xvd Xen virtual block device (Was: Re: [Xen-users] Pardon me for possibly dumb question but....)

["Todd Deshane" <deshantm@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Jan 27, 2008 5:19 PM, Lionel Kernux <lionel.kernux@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi,

I keep seeing references to "xvda" in and around xen forums and
postings.....what exactly is xvda (yes I've googled it and found no
explanation)?

Thanks

M

xvd is the Xen virtual block device. The xvd interface does not truly emulate IDE or SCSI, but you can think of it as similar to hd (for IDE) and sd (for SCSI).

So in practice, instead of using hda or sda for your guest block devices you can use xvda. This allows the guest to realize that it is Xen block device and it is able to take advantage of performance optimizations. This works well with paravirtual guests, but for HVM guests the PV driver would need to be added.

Note that you can also use xvda1, xvdb, xvdc, xvdb2, etc. etc.

Regards,
Todd

 

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