Re: [Xen-users] Some iommu questions(mostly about intel's vt-d)

[Mihail Ivanov <mihail.ivanov93@xxxxxxxxx>]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

While the A8 6600k is a fast cpu, I'd rather get server hardware.
After reading so much about people complaining that one or another
thing doesn't work, I just can't trust desktop mobos anymore :).
(too much things that can go wrong).
Also ever since I've read about ECC ram I know I want it.

I don't want a prebuild system since:
I already have a PSU and an ATX Case.
(Also some HDD's and VGA's).
Never the less in my country prebuild systems tend to cost a lot more
than they should.

Still the E5-1650V2 is expensive,
so I am considering the E3-1246V3 as well.

E3-1246V3
Downsides: -2 cores, less cache, max 32 GB ram(no quad channel), less
pci-e lanes(don't care)

Pros: much cheaper, cheaper mobo, lower tdp, much more fresh, more
instructions(Intel TSX-NI,etc), also a big bonus - integrated vga

The two chipsets for the mobos I am looking at are
C602(2011) and C226(1150).
Brands I am considering - Intel(but I'd rather have ATX sized mobo),
Asrock, Supermicro.

People have talked about Citrix verified hardware.
Can someone tell me the names of two such mobos -
one for 1150 and one for 2011?(being single socket and some PCI-E
slots are a must)

Still perhaps I will be getting the E3, since that way I will have
enough budget for additional ram, cheap gpu's and monitors.

And about the purpose of the system - Multi-monitor workstation(up to
15 monitors I guess). About the video outputs I am thinking of perhaps
using singleslot VGA's with 3 monitors per one, so it's:
3 for IGP +
3 x 3
= total of 12 monitors which will most likely be enough

In intel's old docs they state you can't use the IGP in parallel with
discrete VGA's, but I think that's not true anymore? Otherwise I'd
rather buy a CPU without IGP if I can't use it.

Has to be able to play many 1920x1080 Videos in parallel.

Also I use mostly Eclipse, Net Beans as IDE's and all of them tend to
eat up ram and cpu.

Sometime I may play a game or two in the HVM. Also I like to do OpenCL
calculations with my ATI card.

Compile time is important as well, since I'll be compiling a lot of
C/C++(imagine gentoo :)), but singe thread performance should be good
too, so that's why I am dismissing <2.5Ghz dual/quad socket
solutions(also they are expensive anyway).

On 06/26/2014 01:55 AM, jacek burghardt wrote:
> What are you planning on using your new system ? If you with  to go
> with such specs did you look at prebuild system. Buying from dell
> outlet could save money. It seems like over kill for a system. I am
> really impressed with speed of A8 6600k it took two minutes to
> compile xen 4.4 The motherboard only has two x16 and lots of  pci
> cards
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, Jun 25, 2014 at 4:09 PM, Gordan Bobic <gordan@xxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
> 
>> HGST drives or WD Red drives would probably be a better choice.
>> HGST seems to be statistically more reliable.
>> 
>> If you go with WD, Red series have working TLER which is
>> important for RAID (including software/ZFS variety). Just make
>> sure you enable it in smarts.conf.
>> 
>> Mihail Ivanov <mihail.ivanov93@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> 
> Hello,
> 
> I've finally decided I am gonna go the expensive way. Getting a
> E5-1650V2(3.5-3.9Ghz).
> 
>>> http://ark.intel.com/products/75780/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-1650-v2-12M-Cache-3_50-GHz
>
>>> 
> (The other option being 2 x E5-2609 2,4Ghz which will get me 8
> cores, but without HT and on much lower clock - so I'd rather have
> the E5-1650V2, also I don't really want to go dual socket)
> 
> Those single socket 2011 server motherboards seem like the way to
> go if one wants to be sure everything works.
> 
> Now I am kinda only considering Asrock vs Supermicro
> 
> (no ASUS for me please :), Intel's mobos are uATX and I want ATX,
> why would I want to pay 300$+ and get like 2 PCI-E slots)
> 
> I am thinking of getting this mobo Asrock EPC602D8A: 
> http://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=EPC602D8A
>
>  Do you think it's good? It's a server/workstation board based on
> the 602 Chipset with explicit support for Vt-d, a lot of PCI_E
> slots too, Sata ports too.
> 
> Yet I haven't found any feedback on that mobo, so I'd be cool if 
> someone could share his thoughts on it.
> 
> I will be passing through kinda everything(NIC's, SATA 
> Controllers,Powerful VGA's,etc). Only 3-4 cheap VGA's will stay in
> Dom0(and maybe sound too).
> 
> I've read some papers and decided ECC is a must so - so i will most
> likely use 8 x 8GB 1600 ECC.
> 
> As for storage: ZFS on 3 x WD Black 2 TB in Raid 5, And a cheap
> A-data SSD 120GB as cache.
> 
> On 06/25/2014 03:48 PM, H. Sieger wrote:
>>>>> I agree with Gordan and his advice. However, ASrock seems
>>>>> to have a good reputation for VT-d support, but you
>>>>> definitely should check with them first! While Asus
>>>>> hardware isn't bad (as Gordan said), they are not committed
>>>>> in any way to support VT-d. One top of the line board - for
>>>>> example the Rampage IV Extreme - may support VT-d (via
>>>>> BIOS), the other won't, or only partially (e.g. Black 
>>>>> edition). Also, some boards like the RIVE support VT-d with
>>>>> the latest Intel CPUs, others don't. Unless something
>>>>> drastically changed, their tech support is totally useless,
>>>>> even if you talk directly to headquarters. In the realm of
>>>>> enthusiast boards, ASRock seems to be an exception in that
>>>>> they support VT-d in a range of boards and in that they
>>>>> actually know what VT-d is for. Citrix certified boards
>>>>> will most likely be workstation boards.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Here is a list of motherboards I compiled based on success
>>>>> stories: 
>>>>> http://www.overclock.net/t/1338063/vt-d-compatible-motherboards
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> 
Here the same for graphics cards:
>>>>> 
>>> http://www.overclock.net/t/1307834/xen-vga-passthrough-compatible-graphics-adapters
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>> 
Of course both lists aren't exhaustive, but provide perhaps a
>>>>> starting point.
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> On Monday, June 23, 2014 10:19 PM, Mihail Ivanov 
>>>>> <mihail.ivanov93@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> Hello everyone, I am new to xen and I'd like to ask some
>>>>> things.
>>>>> 
>>>>> I am looking to use Xen with both PV and HVM guests. I want
>>>>> to pass-through most of my devices to DomU's. My main
>>>>> concern so far is what hardware should I choose?
>>>>> 
>>>>> I've decided on the cpu - Intel i7-4770. The ram will most
>>>>> likely be 32GB - two kits of Geil 2x8GB 1600-2166 Mhz.
>>>>> About the mobos - what I know so far is that ASUS don't
>>>>> officially support Vt-d, but Asrock say they do. So I am
>>>>> thinking of getting an Asrock. Thing is - so far I've read
>>>>> about people using the z87 chipset, but only one example of
>>>>> z97. Also on Intel's website they are saying that z87 has
>>>>> Vt-d, but nothing about the z97.
>>>>> 
>>>>> So can someone confirm if Asrock Z97 mobos support Vt-d?
>>>>> Also if it has problems with its tables?(EPT ones, if I am
>>>>> not mistaken).
>>>>> 
>>>>> I am particularly interested in the Asrock Z97 Extreme4.
>>>>> Perhaps someone around here has experience with it?
>>>>> 
>>>>> Also I've read about the GPU pass-through, so I've decided
>>>>> to use AMD since nVidia has no support for it (unless I
>>>>> change the ID of my vga to a quadro or some other
>>>>> professional vga).
>>>>> 
>>>>> Not having an FLR isn't an issue, correct?
>>>>> 
>>>>> And now my main concern - which of these devices can be
>>>>> used with pass-through: the integrated sound card the
>>>>> integrated NIC the sata controllers(expensive boards have
>>>>> two - one from the chipset and another one) the usb
>>>>> controllers
>>>>> 
>>>>> All of those should be PCI devices, correct? Also in an
>>>>> article in wikipedia, they say that some mobos don't have
>>>>> support for Vt-d for example on PCIe x8 or mini? How come
>>>>> only one or two slots can't work?
>>>>> 
>>>>> Also can I passtrough just one USB device or I have to do
>>>>> it with the whole controller?(as a PCI device I guess).
>>>>> 
>>>>> Greetings, Mihail
>>>>> 
>>>>> _______________________________________________ Xen-users
>>>>> mailing list Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>>> http://lists.xen.org/xen-users
>>>>> 
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________ Xen-users
>>> mailing list Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
>>> http://lists.xen.org/xen-users
>> _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing
>> list Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxx http://lists.xen.org/xen-users
>> 
> 
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v2.0.22 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://www.enigmail.net/

iQIcBAEBAgAGBQJTq2dnAAoJEMqHhflCh8gXd+IQAL9clVEubU/3dpaY8z+p/xgi
RYbsTS2UTTzt8oRLCj+2Cl6CR7aHyWV/1LOAWU8qls2+pe2GTgkKgNVQ2fDchcZS
Z1elvwCC2jVswMeRaElaNSvrV02lYM9dpI0/RVV9DoMzzPArpQl6ezMJuwrGB3xv
VrK9xDns2LueHUze0EY60B5u1Ouhc1gLTWgdVrcjkEfZR0rzBheAXlS22eg/7bz2
j9FHAMo5YrHJfHcVzpwVaRBco50O/m55zKI42BFIrPy36Aoj67BNDuLY8qQS3mOj
3vTOG1zuf1TYMFNfyCk/RToWwDZl22M0uT2zGcAR8ghbxjpN1tfqT6c8KY5hmaw4
HB9/R+0BO00dFgRir1cgl0La/grsegJsbvuAM3pLYkIO3J4uFrmbE728eIi2vdpl
LHVeC4Vlmmh7jJTqlMR4gE4zDS+SjIBn0iUNGzETN7lQQkBhYzf+ENXBOst64LJs
qmWhjUXS57me6s02sJOouF9Jsafsy9X6Mx5Y13tvEaiu1DC7XI3rOnCDuvywdkVq
8oibg6lgZWnvEFKmzun8ucynwKzAk3yxUFKINdObbfArkPtyUqkVEh9n1MdmJPuT
7WNPPtNQqHMvZIAyPelTdVTyGjw2hqIuV5K2sFxVhP7KXvfNNGUuk85DUtoq71Pu
6r6WGNlEROrg0iQoWzx3
=tCaY
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

_______________________________________________
Xen-users mailing list
Xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.xen.org/xen-users