Re: Pointed questions re Xen memory overcommit

[Olaf Hering <olaf@aepfle.de>]

On Wed, Feb 29, Dan Magenheimer wrote:

> I'm mostly curious because I've spent the last four years
> trying to solve this problem in a more intelligent way
> and am wondering if the "old way" has improved, or is
> still just the old way but mostly warmed over for Xen.
> And, admittedly, a bit jealous because there's apparently
> so much effort going into the "old way" and not toward
> "a better way".

The checkbox thing, and because its fun, is certainly a big part of it.
I agree that a in-guest solution where all capable guests can give away
pages to others is best because there is no IO overhead. And guests know
best what pages can be put into the pool.

Then I think that not all guests are capable enough to contribute their
free pages. And if host memory is low, then things like swapping can
solve the problem at hand.

Olaf