[Xen-devel] Re: HVM network performance

[Andi Kleen <ak@xxxxxxx>]

Randy Thelen <rthelen@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> > That's the easy and probably fastest way short term, but long term
> > it's a lot more work (you will need to write drivers for all the
> > old and new guest OS
> > you want to run to get good performance)
> 
> Yes, but given a good back-end driver model, these should be
> relatively simple.  Especially if a couple examples were BSD licensed
> to kick start the development of these drivers.

Even if it's simple each by itself it will be a logistical
nightmare. Or do you know how to write driver for all the zillion
versions of old x86 OS people might want to run under the hypervisor?

Probably just getting development environment for all of these
would be "interesting". 
 
> > Also it's a logistical problem because you'll need to distribute
> > and setup
> > all these drivers even if they are written.
> 
> I would think the performance benefit would greatly outweigh the
> setup issues.

I would expect a optimized modern NIC model to be not that
much worse than a pure para virtual driver.

>  But, what do you mean by 'distribute and setup'?

If the OS don't have a driver already you need to distribute the drivers
in a form that they can be used during installation.

-Andi

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