[Xen-users] Poor domU Installation Performance on AM2 3800+ X2 unser OpenSUSE 10.1

[Steve Higton <hpq8bfr.mailing.lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi All,

I'm currently installing a minimal text mode installation of OpenSUSE 10.1 as 
a DomU in an OpenSUSE 10.1 host using the SUSE xen installation tool.  
However, the performance is terrible, the text mode installer has taken 2 
hours to reach the part where it partitions the disks.

Hardware specs as follows:

Motherboard: MSI K9N Ultra
CPU: AM2 3800+ X2
RAM: 1GB DDR 667 Crucial Ballistix
HD: 300GB Seagate 7200.8

I'm a little lost as to how to diagnose this problem; xm top shows the domU as 
being in the blocked state for most of the time.  I've done a quick test of 
the disc performance with hdparm -t and the result was 61MB/s and the domU's 
disc is an LVM partition on the dom0 machine so I don't think disc I/O is the 
problem.  Also, I'm running the suse installed via a VNC connection to the 
desktop of the dom0, the VNC performance is very good so network performance 
shouldn't be the bottleneck.

The config file is as follows:
disk = [ 'phy:/dev/system/vm1_suse_101,hda,w' ]
memory = 256
vcpus = 1
builder = 'linux'
kernel = '/tmp/YaST2-05512-mQaRrP/vmlinuz-2.6.16.13-4-xen'
ramdisk = '/tmp/YaST2-05512-mQaRrP/inst-initrd'
name = 'vm1'
vif = [ 'mac=00:16:3e:fd:6f:61' ]
localtime = 0
on_poweroff = 'destroy'
on_reboot = 'destroy'
on_crash = 'destroy'
extra = 
'install=nfs://192.168.0.12/data/replaceable/OS/OpenSUSE/SL-10.1/inst-source 
TERM=xterm textmode=1'

Does it matter that the dom0 is running an SMP 64bit kernel but I've only 
allocated 1 VCPU to the domU?

I've used this OpenSUSE installer many times on a socket A athlon XP 3000+ 
many times without problem.  In fact, this email has been sent via a xen domU 
acting as my router! :-)

Thanks in advance for any help.

Steve.

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