On 9/20/06, John Summerfield <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
ATI and nVidia video drivers have a certain reputation: I don't use them, but it seems not all users of either are entirely happy.
I trust you did notice he was asking about Linux on z/VM... And even on Intel platform I would hope the examples you give are mostly for desktop and not for Linux as server (though I am not sure it works like that). :soapbox. One of the advantages of using z/VM to run Linux is that your virtual machine is a standard architecture that is basically independent of the real hardware involved. Back then, when you moved your z/VM image to a new machine, changes would be limited to z/VM only (to get current on support code for new stuff). We would normally expect no changes required for your virtual machines. These days, more and more devices expose intimate details to the guest operating system. And maybe also because Linux device drivers are also made to exploit those facts, we now often find Linux changes to be required when for example you change the DASD subsystem or the OSA adapters. I believe this tendency is not a good one. Virtualization of CPU and memory is good to reduce hardware cost, but we also need to virtualize "hardware function" to reduce support cost. If existing access methods and protocols are not sufficient for the required control, then we need to architecture new protocols and virtualize them, instead of having Linux drivers exploit internal details between models of IBM DASD systems. Having a single OSA portname in the device that must be presented by the Linux device driver is a pretty dumb idea when you want to virtualize things. VSWITCH is a good example of how advanced function can be virtualized (though it appears that Linux drivers are again playing tricks based on version level of the z/VM code). If we really think that ECKD protocol is insufficient for Linux to achieve high enough I/O bandwidth on z/VM, then we need VFCP to exploit it with Linux on z/VM. (Rick can praise FBA again, but I think we need more than that to make it work well). Attaching FCP channels to various virtual machines will eventually make storage management very complicated and expensive. Rob - "Do it only once. When that's not possible, have someone else do them all the same" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
