R82 and VMWare Paravirtual

[Alex-]

sk104848 about VMWare best practices still recommends in bold VMWare LSI Logic SAS/Parallel.

However, it states that since R82, Paravirtual is supported.

We tried to deploy a VMWare-based SMS with Paravirtual and RH-8 as baseline, the whole process was really fast, jumbo installation, import and so on. No issues were observed afterwards.

So, is it just that the SK is a bit noncommittal and prudent or can we just get ahead and actually recommend Paravirtual for R82 VMWare deployments? Other caveats?

[the_rock]

Hey Alex,

Personally, if I were you, I would definitely confirm with your SE about this. I see sk was last updated November 2024, so its been 9 months now, but your assumption sounds totally logical to me. when it comes to R82.

Andy

[PhoneBoy]

I'll see if we can get this clarified in the SK.
Having said that, I'm with you that the Paravirtual drivers are definitely faster.

[Alex-]

Thanks, it looks like full support is there and clarifying the SK will appease customers.

 dmesg | grep -I pvscsi
# vmw_pvscsi: using 64bit dma
# vmw_pvscsi: max_id: 65
# vmw_pvscsi: setting ring_pages to 32
# vmw_pvscsi: enabling reqCallThreshold
# vmw_pvscsi: driver-based request coalescing enabled
# vmw_pvscsi: using MSI-X
# vmw_pvscsi 0000:02:00.0: VMware PVSCSI rev 2 host #0

[Alex-]

More SMS done in Paravirtual, no issues. The SK could benefit being clarified.

[Alex-]

After feedback, the SK has been updated.