RE: RE: [Xen-users] How to: Improve Network Throughput of a XEN kernel?

* RE: RE: [Xen-users] How to: Improve Network Throughput of a XEN kernel?
@ 2010-03-03  0:50 Mike Viau
  2010-03-03  8:21 ` [Xen-devel] " Keir Fraser
  2010-03-03  9:18 ` Pasi Kärkkäinen
  0 siblings, 2 replies; 9+ messages in thread
From: Mike Viau @ 2010-03-03  0:50 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: bderzhavets; +Cc: xen-devel, xen-users

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>Any just first argument dummy=dummy should on kenel line.
> Read Wiki one more time. It works.

I believe you that it does work. I was able to see (XEN) messages coming from the hypervisor, but no matter how I changed the option I kept getting a kernel fault. 

I feel like it was time to stop mucking around with getting Ubuntu and the grub2 boot loader to work with XEN so I decided to install a headless OpenSUSE 11.2 system.

The openSUSE distribution supported Xen 3.4.1 tools, and had a 2.6.31.12 xenified kernel. On this setup I experience identical network performance.

~1MB/s - w/ xen kernel
~4.5 MB/s - w/ non-xen kernel

I use the e1000e kernel module driver for my Ethernet card.

Is this typical Dom0 (or Xen Host) network performance with a xenified kernel or is just in my two setups that one encounters such a network performance hit to the Dom0? 

-M

--- On Mon, 3/1/10, Mike Viau <viaum@sheridanc.on.ca> wrote:

From: Mike Viau <viaum@sheridanc.on.ca>
Subject: RE: [Xen-devel] RE: [Xen-users] How to: Improve Network Throughput of a XEN kernel?
To: bderzhavets@yahoo.com
Cc: xen-devel@lists.xensource.com, xen-users@lists.xensource.com
Date: Monday, March 1, 2010, 2:52 PM

Why using grub2 vs grub is baffling am not sure....

I think I'd prefer to use the kernel command line in grub2 so that the options may be changed easier laster on. However I still have been having so success with boot XEN with Ubuntu's grub2 boot loader.

Am I correct to conclude CONFIG_CMDLINE_BOL must = N to allow GRUB2 to pass kernel options?
http://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/CMDLINE_BOOL.html

I have read through the Wiki page at http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenCommonProblems. I am running a 64-bit Xen Hypervisor.

Thus far I have been having no success with using the example entry found at http://old.nabble.com/Strange-interaction-from-grub2-and-XEN-td26464067.html

A question regarding that entry is what would be the root device when there are separate /boot and root partitions? I am using the partition with the /boot (grub2) as my 'set root' device right?

I am also using the dummy=dummy as the first option on the first module line, again as discovered on the wiki.

Additionally posted on another thread here in the Xen mailing list was:
> On 1 March 2010 08:09, Luke Carrier <luke.carrier@xinos.org> wrote:
>>
>> Not sure about Debian, but I know Ubuntu isn’t ideal for Xen any more
>> because of the presence of GRUB2 – the new boot loader doesn’t support
>> passing certain command lines and the current multiboot implementation
>> breaks the method Xen uses to load the
 Dom0 kernel – you can’t use Ubuntu
>> 9.10 Server with Xen.

I am confused now because Boris clearly created a wordpress.com weblog in where Ubuntu 9.10 Server was
used with XEN.

Lastly, out of curiosity, what (or what kind) of commands cannot be passed with GRUB2?

ThX!

-M

Date: Sat, 27 Feb 2010 11:20:31 -0800
From: bderzhavets@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: [Xen-devel] RE: [Xen-users] How to: Improve Network Throughput of	a XEN kernel?
To: mike.viau@sheridanc.on.ca
CC: xen-devel@lists.xensource.com; xen-users@lists.xensource.com

In Xen Wiki is mentioned , that parameters for kernel may be set via command line as follows:-
************************************************************************************************************
module (hd1,10)/vmlinuz-2.6.31.8  dummy=dummy  root=/dev/sda7 ro
 console=tty0
************************************************************************************************************
# cat /proc/cmdline

shows that GRUB2 skips first argument, what causes problem.

Compiling built-in CMD_LINE is just an option.
Read all Wiki written by Pasi and  you would never be surprised ;)

> P.S: What is
your feeling on using a recent Ubuntu system with 
> grub-legacy as the boot
loader? I noticed that Squeeze has adopted grub2 > package as well too...

I have development Xen 3.4.3 instance on top Ubuntu 9.10 Server with GRUB2 ( baremetall) loading any from 3 mentioned bellow kernels under Xen 3.4.3

1.)  2.6.32.9 PVOPS
2.)  2.6.31.6 PVOPS
3.)  2.6.31.12 xenified

with no problems with dummy=dummy as first parameter ( thanks Pasi).
It may also may be done via compiling kernels with built-in CMD_LINE.
It works fine as well.

Boris.

--- On Sat, 2/27/10, Mike Viau <viaum@sheridanc.on.ca> wrote:

From: Mike Viau <viaum@sheridanc.on.ca>
Subject: [Xen-devel] RE: [Xen-users] How to: Improve Network Throughput of a XEN kernel?
To: bderzhavets@yahoo.com
Cc: xen-devel@lists.xensource.com,
 xen-users@lists.xensource.com
Date: Saturday, February 27, 2010, 12:03 PM

Yes,
thank you Boris for pointing that out. I found that was defiantly true. The 3.2.1 xen
hypervisor could only boot the 2.6.26-2 xen kernel and the xenified 2.6.31.12.

Additionally I found that:

Xend does
not start when using pv_ops dom0 kernel? 

In
December 2009 pv_ops dom0 kernel modules were renamed to have a
"xen-" prefix in them, ie. "evtchn.ko" became
"xen-evtchn.ko".  

This
makes Xen 3.4.x xend fail to start, because it tried to load
"evtchn.ko", but that doesn't exist. You need to load
"xen-evtchn.ko" and then start xend. Fedora 12 xen-3.4.2-2 rpms have
this problem fixed.  

Also make
sure you have xenfs mounted to "/proc/xen", that's needed aswell. 

[Source: http://wiki.xensource.com/xenwiki/XenParavirtOps]

And it appears the Debian xen-3.4.2-2 debs (in squeeze) have not fixed
this problem.

Lastly I am still doing some reading on the grub2 package and how to configure it. It turns out
that I have been using grub-legacy (or just good old grub) for so long that
configuring the grub2 boot loader is turning out to be my own personal
kryptonite. 

I am
still working on getting the hypervisor to load the dom0 kernel in a Ubuntu system. 

I have
noticed an example in your wordpress @ Set up Xen 3.4.3-rc2 & Libvirt 0.7.0 Dom0 (with 2.6.31.8
xenified aka Suse kernel) on top of Ubuntu 9.10 Server 

With
CONFIG_CMDLINE="root=/dev/sdb11 ro console=tty0" 

menuentry "Xen 3.4 / Ubuntu 9.10 kernel 2.6.31.8 xenified" {

insmod ext2

set root=(hd1,10)

multiboot (hd1,10)/xen-3.4.gz

module (hd1,10)/vmlinuz-2.6.31.8

module (hd1,10)/initrd-2.6.31.8.img

} 

I am sure
you wouldn't of mentioned the CONFIG_CMDLINE kernel option is it was not
important for using with grub2 right? I have not have to compile a kernel with the command line previous as I was just able to supply the arguments on the kernel line of my menu.lst (grub configuration file). 

P.S: What is
your feeling on using a recent Ubuntu system with grub-legacy as the boot
loader? I noticed that Squeeze has adopted grub2 package as well too... 

-M

Date: Sat, 27 Feb 2010 04:32:59 -0800
From: bderzhavets@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: FW: [Xen-users] How to: Improve Network Throughput of a XEN	kernel?
To: jbeulich@novell.com; mike.viau@sheridanc.on.ca
CC: xen-devel@lists.xensource.com; xen-users@lists.xensource.com

You cannot load pvops kernel under xen-hypervisor 3.2.1  ( >=3.4.0 in general)

Boris.

--- On Fri, 2/26/10, Mike Viau <viaum@sheridanc.on.ca> wrote:

From: Mike Viau <viaum@sheridanc.on.ca>
Subject: FW: [Xen-users] How to: Improve Network Throughput of a XEN
 kernel?
To: bderzhavets@yahoo.com, jbeulich@novell.com
Cc: xen-users@lists.xensource.com, xen-devel@lists.xensource.com
Date: Friday, February 26, 2010, 3:19 PM

Hello again,

Just a quick update...

I was really hoping it was just going to be an issue with the kernel .config, however I copied exact configuration from the working Debain 2.6.26-2-xen-amd64 kernel and used a make oldconfig but the end result was the same.

After booting the xenified (2.6.31.12) or pvops kernel (2.6.31.6) via both xen-hypervisor 3.2.1 or xen-hypervisor 3.4.2 the maximum data transfer to/from the Dom0 (Xen host) is ~1MB/s.

Next I plan on re-trying my efforts on a Ubuntu system to see if same network bottlenecking is present.

Date: Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:16:59 -0800
From: bderzhavets@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: [Xen-users] How to: Improve Network Throughput of a XEN kernel?
To: xen-users@lists.xensource.com; viaum@sheridanc.on.ca

Would escalate to xen-devel.  2.6.31.8 (12) aka Suse xenified  was Jan Beulich stuff.
He might have an answer.
Boris.

--- On Fri, 2/26/10, Mike Viau <viaum@sheridanc.on.ca> wrote:

From: Mike Viau <viaum@sheridanc.on.ca>
Subject: [Xen-users] How to: Improve Network Throughput of a XEN kernel?
To: xen-users@lists.xensource.com
Cc: waldi@debian.org
Date: Friday, February 26, 2010, 12:09 PM

Hi there,

I am starting a new thread to try and solve a problem I am having will slow network throughput to the XEN host (not to a domU).

I have confirmed my problem occurs with PVOPS  'xen/master' kernel as well using http://pasik.reaktio.net/xen/pv_ops-dom0-debug/config-2.6.31.6-pvops-dom0-xen-master-x86_64 as the .config.

It also occurs with a forward ported xenified kernel (2.6.31.12) using the attached config-11-xen (.config).

However when using the xen kernel found in debain lenny (2.6.26-2) for the amd64 architecture I get similiar transfer rates to my Xen host as I do on a baremetel kernel.

Bastian Blank perhaps you could point me in the right direction in regards to a debian specific customization or patch I should be aware of?

Maxium transfer rate (to/from
 hard disk) using the PVOPS  'xen/master' kernel and forward ported xenified kernel (2.6.31.12) is bottlenecking at ~1MB/s. On the debain lenny xen kernel I am getting ~4.5MB/s.

I was
hoping one could suggest options in the .config that might be modified
in order to improve network throughput of a XEN kernel and therefor increase the data transfer rates over the netowork to and from the Xen host.

Thanks alot for any help! As always I will be willing to accept any suggestions :)

-M

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