RE: [Xen-devel] Windows SMP

["Venefax" <venefax@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Steve
I am trying to apply the xen-vioapic-callback-routing.patch to xen 3.3 as 
supplied by Suse 11.1. The question is: is it necessary? I use both SMP (8 
cores) para-virtualized Centos 5.2 and fully-virtualized Windows SMP (4 cores). 
Do you recommend that I apply this patch? Or the patch is already in Xen 3.3?
Yours
Federico

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Ofsthun [mailto:sofsthun@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Friday, January 09, 2009 9:30 AM
To: Venefax
Cc: xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; 'Andrew Lyon'; 'Dirk Utterback'; 'Keir 
Fraser'
Subject: Re: [Xen-devel] Windows SMP

Venefax wrote:
> I put the patch in production. Is there any way to know if it is working. I 
> cannot observe any effect, either positive or negative. I have 16 windows VM 
> with one virtual processor each, the Standard PC Hal, and an application that 
> can bring the cpu usage to 100%. Heavy network usage. It is a telephony 
> application. Does anybody have any other patch that would make it use less 
> CPU?

Now I am confused.  I thought your original problem was related to guests with 
multiple vcpus (as the subject implies).  The patch addresses additional 
latency added when more than 1 vcpu is involved in the interrupt delivery.  The 
patch will have no effect on 1-vcpu guests.  With only 1 vcpu, interrupts can 
only be delivered to one place already (vcpu 0).

Steve

> Federico
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steve Ofsthun [mailto:sofsthun@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
> Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 10:42 AM
> To: Venefax
> Cc: xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; 'Andrew Lyon'; 'Dirk Utterback'; 'Keir 
> Fraser'
> Subject: Re: [Xen-devel] Windows SMP
> 
> Venefax wrote:
>> It booted fine, but then I found out that I actually went back in my 
>> version. Please let me know if I should go ahead or not. I downloaded the 
>> source file that you instructed me, xen-3.2.0_16718_14-0.4.src.rpm, but it 
>> turns out that I was using 3.2.0_16718_18-0.3.src.rpm, which I could not 
>> find in Google or Novell. I applied the patch and after rebooting I found 
>> that I am of course using _14-0.4 instead of 18-0.3. So the question is, 
>> does it matter? Or is it better to use this lower version with the patch? If 
>> it matters indeed, how do I get the _18.03 source rpm?
> 
> Obviously running the correct version would be best.  I'm guessing my version 
> is the original shipping SP2 not the latest SP2 kernel/xen update.  You 
> should be able to get the proper src.rpm from the same place you got the 
> binary rpm from.
> 
>> The other question is: is it possible to update the whole xen + tools to 
>> 3.3.1rc4 in Suse 10 SP2 and is this patch still valid in that scenario?
> 
> The short answer is no.  This is a much bigger job.  The dom0 kernel is 
> intimately tied to the underlying Xen version.  If you want to try a newer 
> Xen, you would have to move to OpenSUSE 11.1 or gain access to the SLES11 
> Beta.
> 
> As far as the supplied patch, it should apply since the underlying code is 
> still present in xen-unstable.
> 
> Steve
> 
>> Federico
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: xen-devel-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
>> [mailto:xen-devel-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Steve Ofsthun
>> Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 9:47 AM
>> To: Venefax
>> Cc: xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; 'Andrew Lyon'; 'Dirk Utterback'; 'Keir 
>> Fraser'; 'James Harper'
>> Subject: Re: [Xen-devel] Windows SMP
>>
>> Venefax wrote:
>>
>>> I went as far as "make xen". The question is now what do I do to use this 
>>> new, patched hypervisor, I mean, how do I put in production? A simple 
>>> reboot? Please advise.
>> As we don't want to assume that this test xen will even boot, the safest 
>> thing is to edit your /boot/grub/menu.lst (or use yast [System -> Boot 
>> Loader]) to copy your current xen boot entry.  Leave everything identical 
>> between the two entries except for the hypervisor (change /boot/xen.gz to 
>> /boot/xen-test.gz) and the title line to indicate the test entry (add 
>> something like "- test" to the end of the title line).  If you use yast, the 
>> title entry is in the label column.
>>
>> Copy your newly created xen.gz to /boot/xen-test.gz (be careful not to copy 
>> your new file on top of any existing /boot/xen.gz).
>>
>> Reboot the node and manually select the test selection.  If the boot 
>> succeeds, try your experiment.  If the boot fails, just reboot normally and 
>> verify your changes to the menu.lst.
>>
>>> Federico
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Steve Ofsthun [mailto:sofsthun@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
>>> Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 4:20 PM
>>> To: Venefax
>>> Cc: 'Keir Fraser'; 'Andrew Lyon'; 'James Harper'; 'Dirk Utterback'; 
>>> xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> Subject: Re: [Xen-devel] Windows SMP
>>>
>>> Venefax wrote:
>>>> Dear Gentlemen
>>>> One silly question, maybe, how do I apply the patch supplied in SLES SP2? 
>>>> I have not compiled anything from sources.
>>>> Federico
>>> I believe the proper sequence is:
>>>
>>> download the SLES10 SDK iso from you Novell support account:
>>>
>>> SLE-10-SP2-SDK-DVD-x86_64-GM-DVD1.iso
>>>
>>> Add this ISO as a yast installation source.
>>>
>>> install the xen-3.2.0_16718_14-0.4.src.rpm rpm via yast or:
>>>
>>> # rpm -i xen-3.2.0_16718_14-0.4.src.rpm
>>>
>>> Note that this is the .src.rpm not the binary rpm.
>>>
>>> Prep the source tree using:
>>>
>>> # rpmbuild -bc /usr/src/packages/SPECS/xen.spec
>>>
>>> This should build, patch and compile the package.  If it fails due to 
>>> dependencies, add the missing RPMs using yast.
>>>
>>> Once it succeeds, apply the attached patch (I attached the wrong one 
>>> previously):
>>>
>>> # cd /usr/src/packages/BUILD/xen-3.2-testing
>>> # patch -p0 < ~/xen-vioapic-callback-routing.patch
>>>
>>> Build the hypervisor:
>>>
>>> # cd /usr/src/packages/BUILD/xen-3.2-testing
>>> # make xen
>>>
>>> try out the resulting xen/xen.gz manually.
>>>
>>> Steve
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Xen-devel mailing list
>> Xen-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-devel
>>
> 


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