Re: XEN help needed

[Martin Mersberger <gremlin%portal-to-web.de@localhost>]

Hi Paul,

> I've got a XEN3_DOMU virtual machine currently running NetBSD 8.1, and
> hosted on a commercial provider (www.prgmr.com).  Since I'm running
> 8.1 I think that implies that I'm running in HVM mode?

most NetBSD's on prgmr running in PV mode currently as far as I
understood (at least, mine does)

> Anyway, the provider will soon be upgrading their host to a PVHVM-only
> environment.  That means that I need to upgrade, to -current.
not really. I was in touch with them and the original background is
XSA-286, which affects PV DomU's and the recommended mitigation is to
use HVM. There are patches to fix XSA-286 also for PV, but some have
performance impact, some not, some may not fix it completely etc.

Nevertheless, prgmr's approach to get rid of PV's eliminates the problem
with xsa-286.


[snip]
> 
> I'm really reluctant to update my userland at this time unless it is
> absolutely necessary.
prgmr did not force me to go HVM as I remarked, I'm running NetBSD and
want to stay on NetBSD for the time being until PVHVM is on a release
and I'm fully aware of XSA-286.

At least, this was my understanding ;-)


Furthermore, they are planning a couple of AMD based Dom0 systems, which
should behave differently and a move of NetBSD-PV-DomUs may happen once
those systems are ready for service.


cheers
 Martin