Novell CTO defends 'unstable' Xen claims

www.zdnet.com.au ^ | 11 August 2006 10:15 AM | Steven Deare, ZDNet Australia

[N3WBI3]

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[ShadowAce]

While I am watching Xen development fairly closely, I am not a big fan of paravirtualization. I'd much rather use true virtualization such as VMware as the guest OS does not require modifications.

[ko_kyi]

Yes, but abstracting the hardware completely tends to really bog performance, especially disk I/O. Isn't ESX server a paravirtualization also?

[N3WBI3]

I am of the same mindset, but bear in mind that you do plop new code into the kernel with VMWare (in the form of drivers) on a VMWare guest OS..

[ShadowAce]

Yes, but abstracting the hardware completely tends to really bog performance, especially disk I/O.

Actually, I haven't noticed, but my hardware is fairly robust (Laptop with 3.2Ghz Desktop CPU, 1G DDR2 RAM, 120G HDD) so it doesn't slow my machine down noticably. I have noticed that Win2K boots up much faster under my VM than it does on a couple of PIII machines I own.

Isn't ESX server a paravirtualization also?

Not sure, as I don't use the ESX product. I use the Workstation product, which has handled every OS I've thrown at it.

[Xenalyte]

Xen is perfectly stable! Except when she gets a snootful, and then she's still predictable. ;)

[ShadowAce]

on a VMWare guest OS..

You mean host OS? yeah, you do. But adding and removing a driver is much different than modifying the whole OS for paravirtualization. While there are plusses and minuses for any solution, I think the driver solution for the host OS is preferable. YMMV, of course.

[N3WBI3]

No I mean gues OS, VMWare tools should be installed on any ESX guest OS..

[ShadowAce]

Oh yeah. I forgot about that, since it's basically a one-time issue. You're right. It works the same on the Workstation product as well. From what I can tell, it's mainly used for video and mouse drivers.

[N3WBI3]

since it's basically a one-time issue.

Your supposed to do it every time you patch the kernel..

[ShadowAce]

I just re-read the title of this article, and it doesn't actually make sense, grammatically.

Novell's CTO is defending claims that Xen is unstable? Or is he defending Xen against the claims of it being unstable (which is what I think is actually meant)?

[ShadowAce]

Your supposed to do it every time you patch the kernel..

Yeah--I try not to d othat very often as I use this machine for work. Once it's running smooth, I try to to patch the kernel if I can help it.

I will patch it once the updates hit a major version number, but for all these minor updates, I skip them.

I'm currently running 2.6.17-1_2145, while the "current" one is 2.6.17-1_2174. I'll wait until 2.6.18 comes out.

[ko_kyi]

I love the workstation product also - I use it for testing and I run win2K, XP, SUSE destop 10, and NetWare on it.

[ShadowAce]

I'm using Fedora Core 5--waiting for 6 to come out.

[Golden Eagle]

despite its self-proclaimed pace-setter status, Novell has not yet completed rolling out Linux desktops to all its employees. The vendor announced the plans over two years ago.

Wow, some halfway honest reporting. And posted by noobie even.

[ShadowAce]

Otherwise it just seems like you're wasting cds. >.>

Ahh--Discover the joys of DVD-RW.... :)

[N3WBI3]

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