[kernel-xen] UEFI hardware wanted

[Colin Durrant]

Hi Steven

Sorry, I am sure you are busy but just wondering if you or anyone else had some feedback on this please?

Be delighted to know why our box doesn't run on the Xen Project kernel? Not sure if you managed to get some hardware to test this. Wish I could help.

As my current environment is running on KVM, if I got the server to boot into the Xen kernel - would my VM's boot up or would this be a catastrophe? How much do the VM's care if they run on KVM or Xen?

I assume from what you mentioned that we could get some performance and reliability improvements by running Xen instead of KVM?

Appreciate your help

Thanks & kind regards

Colin Durrant
Managing Director
Colins-IT
Colins-IT Limited
Tel: 07969 11 33 00
Fax: 0845 074 5707
FREEPHONE:0800 10 777 82
email: colin at colins-it.co.uk
web: http://www.colins-it.co.uk

-----Original Message-----
From: kernel-xen-bounces at lists.wireless.org.au [mailto:kernel-xen-bounces at lists.wireless.org.au] On Behalf Of Steven Haigh
Sent: 06 February 2015 11:04
To: kernel-xen at lists.wireless.org.au
Subject: Re: [kernel-xen] UEFI hardware wanted

Thanks Colin,

I'm pretty sure I know *why* it didn't work - although I have a lot of work to do to make sure it works as intended.

I've just synced up new packages to the EL7 version of my packages that are under testing that I get working ok with a non-EFI system - but it should also work with EL7 / grub2 / UEFI. Should.

To make sure it works, I need some physical kit to work with - otherwise I wouldn't be confident in saying that it is stable.

Hopefully, it will translate to working under EL6 / UEFI as well - but right now, I can't say anything concrete.

As for the other questions, I know very little about KVM - and I wouldn't even bother with it. However that's my preference.

On 06/02/15 19:23, Colin Durrant wrote:
> Hi
> 
> Yes I had some major issues with UEFI. I got everything working but 
> not on the Xen kernel but I somehow got it all working on KVM qemu.
> 
> Are there any particular issues with using this environment?
> 
> Quick question as a side track. If you over allocate memory and 
> processors to your actual virtual machines, do this have an adverse 
> performance implication? I know if doesn¹t from a processor point as 
> far as I am aware but unlike citrix Xen server it lets you allocate as 
> much memory as you like per VM?
> 
> From what I have discovered the IBM hardware we are using is all UEFI 
> based. Secondly, we have an IBM 3750 server and it didn¹t support 
> Citrix Xenserver 6.2 - we have to run 6.1 which I thought was a little odd.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Colin.
> 
> On 06/02/2015 03:45, "Steven Haigh" <netwiz at crc.id.au> wrote:
> 
>> Hi all,
>>
>> If we like it or not, UEFI BIOS is the way things are heading. As 
>> Paulo recently posted to this list (and I believe Colin also), UEFI 
>> and my Xen packaging / kernel doesn't work with UEFI at all.
>>
>> Some systems can boot in legacy mode - which then will work - however 
>> this option won't be around for ever.
>>
>> I'm wondering if there would be anyone on this list that would 
>> consider sponsoring some UEFI hardware (even desktop hardware would 
>> be
>> sufficient) to allow me to create a test environment for getting UEFI 
>> support into the Xen packages.
>>
>> Right now, my testing environment is a single Dell Poweredge 1950 
>> that I just bought some RAM for - however none of my other hardware 
>> has a UEFI BIOS to test with.
>>
>> I'd also be after some recommendations for the collective wisdom of 
>> this list as to which UEFI mainboard brand / model to go for.
>>
>> I believe I'd need:
>> 1 x UEFI mainboard
>> 1 x CPU to suit above mainboard - Use an i5 CPU? i7? Xeon?
>> RAM - 8Gb DDR3?
>> 1 x Case - Desktop case is fine.
>>
>> Any other suggestions? Thoughts?
>>
>> --
>> Steven Haigh
>>
>> Email: netwiz at crc.id.au
>> Web: http://www.crc.id.au
>> Phone: (03) 9001 6090 - 0412 935 897
>>
> 
> 
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--
Steven Haigh

Email: netwiz at crc.id.au
Web: http://www.crc.id.au
Phone: (03) 9001 6090 - 0412 935 897


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