From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Nov 28 19:53:13 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7AC0D2DD for ; Wed, 28 Nov 2012 19:53:13 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mureninc@gmail.com) Received: from mail-ie0-f182.google.com (mail-ie0-f182.google.com [209.85.223.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 31E218FC0C for ; Wed, 28 Nov 2012 19:53:13 +0000 (UTC) Received: by mail-ie0-f182.google.com with SMTP id s9so18093718iec.13 for ; Wed, 28 Nov 2012 11:53:11 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :cc:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=OJECoOGFNyrusDODCIedIUMJ0swZOSj0gRrZRRRY//U=; b=cSYGHlV9NAgbQ1VwsirkQmL8GMo8Tisk2e4WP/cWpceQm4+jDyWwA0zMeSX9pORxtN keqsjFB9vwaKgKUXF5ubp08Vj6y/7cpoZFl6J0P/dkt0lbuam99m6BSSwq7ytGH2AlTn zFG14RLuvkbNoxDrJ0rDad+7xb277vmLyZ7NzWpjo8UfVTnM3rE/yY7UXFeyL1su0bGq SlYt7qpT6hOeVROs5xIap7gmZF/5Z53jVUZ0l2XuIZs3kAzlub9INH2xfCVFpOb2bNaS nPW54VzxO2YiraYd/0mZDTlZ/nZ5CZ/4LNtSGIl7aSX/thEUYDEK2rf2NrtdwCBzcszs qTsg== MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.50.187.134 with SMTP id fs6mr22755186igc.61.1354132390792; Wed, 28 Nov 2012 11:53:10 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.64.166.66 with HTTP; Wed, 28 Nov 2012 11:53:10 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <6546B04E-4B9A-4862-9145-7681574D1EF3@gromit.dlib.vt.edu> References: <50B5029D.90908@rewt.org.uk> <50B52743.2070407@rewt.org.uk> <6546B04E-4B9A-4862-9145-7681574D1EF3@gromit.dlib.vt.edu> Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2012 11:53:10 -0800 Message-ID: Subject: Re: virtio for 9.1-R From: "Constantine A. Murenin" To: Paul Mather Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Cc: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2012 19:53:13 -0000 On 27 November 2012 13:25, Paul Mather wrote: > On Nov 27, 2012, at 3:49 PM, Joe Holden wrote: > >> On 27/11/2012 19:25, Sergey Kandaurov wrote: >>> On 27 November 2012 22:12, Joe Holden wrote: >>>> Hi guys, >>>> >>>> I can't see virtio in releng/9.1, is there any particular reason why i= t >>>> isn't going to be included given that it works reasonable well (and is >>>> optional anyway, so not likely to be detrimental)? >>> >>> virtio appeared in stable/9 a bit after 9.1 cut off, >>> and it is too late now regardless of virtio shape. >>> Anyway you can installed it from ports. >>> >> Ah I see, doesn't really help all the people who can't install it in KVM= and such though unfortunately, seems silly making them wait even >> longer and having to use Linux :) > > > FWIW, I installed FreeBSD 9-STABLE (pre-virtio in src) in KVM, initially = using the emulated devices and then, post-install, installed the emulators/= virtio-kmod port and switched over to vtbd/vtnet devices without problem. = When virtio appeared in src, I ditched the virtio-kmod port, again, without= issues. > > I found making the transition to virtio devices no harder than the ad -> = ada device transition. > > Cheers, > > Paul. What's the actual reallife performance benefits from virtio? Twofold, threefold, more, less? Linux-KVM web-site, http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/Virtio, mentions that they can push 1Gbps or so through the virtio network driver, but the number seems meaningless, since no context is established of the KVM performance prior to virtio. Another official-looking page, http://wiki.libvirt.org/page/Virtio, fails to make any number-based sales pitch whatsoever, whereas http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/Using_VirtIO_NIC likewise attempts to show up some random meaningless numbers, still failing to establish the context of what the performance is like without virtio. C.