Differences between revisions 7 and 8

While benchmarks are a very difficult exercixe and as such the results must be considered carefully, they are still interesting to compare the respective performance between the solutions for different workloads.

This page will try to keep an eye on the relative performances of Xen and KVM. Until virtio is not part of the mainstream linux kernel, the tests will concentrate on performance on HVM systems, so the guest system will be an "unmodified OS".

13 Feb 2008

Intel system

Tests on an Intel based system with an Intel Core2 2Ghz and 2GB RAM. The test VM for both Xen and KVM is the same image: an unmodified Debian Lenny kernel 2.6.22 amd64 w/512 MB RAM

The test is still the "make clean && make allnoconfig && time make" of a 2.6.24 kernel

Host is an opensource Xen-3.2 (from xen.org) with a Dom0 running a kernel-2.6.18.8-xen, Dom0 userspace is a 64bits Ubuntu Feisty

run	1	2	3
real	2m34	2m24	2m25
user	1m23	1m22	1m22
sys	1m0	1m0	1m1

dbench 10: 243 MB/s

Host is a Ubuntu feisty amd64 kernel 2.6.20 and KVM 60

run	1	2	3
real	2m12	2m13	2m12
user	1m27	1m28	1m27
sys	0m43	0m43	0m43

dbench 10: 255 MB/s

Result on host Ubuntu feisty amd64 kernel 2.6.20 (not in a VM)

real	1m31
user	1m11
sys	0m10

dbench 10: 505 MB/s

AMD system

Tests on an AMD based system with an AMD X2 4400+ and 4GB RAM. The test VM for both Xen and KVM is the same image: an unmodified Debian Lenny kernel 2.6.22 amd64 w/512 MB RAM

The test is still the "make clean && make allnoconfig && time make" of a 2.6.24 kernel

Host is an opensource Xen-3.2 (from xen.org) with a Dom0 running a kernel-2.6.18-xen, Dom0 userspace is a 64bits Ubuntu Gutsy

run	1	2	3
real	2m28	2m17	2m16
user	1m27	1m27	1m27
sys	0m51	0m49	0m49

Host in Ubuntu gutsy amd64 kernel 2.6.22-14-generic with KVM 60

run	1	2	3
real	2m31	2m29	2m29
user	1m36	1m36	1m36
sys	0m52	0m53	0m52

12 Feb 2008

Thanks for Dan Berrange who pointed me on xen.org instead of xensource.com as a source of download for the latest Xen.

The tests consists of the compilation of a linux kernel 2.6.24 with allnoconfig (make allnoconfig && time make). The host hardware is a 1.86Ghz Intel Core2duo.

unmodified VM: 64bits Debian Etch

The first two tests run the same Virtual Machine with an unmodified 64bits Debian Etch.

Host is an opensource Xen-3.2 (from xen.org) with a Dom0 running a kernel-2.6.18-xen, Dom0 userspace is a 64bits Debian Lenny

run	1	2	3
real	2m26	2m19	2m20
user	1m21	1m22	1m21
sys	1m02	0m58	1m00

Host is a 64bits Debian Lenny with a 2.6.24 kernel and KVM-60

run	1	2	3
real	2m11	2m07	2m07
user	1m26	1m26	1m26
sys	0m45	0m40	0m40

paravirtualised VM: 64bits Debian Etch with xenified kernel

The following test runs on the same hardware than the previous one. The kernel used in the DomU is the same as in Dom0:

Host is an opensource Xen 3.2 (from xen.org) with a Dom0 running a kernel-2.6.18-xen, Dom0 userspace is a 64bits Debian Lenny

run	1	2	3
real	1m34	1m33	1m33
user	1m17	1m18	1m18
sys	0m15	0m15	0m15

11 Feb 2008

For the following 2 tests, the system is an Intel core 2 duo 2.4Ghz w/ 2GB RAM running the latest available versions:

for Xen: opensource Xen 3.1.0 (from xen.xensource.com) + Dom0 kernel based on kernel.org 2.6.18
for KVM: kvm-60 on a 2.6.23

The guest used in both case is the exact same VM (non-paravirtualised 64 bit Debian etch with 256 MB RAM).

Guest system boot-up time

plateform	time in seconds
Xen	23
KVM	20

Kernel compilation benchmark

Time to compile a 2.6.24 allnoconfig

first try - cold cache

plateform	real time	user time	sys time
Xen	1m53	1m06	0m43
KVM	1m03	1m06	0m33

second try - w/ cache

plateform	real time	user time	sys time
Xen	1m52	1m07	0m43
KVM	0m56	1m07	0m31

-  ⇤ ← Revision 7 as of 2008-02-13 09:21:03 → 
  Size: 3829
  Editor: GildasLeNadan
  Comment: added tests on an AMD system
+   ← Revision 8 as of 2008-02-13 16:32:09 → ⇥
  Size: 4843
  Editor: GildasLeNadan
  Comment: added intel system
-Deletions are marked like this.
+Additions are marked like this.
 Line 7:
-Tests on an AMD based system with an AMD X2 4400+ and 4GB RAM. The test VM for both Xen and KVM is the same image: an unmodified Debian Lenny kernel amd64 w/512 MB RAM
+== Intel system ==

Tests on an Intel based system with an Intel Core2 2Ghz and 2GB RAM. The test VM for both Xen and KVM is the same image: an unmodified Debian Lenny kernel 2.6.22 amd64 w/512 MB RAM

The test is still the "make clean && make allnoconfig && time make" of a 2.6.24 kernel

 * Host is an opensource Xen-3.2 (from xen.org) with a Dom0 running a kernel-2.6.18.8-xen, Dom0 userspace is a 64bits Ubuntu Feisty

|| '''run''' || '''1''' || '''2''' || '''3''' ||
|| '''real''' || 2m34 || 2m24 || 2m25 ||
|| '''user'''  || 1m23 || 1m22 || 1m22 ||
|| '''sys''' || 1m0 || 1m0 || 1m1 ||

dbench 10: 243 MB/s

 * Host is a Ubuntu feisty amd64 kernel 2.6.20 and KVM 60

|| '''run''' || '''1''' || '''2''' || '''3''' ||
|| '''real''' || 2m12 ||  2m13 || 2m12 ||
|| '''user'''  || 1m27 || 1m28 || 1m27 ||
|| '''sys''' || 0m43 ||  0m43 || 0m43 ||

dbench 10: 255 MB/s

 * Result on host Ubuntu feisty amd64 kernel 2.6.20 (not in a VM)

|| '''real''' || 1m31 ||
|| '''user'''  || 1m11 ||
|| '''sys''' || 0m10 ||

dbench 10: 505 MB/s

== AMD system ==

Tests on an AMD based system with an AMD X2 4400+ and 4GB RAM. The test VM for both Xen and KVM is the same image: an unmodified Debian Lenny kernel 2.6.22 amd64 w/512 MB RAM
-Line 14:
+Line 48:
-|| '''real''' || 2m28.261s || 2m17.069s || 2m16.441s ||
|| '''user'''  || 1m27.213s || 1m27.137s || 1m27.189s ||
|| '''sys''' || 0m51.111s || 0m49.231s || 0m48.751s ||
+|| '''real''' || 2m28 || 2m17 || 2m16 ||
|| '''user'''  || 1m27 || 1m27 || 1m27 ||
|| '''sys''' || 0m51 || 0m49 || 0m49 ||
-Line 18:
+Line 52:
- * Host in Ubuntu gutsy amd64 kernel 2.6.22-14-generic
+ * Host in Ubuntu gutsy amd64 kernel 2.6.22-14-generic with KVM 60
-Line 21:
+Line 55:
-|| '''real''' || 2m30.767s ||  2m28.551s || 2m28.852s ||
|| '''user'''  || 1m35.882s || 1m35.866s || 1m36.410s ||
|| '''sys''' || 0m52.179s ||  0m53.283s || 0m52.239s ||
+|| '''real''' || 2m31 ||  2m29 || 2m29 ||
|| '''user'''  || 1m36 || 1m36 || 1m36 ||
|| '''sys''' || 0m52 ||  0m53 || 0m52 ||