para virtualized kvm virtio drivers and performance comparing to Xen

para virtualized kvm virtio drivers and performance comparing to Xen

[Mark Ryden]

Hello,

I saw in this mailing list (kvm-devel) that there is a git tree
which uses Rusty Russel virtio API. The intention that this tree will be
integrated inot mainstream in the near future.

(for example,
http://www.mail-archive.com/kvm-devel-5NWGOfrQmneRv+LV9MX5uipxlwaOVQ5f@public.gmane.org/msg08854.html).

My question is about performance of these virtio para virtualized
drivers (I am talking mainly about network and disk drivers):
How this is in comparison with the paravirtualized drivers of Xen
(the split devices model)?

I am talking about Xen in its paravirtualized mode, where the
guests run unmodified OSes (on ordinary, non virtualized processors).

Is the performance about the same as the Xen paravirtualized drivers ?

In case is it so, can we see kvm a competitor to Xen in server virtualization
(when we deal with a high loads of thousands/ten of thousands of
interrupts per second).?

Regards,
Mark

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Re: para virtualized kvm virtio drivers and performance comparing to Xen

[Anthony Liguori]

Mark Ryden wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I saw in this mailing list (kvm-devel) that there is a git tree
> which uses Rusty Russel virtio API. The intention that this tree will be
> integrated inot mainstream in the near future.
>
> (for example,
> http://www.mail-archive.com/kvm-devel-5NWGOfrQmneRv+LV9MX5uipxlwaOVQ5f@public.gmane.org/msg08854.html).
>
> My question is about performance of these virtio para virtualized
> drivers (I am talking mainly about network and disk drivers):
> How this is in comparison with the paravirtualized drivers of Xen
> (the split devices model)?
>   

Optimization is still ongoing.  I'm pretty confident that the linux-aio 
based disk driver is at least as good.  The RX side of the network 
driver is also pretty decent (I can get 1.5 gbit/sec).  I think over 
time we'll be able to get a fair bit more without even going to 
kernel-space.  Once we have a kernel space backend, I think we'll get 
performance that's at least as good as Xen's drivers.

Regards,

Anthony Liguori

> I am talking about Xen in its paravirtualized mode, where the
> guests run unmodified OSes (on ordinary, non virtualized processors).
>
> Is the performance about the same as the Xen paravirtualized drivers ?
>
> In case is it so, can we see kvm a competitor to Xen in server virtualization
> (when we deal with a high loads of thousands/ten of thousands of
> interrupts per second).?
>
> Regards,
> Mark
>
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> Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2005.
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>
>   


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