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RE: [Xen-devel] GPLPV memory ballooning and x32

To: "Aravindh Puthiyaparambil" <aravindh@xxxxxxxxxx>, "Keir Fraser" <keir.fraser@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: [Xen-devel] GPLPV memory ballooning and x32
From: "James Harper" <james.harper@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 24 May 2010 10:33:47 +1000
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Thread-topic: [Xen-devel] GPLPV memory ballooning and x32
> 
> Keir,
> 
> I am running on CentOS 5.4
> xen_major              : 3
> xen_minor              : 1
> xen_extra              : .2-194.3.1.el5
> 
> I have memory=8G and maxmem=8G in my HVM config file and I am trying
balloon
> up and down between 1G and 8G. This works with x64 Windows. With x32 I
see the
> change only within Windows i.e. Free memory in task manager. Xentop
does not
> reflect the change. BTW, this is with the latest PV driver from James.

GPLPV will allocate the memory from Windows and try and give it to Xen,
but as Keir has said, that doesn't work in your configuration. GPLPV
doesn't detect this though so the memory is now basically leaked.

Additionally, I assume that you are creating an 8GB domain and
ballooning down to 1GB as a test. I doubt it's a good idea to balloon
that much in a production system. Windows sizes various parts of the
system based on the amount of physical memory, and may behave badly if
you tinker with that too much.

James


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