Re: [Xen-users] RHEL xen vs kvm

[Grant McWilliams <grantmasterflash@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 9:53 AM, Pasi KÃrkkÃinen <pasik@xxxxxx> wrote:

On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 11:42:31PM -0700, Grant McWilliams wrote:
> Â ÂOn Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 7:26 PM, Jeff Sturm <[1]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.

>
> Â ÂHere's my thoughts.
> Â ÂIf 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.

Â

> Â ÂIf I were primarily virtualizing Linux I'd use Xen.
> Â ÂIf I was using a bunch of old 3.4 Ghz Dual Core Xeons (I am) I'd use Xen.
> Â ÂIf 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.
Â

> Â ÂIf I wanted the most pain free path to keeping my hypervisor updated I'd
> Â Âuse KVM.
> Â ÂIf I was doing desktop virtualization (local login, not network logins)
> Â ÂI'd use KVM or VirtualBox
> Â ÂIf I wanted the most tried and true enterprise hypervisor out there and
> Â Âdidn't want to use VMWARE then I'd use Xen. Citrix Xenserver, VirtualIron,
> Â ÂSun SVM (one flavor), Oracle Virtual Machine and Amazon EC2 are all based
> Â Âon Xen.
> Â ÂIt might look like I lean toward KVM from this list but I still prefer Xen
> Â Âin 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.
Â

http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenDom0Kernels

-- Pasi

Grant 

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