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Update user manual to use blktap for file-based VBDs.
Signed-off-by: Andrew Warfield <andrew.warfield@xensource.com>
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@@ -1654,26 +1654,58 @@ Now unmount (this is important!):
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In the configuration file set:
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\begin{quote}
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\verb_disk = ['file:/full/path/to/vm1disk,sda1,w']_
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\verb_disk = ['tap:aio:/full/path/to/vm1disk,sda1,w']_
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\end{quote}
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As the virtual machine writes to its `disk', the sparse file will be
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filled in and consume more space up to the original 2GB.
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{\bf Note that file-backed VBDs may not be appropriate for backing
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I/O-intensive domains.} File-backed VBDs are known to experience
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{\em{Note:}} Users that have worked with file-backed VBDs on Xen in previous
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versions will be interested to know that this support is not provided through
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the blktap driver instead of the loopback driver. This change results in
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file-based block devices that are higher-performance, more scalable, and which
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provide better safety properties for VBD data. All that is required to update
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your existing file-backed VM configurations is to change VBD configuration
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lines from:
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\begin{quote}
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\verb_disk = ['file:/full/path/to/vm1disk,sda1,w']_
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\end{quote}
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to:
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\begin{quote}
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\verb_disk = ['tap:aio:/full/path/to/vm1disk,sda1,w']_
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\end{quote}
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\subsection{Loopback-mounted file-backed VBDs (deprecated)}
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{\em{{\bf{Note:}} Loopback mounted VBDs have now been replaced with
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blktap-based support for raw image files, as described above. This
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section remains to detail a configuration that was used by older Xen
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versions.}}
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Raw image file-backed VBDs amy also be attached to VMs using the
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Linux loopback driver. The only required change to the raw file
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instructions above are to specify the configuration entry as:
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\begin{quote}
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\verb_disk = ['file:/full/path/to/vm1disk,sda1,w']_
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\end{quote}
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{\bf Note that loopback file-backed VBDs may not be appropriate for backing
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I/O-intensive domains.} This approach is known to experience
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substantial slowdowns under heavy I/O workloads, due to the I/O
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handling by the loopback block device used to support file-backed VBDs
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in dom0. Better I/O performance can be achieved by using either
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LVM-backed VBDs (Section~\ref{s:using-lvm-backed-vbds}) or physical
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devices as VBDs (Section~\ref{s:exporting-physical-devices-as-vbds}).
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in dom0. Loopbach support remains for old Xen installations, and users
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are strongly encouraged to use the blktap-based file support (using
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``{\tt{tap:aio}}'' as described above).
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Linux supports a maximum of eight file-backed VBDs across all domains
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by default. This limit can be statically increased by using the
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\emph{max\_loop} module parameter if CONFIG\_BLK\_DEV\_LOOP is
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compiled as a module in the dom0 kernel, or by using the
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\emph{max\_loop=n} boot option if CONFIG\_BLK\_DEV\_LOOP is compiled
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directly into the dom0 kernel.
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Additionally, Linux supports a maximum of eight loopback file-backed
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VBDs across all domains by default. This limit can be statically
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increased by using the \emph{max\_loop} module parameter if
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CONFIG\_BLK\_DEV\_LOOP is compiled as a module in the dom0 kernel, or
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by using the \emph{max\_loop=n} boot option if CONFIG\_BLK\_DEV\_LOOP
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is compiled directly into the dom0 kernel. Again, users are encouraged
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to use the blktap-based file support described above which scales to much
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larger number of active VBDs.
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\section{Using LVM-backed VBDs}
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