Domain 0 SMP

[Remi Broemeling <rbroemeling@gmail.com>]

Hey there.  I'm having an issue; and I am not sure if it is an issue
with Xen or simply that I don't understand what I am doing.

Specifically, I have a number of servers that we want to virtualize --
I've tried UML, but was rather unimpressed with the performance, and
hence want to give Xen a try.  These servers are SMP Xeon boxes, with
about 1GB-1.5GB of RAM each.  Just standard server boxes, really;
nothing special about them.

I've got all the pre-reqs setup (we run Debian woody, so some of it
was a pain to get to the right versions, but I've managed, with stow
and backports.org), and the "check" script that comes with the Xen
binaries package completes with no errors found.

Now, I want to compile custom -xen0 and -xenU kernels.  It is my
understanding that -xen0 is the "master" kernel, that supports the
hardware, and then the -xenU kernels are the virtual kernels that live
inside -xen0.  Hence, I want to have a -xen0 kernel that supports all
the necessary hardware for the box, but the -xenU kernel just requires
the frontend drivers to connect to the hardware that -xen0 shares with
the backend drivers, correct?

My problem is with the -xen0 kernel -- specifically, I can't find any
place to _enable_ SMP in it.  I know that SMP is not currently
possible within -xenU kernels; which is fine.  I don't need SMP within
the virtual machines.  However, I _do_ need it in the -xen0 kernel,
and the option isn't there in "make ARCH=xen xconfig"

What am I doing wrong?  How can I enable SMP for the domain 0 Xen
kernel?  I note that the documentation lists a 'nosmp' argument that
can be passed as an argument to a -xen0 kernel to turn _off_ SMP.  Is
SMP perhaps just "always-on"?

(I am using xen-2.0.4-src, and am working in the 'linux-2.6.10-xen0'
directory created by a call to 'make kernels')

Thanks.


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