Re: [Xen-devel] Generic Xen

[Dave Feustel <dfeustel@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thursday 10 March 2005 10:59 am, Mark Williamson wrote:
> > Well! This is both interesting and new to me!
> 
> The VT support is in the tree right now, so you can take a look at it.
> 
> > It makes my question moot, 
> > but I have another. When I think of VM, VM370  is what comes to mind.
> > My impression of Xen is that it does not follow the model of VM370.
> > Is that correct?
> 
> It is similar in that it runs on the bare metal, with virtual machines 
> multiplexed on top (as opposed to taking a "hosted" approach (like UML, 
> VMWare workstation, etc.) where the VMM runs on top of an OS that controls 
> the hardware).  VMWare ESX server also runs on bare metal.
> 
> Xen 2.0 differs in that the actual devices are controlled by one or more 
> special domains, rather than by the VMM.  IBM's VM370, VMWare ESX and Xen 1.x 
> all run drivers in the VMM itself.
> 
> > If it is correct, what made the designers of Xen move
> > in the direction they have taken?
> 
> Running device drivers in one or more domains allows better hardware support 
> than running them in the VMM, with less effort (don't have to port device 
> drivers).  It can also provide better isolation of (potentially buggy) device 
> drivers, and lets us do cool things like live restarts / upgrades of device 
> drivers.
> 
> HTH,
> Mark

Yes, very much. Thanks!
Dave F


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