I've been wondering about the definition of PV in the context of KVM/Xen. In the Linux on Linux case for Xen PV practically means that in the HVM case I have to access block devices using /dev/hda while in the PV case I can use the faster /dev/xvda. When using KVM which apparently only supports HVM I can still install a guest using the virtio drivers which seem to do the same as the paravirtualized devices on Xen.
So what is the KVM+virtio case if not paravirtualization?
Regards, Dennis __________
All of it except for that! Your VM isn't just a process accessing a disk. With KVM they've attacked the most commond devices - network and disk and offered paravirtualized devices. This doesn't concern me as the speed has proven to be good although in mysqlbench Xen still leads by quite a bit. I'm concerned about everything else. With 41 interactive VMs I worry about how fast the hypervisor can switch focus, the cpu utilization of each etc..
Grant McWilliams
Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use Windows." Now they have two problems.