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Re: [Xen-devel] sharing PCI devices ....

To: xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [Xen-devel] sharing PCI devices ....
From: Mark Williamson <mark.williamson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2005 16:13:10 +0100
Cc: Himanshu Raj <rhim@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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> A question about PCI devices. If we leave security problems aside, is it
> possible to provide access of a PCI device to 2 domains (may include dom
> 0), i.e. would current xen implementation suffice or a PCI device can only
> be used exclusively by a domain.

Not usually: devices are basically stupid and they only expect one entity to 
be talking to them.  If you get multiple domains driving a device directly 
it'll probably end in tears, although it might be amusing :-)

You've really got two choices:
1) Just assign a device to one domain at a time - maybe buy multiple devices 
to serve multiple domains.
2) Virtualise at a higher level using a backend / frontend.  e.g. the virtual 
block device, virtual net dev, virtual usb dev, etc...

What are you actually trying to achieve?

Cheers,
Mark

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