Hi, We are running multiple TF2 servers with Xen 3.4.1 paravirtualized. Performance is exactly the same as bare-metal, maybe even better. Only downside is that you need xen-patched kernel so to get most stable and working environment you have to use the default 2.6.18.8-xen kernel. Ofc. you can compile a 1000hz domU kernel like we have.
There is also pv_ops kernels which are included in the xen-unstable tree. They are the normal kernel.org kernel with patches that make it suitable for Xen hypervisor. In my opinion Xen is the best solution for gameserver virtualization because it is the fastest. ESXi virtuals are not paravirtualized so they have slower disk i/o and network performance. They also use more resources. If you want same performance as bare-metal you need paravirtualized guest operating systems and Xen is the best solution for that. We have a physical 2 x 2.5GHz Quad-core Xeon machine with 16 GB ram and a ARECA ARC-1220 raid controller with RAID10 array. We are also running many other virtuals on the same machine without them affecting the gameserver virtual performance. With Xen you can for example assign 4 physical cores to the gameserver virtual and use the other 4 for other virtuals. - Valtteri Kiviniemi Daniel Worley kirjoitti: > I don't have exact numbers, but I've run srcds both natively and under ESXi > on a PowerEdge server. Under both I was able to run multiple instances, no > issues. I saw no difference in performance playing on the servers, but once > again I don't have numbers to back it up. > > On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 11:07 AM, Claudio Beretta <[email protected] >> wrote: > >> HiI'd like to know your experiences with running srcds in a virtualized >> environment. Searching mail-archive for past discussions about this subject >> didn't provide a reliable conclusion to this topic. >> From what i understand, only hypervisors such as ESXi, XEN (and maybe >> Hyper-V) are suitable to be used for game servers because they should be >> the >> ones that introduce the lower overhead and response delay. >> Having a minor performance loss is fine, as long as no noticeable jitter is >> introduced or ping is increased.Has anyone had a chance to test these >> products and compare srcds performance on the same machine when virtualized >> and when running on the bare metal? >> Provided that the machine can handle it, do you know if it is possible to >> virtualize tickrate100, 1000fps CSS servers? Not that i want to do that, >> but >> if it can be done.. anything can be done :-) >> >> best regards, >> Claudio >> _______________________________________________ >> To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, >> please visit: >> http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux >> > _______________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please > visit: > http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlds_linux
