On 11/10/2009 03:57 PM, Grant McWilliams wrote: > > > 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.. I get that but if the line is becoming this blurry (with KVM apparently beeing "somewhat" paravirtualized) does it make sense anymore to distinguish between HVM/PV? Regards, Dennis