Re: [Xen-users] GPLPV drivers problem

[Luís Fernandes <lfernandes@xxxxxxxx>]

On Jan 6, 2009, at 12:15 AM, James Harper wrote:

> > Hello.
> > I've been using Xen with some virtual machines for at least 2 years
> > now. When we all gone to VT-X, the xen world was introduced to  
> > windows
> > and we all enjoyed that... until we realized we needed drivers for it
> > to work =) We need to thank to James Harper for his efforts in making
> > the GPL PV drivers, so thanks!
> Thanks
>
> > Today I installed 0.9.12-pre13 to test the performance - again the
> > performance is very similar with or without the pv drivers  
> > (screenshot
> > of device manager: http://uplink.lvengine.com/device.jpg )
> > I've benchmarked the network with iperf between Xen virtual machines
> > (pv machines, not hvm) and I get 2.5gbps ~ 3.0gbps, but with  
> > windows I
> > get around 40mb/s. My kernel times are almost 100% all the time and
> > disk performance is relatively slow (benchmarked with some windows
> > app, hd_speed, got me around 11mb/s - not bad, but the kernel times
> > are always up there... see http://uplink.lvengine.com/disk.jpg for a
> > screenshot).
> >
> > I use Xen 3.2.1, on a gentoo linux, so xen is compiled from source
> > (for gentoo people, I have ioemu and pygrub use flags). I'm using
> > kernel 2.6.21 - I think this patchset was made by Red Hat, and
> > recently gentoo masked this version (or the version was already
> > masked), but i needed to use the .21 kernel because .18 doesn't have
> > support for one of my nic's and for the sata driver I think.
> <snip>
> > I've tried using ioemu: in the "hda" device and it's the same. I've
> > removed the /gplpv entry from boot.ini as -pre13 doesn't need it
> > anymore.
> > I must be configuring something wrong, maybe it's the ACPI
> > Multiprocessor PC kernel? (I installed this system a long time ago,
> > before the PV drivers - changing the acpi setting now could be bad...
> > - but if it must, I can try changing it...)
> > Something odd is that cpu-z reports to me that the cpu has only
> > 812mhz, but windows detects it's a 2.24ghz processor (single
> > processor, i know the drivers have problems with smp and I don't need
> > smp anyway)
> >
> > I basically only run SQL server in this machine, and for a machine
> > with 1.5gb of memory it runs really slow :/
> What OS are you using? If it's 2003 then make sure sp2 is installed.
I'm using windows XP SP2 (sp2 on purpose).
I have a Intel Core2 duo 2133mhz, 4mb cache with VT-X enabled.

I have the firewall disabled, but you said in another mail to disable  
the service. I did and it boosted performance to 100mbits. Still slow  
though :/
> Switching to the 'Standard PC' hal is easy enough. Switching back is  
> a bit of a pain but you could just try it on an lvm snapshot.
should I be using the standard pc configuration or the acpi one?

> James
I have a spare 50gb partition on my lvm and sometime ago I made a copy  
of the windows partition. I have a windows system with a almost exact  
copy now. I'll try installing the -pre13 drivers and switching HAL  
configurations just to test if it works better.
I can only have windows XP because that's the license that I have for  
that computer ....
Luis

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