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-devel

Re: Distro kernel and 'virtualization server' vs. 'server that sometimes

To: Dan Magenheimer <dan.magenheimer@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Distro kernel and 'virtualization server' vs. 'server that sometimes runs virtual instances' rant (was: Re: [Xen-devel] Re: [GIT PULL] Xen APIC hooks (with io_apic_ops))
From: Luke S Crawford <lsc@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: 01 Jun 2009 20:15:16 -0400
Cc: Xen-devel <xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, echo@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Delivery-date: Mon, 01 Jun 2009 17:16:41 -0700
Envelope-to: www-data@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In-reply-to: <091b2ace-f1a0-4b25-ab89-2b7e328c48c9@default>
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/mailman/listinfo/xen-devel>, <mailto:xen-devel-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=subscribe>
List-unsubscribe: <http://lists.xensource.com/mailman/listinfo/xen-devel>, <mailto:xen-devel-request@lists.xensource.com?subject=unsubscribe>
References: <091b2ace-f1a0-4b25-ab89-2b7e328c48c9@default>
Sender: xen-devel-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
User-agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.4
Dan Magenheimer <dan.magenheimer@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> Picture this (and assume tools exist to help you measure
> and manage it):  Each user is billed only for the resources
> they use, including RAM.  RAM "optimization" can be controlled
> by the user via a menu (or slider bar for more granularity);
> at one extreme, RAM (and more specifically page cache) is
> aggressively reduced... but only if another VM is demanding
> it.  On the other extreme, fixed maximum RAM is fully owned
> by the user, and it sits idle if not in use.  The user
> can choose dynamically whether to pay more for fast responsiveness,
> or to pay less and surrender RAM if needed elsewhere, with
> some probability for slower responsiveness.

That sounds excelent for situations where I can quickly and cheaply
move a guest from one piece of physical hardware to another.

> Does that sound more attractive to an IAAS provider?

This is useful in some cases.  Still not in mine;  see, I can't afford
shared storage, so giving me free ram that may only be free for a 
few minutes is of limited utility.   Yeah, I can use it as shared disk
cache for extra heavy disk users, but it's still a more complex model
for the customer to understand, and I can't bring up more guests on that
host.   I could give it to other people on the same host, but 
I think that might be of limited utility, as I don't know how many
customers will be willing to pay for extra capacity if that extra
capacity is only sometimes available.  

But then, I am experimenting with low-cost homebrew OpenSolaris NAS setups,
so if that works out, and I get a working live migration system together,
then this could be useful.  Not as useful as, say, some mechanisim for live 
or nearly live migration with local storage, but still useful.  

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

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
  • Re: Distro kernel and 'virtualization server' vs. 'server that sometimes runs virtual instances' rant (was: Re: [Xen-devel] Re: [GIT PULL] Xen APIC hooks (with io_apic_ops)), Luke S Crawford <=