Re: [Xen-users] Slow windows network with gplpv driver.

[John McMonagle <johnm@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thursday, March 03, 2011 05:57:21 pm you wrote:
> > This concerns an old problem
> 
> http://lists.xensource.com/archives/html/xen-users/2010-08/msg00567.html
> 
> > Still having the problem with network performance but need to really
> 
> fix it.
> 
> > Just did a test with 32 bit xp with 0.11.0.238 drive.
> > it show device as Xen Net device driver.
> > 
> > Iperf gives 14.7 Mbits/sec
> > 
> > Running an xp live boot cd  get 13.6 Mbits/sec
> > Doesn't looks like the the pv driver is doing anything to help the
> 
> network as
> 
> > there is probably extra load with no pv drivers for disk and display.
> > 
> > How much of a speed improvement are others seeing?
> > 
> > The real issue is speed for samba shares.
> > 
> > I have tried on other hardware and it's a bit faster but not that
> 
> impressive.
> 
> > To keep the speed in perspective this is /proc/cpuinfo
> 
> XP is probably a poor benchmark for GPLPV (or even without) for a few
> reasons. If you want to get decent performance out of XP, disable the
> firewall service (in services, not just in the network control panel)
> and append " /PATCHTPR" to the boot.ini entry if using GPLPV. The
> problem with XP is that it makes _very_ frequent calls to change and
> read the TPR (Task PRiority) register, which incurs quite a bit of
> overhead. "/PATCHTPR" avoids that completely on AMD hardware and
> optimises the read case on Intel hardware, although I think Intel under
> Xen may not suffer so badly these days.
> 
> I'm seeing a few gigabits per second when doing DomU<->Dom0 testing, and
> full hardware speeds when talking over a physical network adapter when I
> last tested.
> 
> James


Looks like I already had /PATCHTPR although in lower case. I changed to upper 
case.   Turning off the firewall helped a little. Now up to 17 Mbit/sec.
This is an older intel server may that be the issue?

I'll try the same on a amd server tomorrow.

I'm thinking of running server 2008 on this intel server, is that likely to 
work much better?

I have a couple windows applications that we must run that do not deal well 
with a multiuser environment.  I'd prefer to use xp but suppose could run 
windows7 if that will help but will need a lot of extra ram.

John

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