Xen and Vanderpool

Xen and Vanderpool

[Dave Feustel]

Has any testing of Xen using Vanderpool Technology been done?

Thanks,
Dave Feustel


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Re: Xen and Vanderpool

[Steven Hand]

>Has any testing of Xen using Vanderpool Technology been done?

Yes - works just fine. We can currently support an unmodified 
Linux kernel with fully virtualized devices, etc. 

YMMV getting your hands on a VT-x box though - they're not 
widely available just yet. 


cheers,

S.



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Re: Xen and Vanderpool

[Dave Feustel]

On Wednesday 16 February 2005 03:39 am, Steven Hand wrote:
> 
> >Has any testing of Xen using Vanderpool Technology been done?
> 
> Yes - works just fine. We can currently support an unmodified 
> Linux kernel with fully virtualized devices, etc. 
> 
> YMMV getting your hands on a VT-x box though - they're not 
> widely available just yet. 

This is encouraging! Is AMD implementing Vanderpool or something else?

Thanks,
Dave Feustel 


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Re: Xen and Vanderpool

[Steven Hand]

> On Wednesday 16 February 2005 03:39 am, Steven Hand wrote:
> > 
> > >Has any testing of Xen using Vanderpool Technology been done?
> > 
> > Yes - works just fine. We can currently support an unmodified 
> > Linux kernel with fully virtualized devices, etc. 
> > 
> > YMMV getting your hands on a VT-x box though - they're not 
> > widely available just yet. 
> 
> This is encouraging! Is AMD implementing Vanderpool or something else?

AMD has announced a technology called Pacifica which is likely to 
be similar to VT (i.e. it's targeted at the same space), but there
are no public documents or release timescales as yet. I think they
had alluded to Q405 at some point, and yesterday at LinuxWorld some
reports claim Q205, but don't think there's an "official" release
date. 


cheers,

S.


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Re: Xen and Vanderpool

[Dave Feustel]

On Wednesday 16 February 2005 06:24 am, Steven Hand wrote:
> 
> > On Wednesday 16 February 2005 03:39 am, Steven Hand wrote:
> > > 
> > > >Has any testing of Xen using Vanderpool Technology been done?
> > > 
> > > Yes - works just fine. We can currently support an unmodified 
> > > Linux kernel with fully virtualized devices, etc. 
> > > 
> > > YMMV getting your hands on a VT-x box though - they're not 
> > > widely available just yet. 
> > 
> > This is encouraging! Is AMD implementing Vanderpool or something else?
> 
> AMD has announced a technology called Pacifica which is likely to 
> be similar to VT (i.e. it's targeted at the same space), but there
> are no public documents or release timescales as yet. I think they
> had alluded to Q405 at some point, and yesterday at LinuxWorld some
> reports claim Q205, but don't think there's an "official" release
> date. 

Yes. I saw the release but was unable to locate any technical docs.
My question about Intel/Vanderpool was prompted by printing out and
reading the preliminary Vanderpool specs.

Is the Vanderpool-based VM monitor code OS-specific or will the code
that you have run Linux with work for other operating systems?


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RE: Xen and Vanderpool

[Puthiyaparambil, Aravindh]

Are you running on a Vanderpool SDV or the real hardware itself? How
about Windows XP and W3K Server? Is there any work being done to get
them running on Xen with VT-x?

Aravindh

-----Original Message-----
From: xen-devel-admin@lists.sourceforge.net
[mailto:xen-devel-admin@lists.sourceforge.net] On Behalf Of Steven Hand
Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2005 3:39 AM
To: dfeustel@mindspring.com
Cc: xen-devel@lists.sourceforge.net; Steven.Hand@cl.cam.ac.uk
Subject: Re: [Xen-devel] Xen and Vanderpool


>Has any testing of Xen using Vanderpool Technology been done?

Yes - works just fine. We can currently support an unmodified 
Linux kernel with fully virtualized devices, etc. 

YMMV getting your hands on a VT-x box though - they're not 
widely available just yet. 


cheers,

S.



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Xen and Vanderpool

[jean-paul.pigache]

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Steve,

I have a couple of questions about the support of Vanderpool by Xen :

"Yes - works just fine. We can currently support an unmodified 
Linux kernel with fully virtualized devices, etc."

I assume that for the virtualized devices you are using the same Front-End 
device drivers as the current ones. Correct ?

The work necessary to take benefit of the Vanderpool Technology should be 
located in the Xen hypervisor.
Does this require a brand new development or only some changes to the 
current hypervisor ?

Will most of these changes be compatible for the support of Vanderpool on 
IA64 or will the work have to be done twice (for IA32 then for IA64) ?
Regards
Jean-Paul

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RE: Xen and Vanderpool

[Nakajima, Jun]

BTW, docs/misc/VMX_changes.txt would answer such questions.

Jun
________________________________________
From: xen-devel-admin@lists.sourceforge.net
[mailto:xen-devel-admin@lists.sourceforge.net] On Behalf Of
jean-paul.pigache@bull.net
Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2005 7:09 AM
To: Steven Hand
Cc: xen-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
Subject: [Xen-devel] Xen and Vanderpool


Steve, 

I have a couple of questions about the support of Vanderpool by Xen : 

"Yes - works just fine. We can currently support an unmodified 
Linux kernel with fully virtualized devices, etc." 

I assume that for the virtualized devices you are using the same
Front-End device drivers as the current ones. Correct ? 

The work necessary to take benefit of the Vanderpool Technology should
be located in the Xen hypervisor. 
Does this require a brand new development or only some changes to the
current hypervisor ? 

Will most of these changes be compatible for the support of Vanderpool
on IA64 or will the work have to be done twice (for IA32 then for IA64)
? 
Regards 
Jean-Paul 


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Re: Xen and Vanderpool

[Steven Hand]

> Are you running on a Vanderpool SDV or the real hardware itself? How
> about Windows XP and W3K Server? Is there any work being done to get
> them running on Xen with VT-x?

We have some hardware which Intel generously donated to us. 

There's no support for WinXP etc since we currently only deal 
with 32-bit code (i.e. no 16 bit stuff or virtual BIOS etc). 
Some of this is trivial but boring, some is a bit more gory. 

As Jun has also mentioned on the list, you can get further details 
on the current status in docs/misc/VMX_changes.txt (in xen-unstable) 


cheers,

S.




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Re: Xen and Vanderpool

[Arun Sharma]

On 2/16/2005 7:08 AM, jean-paul.pigache@bull.net wrote:
> 
> Steve,
> 
> I have a couple of questions about the support of Vanderpool by Xen :
> 
> "Yes - works just fine. We can currently support an unmodified
> Linux kernel with fully virtualized devices, etc."
> 
> I assume that for the virtualized devices you are using the same 
> Front-End device drivers as the current ones. Correct ?
> 

No, we have done a port of Bochs (bochs.sf.net) to Xen/VT. See tools/ioemu in the unstable tree.

> The work necessary to take benefit of the Vanderpool Technology should 
> be located in the Xen hypervisor.
> Does this require a brand new development or only some changes to the 
> current hypervisor ?
> 
> Will most of these changes be compatible for the support of Vanderpool 
> on IA64 or will the work have to be done twice (for IA32 then for IA64) ?

The Bochs device models should be reusable, but most of the hypervisor code is arch specific.

	-Arun


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RE: Xen and Vanderpool

[Nakajima, Jun]

Dave Feustel wrote:
> 
> Is the Vanderpool-based VM monitor code OS-specific or will the code
> that you have run Linux with work for other operating systems?
> 

The VT-based VM monitor code should _not_ be OS-specific, but should be
written to virulize a machine. As we enhance the capabilities in the
monitor, it should work for other operating systems. However, validation
or support is a different thing.

Jun


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Re: Xen and Vanderpool

[Dave Feustel]

On Thursday 17 February 2005 09:56 am, you wrote:
> Dave Feustel wrote:
> > 
> > Is the Vanderpool-based VM monitor code OS-specific or will the code
> > that you have run Linux with work for other operating systems?
> > 
> 
> The VT-based VM monitor code should _not_ be OS-specific, but should be
> written to virulize a machine. As we enhance the capabilities in the
> monitor, it should work for other operating systems. However, validation
> or support is a different thing.
> 
> Jun

Jun,

I expect to use this technology with OpenBSD as soon as it becomes available 
and I have supporting hardware and software. I have been completely focused 
on AMD ever since I found out about AMD64, but Vanderpool Technology has
pulled my interest back to Intel processors. I would very much appreciate
being kept up-to-date on the progress of Intel's VM technology.

Thanks,
Dave Feustel
Fort Wayne, IN 


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