Hi all, After getting very enthosiast about Xen during the Xen tutorial at Linux Kongress in Hamburg, I think it is time to put Xen at work. I want to co-locate a server with several virtual machines running on it. Main OS will be Centos 4.2 and the guest will run some Linux distro. Later this year, another Windows-based VM may be added. So now I''m looking for a good server. The Tyan GX28 is my favourit up to now, mainly for the combination of specs and price. See <http://www.tyan.com/PRODUCTS/html/gx28b2881.html> and specs on <http://www.tyan.com/PRODUCTS/html/gx28b2881_spec.html>. In short, it is an 1U rack server with a Dual AMD Opteron™ system board with dual PGA 940-pin ZIF sockets and it has 4 SATA HDD spaces. But, as the subject says, my question is about Pacifica support. For the Xen part, it is probably a matter of patience. But maybe someone here can tell me more about the following questions: 1) Are Pacifica AMD''s going to be sold soon and will they fit on this board? The announcements about Pacifica-containing CPU''s talk about 940-pin socketed CPU''s. 2) Is AMD a good choice for a box with a number of server-like guests running on it or should I buy for example Intel Xeon (32 bit or 64 bit)? 3) How realistic is it to expect a Windows guest (say, XP pro) running on a Linux Xen dom0 by Q3 of this year, provided that I buy the right hardware? I realize that these are difficult questions and maybe not entirely on-topic here. But I''m facing them right now and this is a place where smart guys hang out, isn''t it? Thanks a lot, Bas. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Petersson, Mats
2006-Feb-08 09:58 UTC
RE: [Xen-users] AMD processors with Pacifica and Xen
> Hi all, > > After getting very enthosiast about Xen during the Xen > tutorial at Linux Kongress in Hamburg, I think it is time to > put Xen at work. > > I want to co-locate a server with several virtual machines > running on it. Main OS will be Centos 4.2 and the guest will > run some Linux distro. > Later this year, another Windows-based VM may be added. > > So now I''m looking for a good server. The Tyan GX28 is my > favourit up to now, mainly for the combination of specs and > price. See <http://www.tyan.com/PRODUCTS/html/gx28b2881.html> > and specs on > <http://www.tyan.com/PRODUCTS/html/gx28b2881_spec.html>. In > short, it is an 1U rack server with a Dual AMD Opteron(tm) > system board with dual PGA 940-pin ZIF sockets and it has 4 > SATA HDD spaces. > > But, as the subject says, my question is about Pacifica > support. For the Xen part, it is probably a matter of > patience. But maybe someone here can tell me more about the > following questions: > > 1) Are Pacifica AMD''s going to be sold soon and will they fit > on this board? The announcements about Pacifica-containing > CPU''s talk about 940-pin socketed CPU''s.I''m not sure what sockets will be supported by SVM (formerly Pacifica) capable CPU''s. I tried to find a publicly available roadmap that mentioned SVM, but none available at the AMD web-site that I could find in my first few attempts of googling/searching AMD site. I think if you use Google, you''ll find quite a few sites that mention when we''ll have new processors available, but it''s not quite so easy to know which ones are right... ;-)> > 2) Is AMD a good choice for a box with a number of > server-like guests running on it or should I buy for example > Intel Xeon (32 bit or 64 bit)?I would say AMD, but then I''m biased... ;-) I also don''t see ANY reason to use a 32-bit OS on the new machines - you may want to run a VM in 32-bit for compatibility reasons, but no need to run a 32-bit hypervisor or Dom0.> > 3) How realistic is it to expect a Windows guest (say, XP > pro) running on a Linux Xen dom0 by Q3 of this year, provided > that I buy the right hardware?I would think that''s quite feasible. Obviously, I''m predicting future events here, and that''s always harder than looking back to say "That''s how it went". The next question is of course what sort of performance and stability. There''s certainly some low-hanging fruit when it comes to improving the current performance of full virtualization over Xen, running any OS. Whether any of those will be available by Q3 or not would be a different matter. Further, performance is very much dependant on the actual behaviour of the application running in the OS. If you run something that is mostly CPU intensive and not using IO (disk, graphics, network) the performance should be nearly the same as the "baremetal" system''s performance [assuming ONE domU of course]. Running IO intensive applications would probably be noticably slower, but there are benchmarks showing that Xen is FASTER than the real hardware in some cases, so it''s not quite clearcut. -- Mats> > I realize that these are difficult questions and maybe not > entirely on-topic here. But I''m facing them right now and > this is a place where smart guys hang out, isn''t it? > > Thanks a lot, > > Bas. > > > _______________________________________________ > Xen-users mailing list > Xen-users@lists.xensource.com > http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users > >_______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
>> >> 1) Are Pacifica AMD''s going to be sold soon and will they fit >> on this board? The announcements about Pacifica-containing >> CPU''s talk about 940-pin socketed CPU''s. > > I''m not sure what sockets will be supported by SVM (formerly Pacifica) > capable CPU''s. I tried to find a publicly available roadmap that > mentioned SVM, but none available at the AMD web-site that I could find > in my first few attempts of googling/searching AMD site. > > I think if you use Google, you''ll find quite a few sites that mention > when we''ll have new processors available, but it''s not quite so easy to > know which ones are right... ;-) >Hmmm. Difficult. Xen already supports the Intel VT extensions and it seems that Intel VT-capable CPU''s are available right now for some series. It looks like it is a year to early to buy a new server :-( Thanks for your comments, Bas. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Petersson, Mats
2006-Feb-08 10:46 UTC
RE: [Xen-users] AMD processors with Pacifica and Xen
> -----Original Message----- > From: xen-users-bounces@lists.xensource.com > [mailto:xen-users-bounces@lists.xensource.com] On Behalf Of > Bas Mevissen > Sent: 08 February 2006 10:42 > To: Petersson, Mats > Cc: xen-users@lists.xensource.com > Subject: RE: [Xen-users] AMD processors with Pacifica and Xen > > >> > >> 1) Are Pacifica AMD''s going to be sold soon and will they > fit on this > >> board? The announcements about Pacifica-containing CPU''s > talk about > >> 940-pin socketed CPU''s. > > > > I''m not sure what sockets will be supported by SVM > (formerly Pacifica) > > capable CPU''s. I tried to find a publicly available roadmap that > > mentioned SVM, but none available at the AMD web-site that I could > > find in my first few attempts of googling/searching AMD site. > > > > I think if you use Google, you''ll find quite a few sites > that mention > > when we''ll have new processors available, but it''s not > quite so easy > > to know which ones are right... ;-) > > > > Hmmm. Difficult. Xen already supports the Intel VT extensions > and it seems that Intel VT-capable CPU''s are available right > now for some series. It looks like it is a year to early to > buy a new server :-(Xen''s unstable tree supports SVM too. So release 3.0.2 should contain SVM-support. -- Mats> > > Thanks for your comments, > > Bas. > > > > _______________________________________________ > Xen-users mailing list > Xen-users@lists.xensource.com > http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users > >_______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
> >> Hmmm. Difficult. Xen already supports the Intel VT extensions >> and it seems that Intel VT-capable CPU''s are available right >> now for some series. It looks like it is a year to early to >> buy a new server :-( > > Xen''s unstable tree supports SVM too. So release 3.0.2 should contain > SVM-support. >Yes, I''m not worried about Xen support of SVN. But I would like to buy new metal these weeks. What kind of hardware is used for the development of SVN support for Xen? Regards, Bas. _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Hi,>1) Are Pacifica AMD''s going to be sold soon and will they fit on this >board? The announcements about Pacifica-containing CPU''s talk about >940-pin socketed CPU''s.not soon, maybe in some month and I would NOT expect that a board you buy today will run with the next processor-generation, even if it is the same socket and if it "should" run - it''s just the experience of the past!>2) Is AMD a good choice for a box with a number of server-like guests >running on it or should I buy for example Intel Xeon (32 bit or 64I think they are both more or less the same, but both you can''t buy right now, maybe in Q2/06. If you want VMX-XEN-support NOW you have to buy a desktop with Intel Pentium EE or the Intel Pentium D >=920, I think both support Intel/VT!>3) How realistic is it to expect a Windows guest (say, XP pro) running >on a Linux Xen dom0 by Q3 of this year, provided that I buy the rightWell if you have the right Pentium or devel-hardware it already can work. But all the graphicstuff is not very fast, you have to connect to your machine via VNC or whatever, access to IO is not very performant and the access to PCI-devices is still in development! I think that virtualisation with XEN is more for servers than for clients, letting run a lot of application-servers where you don''t need very often contact directly via ssh, console or VNC! -- Chau y hasta luego, Thorolf ------------------------------------------------------------------ e-Mail: mailto:Thorolf@Godawa.de \|/ /''~''\ Homepage: http://www.godawa.de ( o o ) --------------------------------------------------oOOO--(_)--OOOo- _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
Daniel Goertzen
2006-Feb-08 13:57 UTC
Re: [Xen-users] AMD processors with Pacifica and Xen
I''ve read articles (which of course I can''t locate now) which said SVM will be available only on the new AMD socket M platform. You might want to verify this before committing to socket-940 technology. Cheers, Dan.> > > 1) Are Pacifica AMD''s going to be sold soon and will they fit on this > board? The announcements about Pacifica-containing CPU''s talk about > 940-pin socketed CPU''s. > > 2) Is AMD a good choice for a box with a number of server-like guests > running on it or should I buy for example Intel Xeon (32 bit or 64 bit)? > > 3) How realistic is it to expect a Windows guest (say, XP pro) running > on a Linux Xen dom0 by Q3 of this year, provided that I buy the right > hardware? > > I realize that these are difficult questions and maybe not entirely > on-topic here. But I''m facing them right now and this is a place where > smart guys hang out, isn''t it? > > Thanks a lot, > > Bas. > > > _______________________________________________ > Xen-users mailing list > Xen-users@lists.xensource.com > http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users > >_______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xensource.com http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users