Linux KVM Virtualization Performance
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 8th Jan 2007 15:16 UTC, submitted by Michael Larabel
Linux "For only being a release candidate the Linux 2.6.20 kernel has already generated quite a bit of attention. On top of adding asynchronous SCSI scanning, multi-threaded USB probing, and many driver updates, the Linux 2.6.20 kernel will include a full virtualization (not para-virtualization) solution. Kernel-based Virtual Machine (or KVM for short) is a GPL software project that has been developed and sponsored by Qumranet. In this article we are offering a brief overview of the Kernel-based Virtual Machine for Linux as well as offering up in-house performance numbers as we compare KVM to other virtualization solutions such as QEMU Accelerator and Xen."
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virtualization
by Andre4s on Mon 8th Jan 2007 15:52 UTC
Andre4s
Member since:
2006-02-10

What is the benefit of doing virtualization in the kernel? probebly a good reason for this that I'm not aware of. Maybe someone else do?

Reply Score: 1

RE: virtualization
by bob8 on Mon 8th Jan 2007 16:34 UTC in reply to "virtualization"
bob8 Member since:
2006-07-13

One reason is it simplifies the process of creating the VM code. The kernel is already equipped for memory management and networking. It leverages what is already available making the code base much smaller.

Reply Score: 2

RE: virtualization
by Rahul on Mon 8th Jan 2007 21:37 UTC in reply to "virtualization"
Rahul Member since:
2005-07-06

You can look at http://virt.kernelnewbies.org/HypervisorVsLinuxBased for a good comparison.

Reply Score: 3

Virtual Machines
by Clinton on Mon 8th Jan 2007 15:58 UTC
Clinton
Member since:
2005-07-05

I have never been a fan of virtual machines because I have always used them for Desktop tasks and the performance, no matter how good it is, is always disappointing.

However, I have recently begun using virtualization for server tasks, and I have to say I wish I would have done this a long time ago.

KVM is a great feature to have in the Linux kernel and I am excited to be able to benefit from it.

Reply Score: 2

Looking forward to this
by SReilly on Mon 8th Jan 2007 16:44 UTC
SReilly
Member since:
2006-12-28

I recently built a core 2 duo box (1st FSB I'v had in years!) and am really looking forward to testing KVM. Although the benchmarks are a bit lacking, I'm not really suprised as its still early days.

Reply Score: 1

KVM-10
by RJop on Mon 8th Jan 2007 17:03 UTC
RJop
Member since:
2007-01-08

New version of KVM is out already. Released yesterday.

Changes from kvm-9:
- more hypercall work
- cleanup irq handling
- shadow page table caching
- migration fixes
- stabilization fixes

"This release is significantly faster than previous releases; upgrading is recommended."

http://lkml.org/lkml/2007/1/7/67

Reply Score: 5

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