My first post, so please let me know if this is the wrong place for this newbie stuff. Been reading Xen ideas, docs, post for a couple months and decided to give this a shot. Goal: Run any Ubuntu derivative off an intel i5 video card and play Windows 7 games on an Nvidia gtx 570 through vga pass through. Use a simple dvi toggle switch on the monitor (2 inputs) to go between them. Hardware: 16g ram, i5 (non K), vt-d ASRock motherboard, Intel ssd 120 gig, and lots of other slower drives. So my few questions are: 1) Is there any dis-advantage between Dom0 Mint/Ubuntu/Debian/Fedora ? Performance, stability? Was assuming to compile in the latest xen unstable for the best shot at nvidia support. 2) What is the best disk performance I can get with a windows 7 DomU? Pass a controller though or just share it with dom0 and maybe another domU. 3) Seems like the recommendation is to not have an GUI on Dom0. is there any reason for this? Ideally would like to run XFCE for Ubuntu. I don''t understand the pros/cons of running XFCE on an ubuntu dom0 vs running it on a DomU 4) Is it required to pass through a usb bus with a 2nd keyboard/mouse or kvm switch? Or Can I just share the keyboard mouse? If I do need a kvm switch, will any of them work or is there an approved list (couldn''t find any). Little unclear on how to switch between DomU instances (that what cntrl-] does?) 5) For allocating ram and cpu. How much do I need to leave for dom0? Guessing 2 cores for win 7, 2 cores for ubuntu, 8 gigs each may not work since I get the impression I must leave some resources for dom0. Can the dom0 and ubuntu domU be shared with say 2 cores 8 gigs? Thanks ahead of time. These answers have been very hard to find and understand. Karim _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xen.org lists.xen.org/xen-users
On Fri, Sep 28, 2012 at 2:09 PM, Karim Sanjabi <karim@robotstampede.com>wrote:> My first post, so please let me know if this is the wrong place for this > newbie stuff. Been reading Xen ideas, docs, post for a couple months and > decided to give this a shot. > > Goal: Run any Ubuntu derivative off an intel i5 video card and play > Windows 7 games on an Nvidia gtx 570 through vga pass through. Use a > simple dvi toggle switch on the monitor (2 inputs) to go between them. > > Hardware: 16g ram, i5 (non K), vt-d ASRock motherboard, Intel ssd 120 gig, > and lots of other slower drives. > > So my few questions are: > > 1) Is there any dis-advantage between Dom0 Mint/Ubuntu/Debian/Fedora ? > Performance, stability? Was assuming to compile in the latest xen unstable > for the best shot at nvidia support. > > 1. Go with what you feel most comfortable with, which sounds like Ubuntu.I had successfully used Debian, tried Mint but didn''t like it as much so I went back to Debian. The biggest disadvantage will be forcing yourself to configure an operating system you are not familiar with. 2) What is the best disk performance I can get with a windows 7 DomU? Pass> a controller though or just share it with dom0 and maybe another domU. > > 2. You said SSD for your host, are you planning to use LVM on the SSD oron a regular HDD? I use an OCZ Vertex 3 with LVM, and a logical volume for Windows. Windows Experience Index was 6.6, but after installing GPLPV drivers jumped to 7.7 and performs at near-native speeds. I would imagine similar results from HDD performance. 3) Seems like the recommendation is to not have an GUI on Dom0. is there> any reason for this? Ideally would like to run XFCE for Ubuntu. I don''t > understand the pros/cons of running XFCE on an ubuntu dom0 vs running it on > a DomU >3. Assuming best practices, you normally would install as little as possible on Dom0 and only use it as a control OS. However, as a home use I did just the opposite and use Gnome3 with Debian and Intel''s on-die GPU. From what I read XFCE is a light-weight GUI, so that should probably work great. 4) Is it required to pass through a usb bus with a 2nd keyboard/mouse or> kvm switch? Or Can I just share the keyboard mouse? If I do need a kvm > switch, will any of them work or is there an approved list (couldn''t find > any). Little unclear on how to switch between DomU instances (that what > cntrl-] does?) >4. Supposedly you can pass individual USB devices, but they perform at USB 1.1 speeds. For best results and reliability, pass a controller. You could use VNC to pass input from Dom0 to DomU, but that''d probably be difficult. If by switching DomU instances you mean using the KVM to switch controls then that might work well with passed USB controllers.> 5) For allocating ram and cpu. How much do I need to leave for dom0? > Guessing 2 cores for win 7, 2 cores for ubuntu, 8 gigs each may not work > since I get the impression I must leave some resources for dom0. Can the > dom0 and ubuntu domU be shared with say 2 cores 8 gigs? > > 5. I will try to answer this, but someone else will probably have betteror more accurate advice. Dom0 will take all the RAM by default, and assign as many vcores as available (eg. Core i7 Hyperthreading 4 cores, 8vcores, i5 will probably get 4 vcores). By default Xen uses ballooning which when you attempt to launch an HVM it will free up as much RAM as necessary from Dom0. I encountered problems with the speed at which it was able to free up RAM, and had to set a limit at boot time. I did not turn off ballooning because when Windows is not running Dom0 can ask for more RAM from Xen. I run Windows with 4 vcores, when I turn it on Dom0 still retains 8 vcores. I don''t limit Dom0 vcores because as mentioned when I turn off Windows I use Dom0. The vcores are shared, and not subject to the same limitations as strict cpu assignment; I have never needed strict assignment for performance, so I would try 2 or 4 vcores and if that doesn''t work maybe someone will give you a run through on strict cpu assignment. Thanks ahead of time. These answers have been very hard to find and> understand. > > Karim > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Xen-users mailing list > Xen-users@lists.xen.org > lists.xen.org/xen-users >_______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xen.org lists.xen.org/xen-users
> 2) What is the best disk performance I can get with a windows 7 > DomU? Pass a controller though or just share it with dom0 and maybe > another domU. > > 2. You said SSD for your host, are you planning to use LVM on the SSD or on a > regular HDD? I use an OCZ Vertex 3 with LVM, and a logical volume for > Windows. Windows Experience Index was 6.6, but after installing GPLPV > drivers jumped to 7.7 and performs at near-native speeds. I would imagine > similar results from HDD performance. >GPLPV doesn''t (yet?) support trim/unmap/discard (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIM) so write performance on SSD may not be as good as it could be. I''m not sure of the exact impact in terms of overall performance though. The Wikipedia article says that modern SSD''s still perform well without TRIM but their lifespan may be reduced. James
Windows recognizes the drive as an SSD, since it turned off defrag automatically for just that drive. I don''t know if GPLPV has anything to do with it, if it turned off defrag maybe it''s Windows/NTFS taking care of TRIM? There are a lot of factors involved, remember it is running on a Logical Volume partition which is handled by LVM, so it''s not all about the drivers. On Fri, Sep 28, 2012 at 9:47 PM, James Harper <james.harper@bendigoit.com.au> wrote:> > 2) What is the best disk performance I can get with a windows 7 > > DomU? Pass a controller though or just share it with dom0 and maybe > > another domU. > > > > 2. You said SSD for your host, are you planning to use LVM on the SSD or > on a > > regular HDD? I use an OCZ Vertex 3 with LVM, and a logical volume for > > Windows. Windows Experience Index was 6.6, but after installing GPLPV > > drivers jumped to 7.7 and performs at near-native speeds. I would > imagine > > similar results from HDD performance. > > > > GPLPV doesn''t (yet?) support trim/unmap/discard ( > en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRIM) so write performance on SSD may not be > as good as it could be. I''m not sure of the exact impact in terms of > overall performance though. The Wikipedia article says that modern SSD''s > still perform well without TRIM but their lifespan may be reduced. > > James > >_______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xen.org lists.xen.org/xen-users
> > Windows recognizes the drive as an SSD, since it turned off defrag > automatically for just that drive. I don''t know if GPLPV has anything to do > with it, if it turned off defrag maybe it''s Windows/NTFS taking care of TRIM? >Windows can''t possibly know that the drive is an SSD unless I''ve told it, and GPLPV doesn''t give it any such information. That''s for vbd (eg regular block device) though. For a USB disk passed through, or a scsi passthrough device it could interrogate the drive directly.> There are a lot of factors involved, remember it is running on a Logical > Volume partition which is handled by LVM, so it''s not all about the drivers. >As far as GPLPV is concerned, the communications channel is basically read and write. Very little meta-information is passed through. I haven''t even added barrier support yet because I''ve only recently been using a system that provides it for LVM. James
Does it makes sense (or can it be done) to pass through a sata bus with the ssd on it? Karim On Fri, Sep 28, 2012 at 9:38 PM, James Harper <james.harper@bendigoit.com.au> wrote:> > > > Windows recognizes the drive as an SSD, since it turned off defrag > > automatically for just that drive. I don''t know if GPLPV has anything > to do > > with it, if it turned off defrag maybe it''s Windows/NTFS taking care of > TRIM? > > > > Windows can''t possibly know that the drive is an SSD unless I''ve told it, > and GPLPV doesn''t give it any such information. That''s for vbd (eg regular > block device) though. For a USB disk passed through, or a scsi passthrough > device it could interrogate the drive directly. > > > There are a lot of factors involved, remember it is running on a Logical > > Volume partition which is handled by LVM, so it''s not all about the > drivers. > > > > As far as GPLPV is concerned, the communications channel is basically read > and write. Very little meta-information is passed through. I haven''t even > added barrier support yet because I''ve only recently been using a system > that provides it for LVM. > > James > >-- Connect with: 415.378.3688. Twitter: @robotstampede. Skype: ksanjabi. FB: facebook.com/robotstampede _______________________________________________ Xen-users mailing list Xen-users@lists.xen.org lists.xen.org/xen-users
> > Does it makes sense (or can it be done) to pass through a sata bus with the > ssd on it? >It could be done, but someone would have to write the protocol for it. SCSI passthrough already exists, and GPLPV does that, although I''m not sure if it''s in the later kernels and I''m pretty sure it''s not supported in the xl toolstack. I''m looking at adding trim to the GPLPV drivers if possible. James
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi Karim,> Goal: Run any Ubuntu derivative off an intel i5 video card and play > Windows 7 games on an Nvidia gtx 570 through vga pass through. Use > a simple dvi toggle switch on the monitor (2 inputs) to go between > them.I have (almost) the same setup running, only using 2 monitors and an AMD graphics. As much was already said, I''ll only go into one of your points:> 4) Is it required to pass through a usb bus with a 2nd > keyboard/mouse or kvm switch? Or Can I just share the keyboard > mouse? If I do need a kvm switch, will any of them work or is > there an approved list (couldn''t find any). Little unclear on how > to switch between DomU instances (that what cntrl-] does?)I do have USB ports passed through, however, I don''t use them for Keyboard/Mouse and currently (kernel 3.5) usb passthrough doesn''t work. To control my Windows VM I use synergy (server on linux, client on windows). I only need one Keyboard/Mouse and everything works, I can play as well as in native Windows. It might not be the optimal setup when you only have one monitor, but it might be worth a shot. Cheers, Volker -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.12 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - enigmail.mozdev.org iEYEARECAAYFAlBoqMoACgkQgKD4KXUzSrhHigCfSC/ZtGvqamL/K/rGHpAlwINx VLQAoIUwt6xRG/PXT5dMrStObfLqQY+R =UoYI -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----