Bhyve tests and findings

[Michael Reifenberger]

Zitat von Peter Grehan <grehan at freebsd.org>:

> Hi Mike,
>
>> - Windows 8, 8.1 and 10 installs and runs in graphical mode flawlessly.
>
>  Have you had any issues with the XHCI mouse on 8/8.1 ?
>
>> - I was able to graphically Restore/Reconfigure a Acronis Windows-Backup
>> into a Bhyve instance
>>  using the Acronis Restore-CD (Converting a BIOS Win8.1 to UEFI Win8.1)
>
>  Very nice !
>
>> - Only vnclient from FreeBSD can connect to the bhyve VNC Server.
>>  I havn't found any vncviewer running on Windows which where able to
>> work (tried UltraVNC, RealVNC, ...)
>
>  Some VNC clients refuse to connect when only null-auth is  
> advertized by the server. There is a patch to bhyve to support VNC  
> password-auth, which may fix the issue with these clients.
>

Yes, that sounds reasonable.

>> - in VNC only most basic Keys work most special characters like (*\@)
>> (and of course no german localization)
>>  but at least a usual US-kbd would be helpful.
>>  (Is there a way to debug the keystrokes or duplicate a localized VNC
>> kbd from some VNC server)
>
>  Nothing outside of modifying the source, but it seems useful enough  
> to add a parameter for this.
>
>> - For the SAP-Systems it seems that only 4 disks get used when the disk
>> type is virtio-blk.
>>  (Is this intentionally or a feature of vm-bhyve? How to provide more
>> disks)
>
>  I'll let Matt comment on that. There's no limitation with guests  
> that support MSI interrupts for adapters. Unfortunately, Windows  
> guests require legacy interrupts for the AHCI controller, which is  
> where the restriction originates.
>

I'd like to use a 6 disks setup with Centos7.
Centos7 on XEN PVM has no issue with supporting 6 paravirtulized disks.

Thats the config (for vm-bhyve) where only the first 4 disks are used  
for the guest (Centos7):

uefi="yes"
cpu=1
memory=2G
network0_type="virtio-net"
network0_switch="public"
disk0_name="root"
disk0_type="virtio-blk"
disk0_dev="zvol"
disk1_name="swap"
disk1_type="virtio-blk"
disk1_dev="zvol"
disk2_name="sapmnt"
disk2_type="virtio-blk"
disk2_dev="zvol"
disk3_name="usrsap"
disk3_type="virtio-blk"
disk3_dev="zvol"
disk4_name="db"
disk4_type="virtio-blk"
disk4_dev="zvol"
disk5_name="log"
disk5_type="virtio-blk"
disk5_dev="zvol"
graphics="yes"
graphics_port="5903"
graphics_listen="0.0.0.0"
graphics_res="1600x900"
graphics_wait="no"
xhci_mouse="yes"



>> - It seems to miss a way to add an ISO CD/DVD without booting from it
>> automatically.
>
>  There is work ongoing to support UEFI NVVARs, which mostly fix the  
> boot-device selection issues.
>
>>  Also ISO's seem to miss a hot-plug feature (f.e. for inserting driver
>> CD's after installation.
>
>  Yes, also not there.
>
>> Some additional questions:
>> - Can one over-provisioning/ballooning guest memory's ?
>
>  Over-provisioning is fine - bhyve guest memory is backed by swap by  
> default. There is currently no balloon driver backend in bhyve.
>
>> - Is it (speed-wise) better to use ZFS-zvol's or files in regular
>> ZFS-directories?
>
>  I think that is workload-dependent.
>
>> - Are the virtio-blk or ahci-hd disks having the same overhead?
>
>  No - virtio-blk should be better.
>
>> - Can ahci-hd be used paravirtualized in Centos?
>
>  Not quite sure what you mean here: virtio-blk is the  
> paravirtualized disk interface, and it works fine with Centos.

I mean:
If I use ahci-hd in the bhyve config, is Centos7 smart enough to  
see/use para-virtual disks (/dev/vd*)
or use AHCI-Disks /dev/sd*)

Thanks!

Greetings
---
Mike


Gruß
---
Michael Reifenberger