 
host+bus topology is already present, and notion of messaging is already 
present, so you don't have to recreate that in a Xen block device 
infrastructure. 
 
SCSI emulations
are also always full of bits people got wrong, often critical bits like
tagged queues and error sequences - things that break your journalled
file system.
 
This I'll grant you.
        Jeff
_______________________________________________
Xen-devel mailing list
Xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.xensource.com/xen-devel
 | 
 |  | 
  
    |  |  |