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Re: [Xen-devel] RAM allocation and miscellaneous questions

To: xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [Xen-devel] RAM allocation and miscellaneous questions
From: "Mat" <mat@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 29 Sep 2004 13:12:29 +0200
Delivery-date: Thu, 30 Sep 2004 09:33:17 +0100
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On September 29, 9:55 am Ian Pratt <Ian.Pratt@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >  It certainly does Mark (help, that is). I would like to learn more
> >  about this balloon driver, which could make things very managable. Is
> >  there any documentation or tutorial-like info about?
>
> The balloon driver hasn't been forward ported from 2.4 to 2.6 --
> it's on the todo list (it'll probably work unmodified modulo
> changes to the way proc fs works).
>
For people that still use linux 2.4 (like me) is there a tutorial or some
documentation about the ballon driver ?
> >  I have been wondering why my Domain-0 machine hasn't been using swap!
> >  :o) So I should just dump that partition?
>
> If you've configured swap, domain 0 should be using just like any
> normal linux kernel. The balloon driver works in dom0 just like
> any other domain.
It seems logical, but due to the fact that only a few process are running
ind dom0, swap file don't need to be huge is it ?

>
> >  I suppose I'll have to be very rigorous when
> >  it comes to keeping that domain lean yes? (Especially as I only have
> >  4GB to play with!). Out side of basic OS functionality, are there any
> >  Xen or LVM2 related processes I have to account for when setting the
> >  amount of RAM I can use for Domain-0?
>
> -xen linux kernels don't have any special processes that take any
> noticeable extra resources.
>
> In domain 0 you'll have to worry about the footprint of xend, but
> it's not that big.
>
When starting with xen one or two month ago, i've created a dom0 with only
32 Mo of ram, and when i launched xend, it was so slow that i tought i had
a problem.
I didn't take time to investigate and didn't remember how much memory was
used and if the system was swaping or not.
I just have done a test now with my current xen putting 32768 Mo on xen
command line (not the kernel line in grub).
And the system booted a bit slower and i suspect that durring the launch of
xend it has done some swap.
free return this just after the boot :
mat@zeus:/$ free
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:         32768      28572       4196          0          0       7172
-/+ buffers/cache:      21400      11368
Swap:       506008        312     505696

Having this process:
  207 ?        Ss     0:00 dhclient -e -pf /var/run/dhclient.eth0.pid -lf
/var/
  253 ?        Ss     0:00 /sbin/syslogd
  256 ?        Ss     0:00 /sbin/klogd
  261 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/sbin/inetd
  268 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/sbin/sshd
  274 ?        S      0:00 xfrd
  275 ?        S      0:00 python /usr/sbin/xend start
  288 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/sbin/cron
  327 tty1     Ss+    0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty1
  328 tty2     Ss+    0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty2
  329 tty3     Ss+    0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty3
  330 tty4     Ss+    0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty4
  331 tty5     Ss+    0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty5
  332 tty6     Ss+    0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty6
  333 ?        Ss     0:00 sshd: mat [priv]
  335 ?        R      0:00 sshd: mat@pts/0
  336 pts/0    Ss     0:00 -bash
  344 pts/0    R+     0:00 ps ax

i guess i could reduce the number of getty and get rid of dhclient (the
adress of dom0 is a static one ...).

It was my 2cents thoughts ...
Matthieu


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