Re: [Xen-devel] nested virtualizaiton test report for Xen 4.3-RC1

[George Dunlap <George.Dunlap@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 12:07 PM, Ren, Yongjie <yongjie.ren@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi All,
> This the a nested virtualization test report for Xen 4.3-RC1 on Intel 
> hardware. We use Linux 3.9.1 as Dom0.
> a. Virtual EPT and VMCS shadowing features can work fine.
> b. Xen, KVM and VMware can basically work on top of L0 Xen.
> c. 32bit/64bit Linux and Windows are covered as L2 guests.

Sorry I just saw this -- thanks for the nice enumeration.

Two questions.  First, I don't see the Win7 "XP compatibility mode" on
this list -- that would be L0 Xen, L1 Win7, L2 XP.  This seems like
probably the most likely actual real-world use of nested virt.  Is
that on your radar at all?

Secondly, what do you think is the primary use case for Xen-on-Xen (or
KVM-on-Xen, &c)?  Who would want to use it and why?

Thanks,
 -George

>
> There are three basic entities in Xen nested virtualization.
>         L0: Xen (64bit Xen and 64bit Dom0), which is at the bottom of the 
> nested stack.
>         L1: Xen or KVM or VMware or VirtualBox  (all in 64bit mode)
>         L2: Linux or Windows guest, which is at the top of the nested stack.
> (when saying 'KVM on Xen', I mean L0 hypervisor is Xen and L1 hypervisor is 
> KVM.)
>
> Workable cases: (Pass)
> 1. virtual EPT and VMCS shadowing feature enabled
> 2. 64bit Linux/Windows as L2 guest for "Xen on Xen"
> 3. 64bit Linux guest as L2 guest for "KVM on Xen"
> 4. L1 KVM and L1 Xen simultaneously running on a L0 Xen
> 5. L2 guest Save/Restore and local migration for "KVM on Xen"
> 6. AVX and XSAVE in L2 guest for "KVM on Xen"
> 7. some workloads (e.g. LTP, Kernel-build, UnixBench) can work fine in 64bit 
> L2 Linux guest
> 8. 64bit Linux L2 guest can boot up for "VMware on Xen"
> 9. 32bit L2 guest (Linux/Windows) booting on "Xen on Xen"  (not use EPT in L1)
> 10. 32bit/64bit Windows and 32bit Linux L2 guest booting on "VMware on Xen"  
> (not use EPT in L1)
> N.B. Only if you don't use EPT feature in L1 hypervisor, case #9 and #10 can 
> work fine.
>
> Non-workable cases: (Fail)
> 1. 32bit/64bit Windows L2 guest booting on "KVM on Xen"
> 2. L2 guest Save/Restore and local migration for "Xen on Xen"
> 3. Migration "from L0 to L1" for "Xen on Xen"
> 4. Migration "from L1 to L0" for "Xen on Xen"
> 5. Migration a L1 Xen/KVM guest with a L2 running in that L1
> 6. L2 guest booting on "VirtualBox on Xen"
>
>
> Best Regards,
>      Yongjie (Jay)
>
>
>
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