Re: [Xen-users] RHEL xen vs kvm

[Pasi Kärkkäinen <pasik@xxxxxx>]

On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 09:40:39PM +0300, Pasi KÃrkkÃinen wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 11:03:55AM -0700, Grant McWilliams wrote:
> >    On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 9:53 AM, Pasi KÃârkkÃâinen <[1]pasik@xxxxxx>
> >    wrote:
> > 
> >      On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 11:42:31PM -0700, Grant McWilliams wrote:
> >      > Ã  Ã On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 7:26 PM, Jeff Sturm
> >      <[1][2]jeff.sturm@xxxxxxxxxx>
> >      >
> > 
> >      Do you have some benchmarks to prove KVM being faster than Xen HVM?
> > 
> >    Yes, I do. I've been gathering statistics for quite a while because I'm
> >    writing a white paper on Linux Virtualization Performance.
> >    I'll need to dig them up after I get back from work. The difference is
> >    enough to sway the decision if someone was only going to virtualize
> >    Windows. If someone were to just use PV though Xen wins hands down.
> > 
> 
> I'm really surprised if there is a big difference between Xen HVM vs. KVM.
> 
> What software versions did you use? 
> What kind of hardware? 
> 
> I'm sure Citrix Xen guys want to see the results and comment if there's 
> something to tweak :)
> 

Replying to myself..

Grant: I'm not sure if you replied to this.. I had some trouble with my email 
provider 
getting blacklisted because of some spam problems.


-- Pasi

> 
> >    >
> >    > Ã  Ã Here's my thoughts.
> >    > Ã  Ã If I were primarily virtualizing Windows I'd use KVM.
> > 
> >      Why? Xen has both the GPLPV Windows drivers, and the binary WHQL Citrix
> >      Windows
> >      PV drivers available today.
> > 
> >    You'd think wouldn't you? I don't think it has to do with two drivers.
> >
> 
> What are the reasons then? ;) 
> 
>  
> > 
> >      > Ã  Ã If I were primarily virtualizing Linux I'd use Xen.
> >      > Ã  Ã If I was using a bunch of old 3.4 Ghz Dual Core Xeons (I am) I'd
> >      use Xen.
> >      > Ã  Ã If I was wanting to nest VMs I'd use AMD CPUs and KVM (for now).
> >      >
> > 
> >      Xen also now has patches to supported Nested virtualization on both
> >      Intel and AMD.
> >      I bet this will end up in the Xen 4.1 development tree in upcoming
> >      weeks.
> > 
> >    I will be looking forward to this indeed. I don't want to change my
> >    platform just because I need one thing.
> >    How is it going to support nesting on Intel? I was under the impression
> >    that AMD was the one that supported
> >    this in hardware.
> 
> See the patches posted to xen-devel last week by Intel.
> 
> 
> > 
> >      > Ã  Ã If I wanted the most pain free path to keeping my hypervisor
> >      updated I'd
> >      > Ã  Ã use KVM.
> >      > Ã  Ã If I was doing desktop virtualization (local login, not network
> >      logins)
> >      > Ã  Ã I'd use KVM or VirtualBox
> >      > Ã  Ã If I wanted the most tried and true enterprise hypervisor out
> >      there and
> >      > Ã  Ã didn't want to use VMWARE then I'd use Xen. Citrix Xenserver,
> >      VirtualIron,
> >      > Ã  Ã Sun SVM (one flavor), Oracle Virtual Machine and Amazon EC2 are
> >      all based
> >      > Ã  Ã on Xen.
> >      > Ã  Ã It might look like I lean toward KVM from this list but I still
> >      prefer Xen
> >      > Ã  Ã in most cases because of category 2.
> >      >
> > 
> >      There are a lot of options for Xen dom0 kernel nowadays.. although 
> > extra
> >      patching
> >      or fetching the git tree is still needed.
> > 
> >    Lots of options? You mean like compiling your own kernel? Pain free means
> >    running your distribution the way it came. I predict in the coming years
> >    we'll have two options - running XCP or running XenServer. I'm not sure
> >    how well either put out security patches.
> >
> 
> Yeah, XCP or XenServer is an easy solution if you don't want to buid your
> own platform.
> 
> -- Pasi
> 

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