building a list of KVM workloads

[Mark Mims]

On Fri, 2011-09-09 at 09:03 -0500, Serge E. Hallyn wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> At UDS it was decided we should compile a list of VM workloads we are
> interested in, define their characteristics, measure the impact of
> various tunables (drive types, caching, KSM, etc), and put out a list
> of recommendations based upon those.
> 
> Myself, I mostly use KVM for testing (so, cache=none, etc).  A start
> to a list might be:
> 
>      bug reproduction/distro-installer test (cache=none, throwaway)
>      guest desktop (kiosk)
>      apache server?
>      compute-intensive (UEC/openstack based distcc node?)
> 
> What would your list be?
I typically treat them like cloud instances and waste kvms quite
liberally...
  - torrent sandbox (security)
  - dav sandbox (security + virtio throughput to libvirt storage pools)
  - nfs (virtio again... bridge performance)
  - distro tests
  - development envs
  - irc proxy / bitlebee
  - gitosis / private source repos (easy single backup point)

and have used them in production for a whole lot more in the past
  - dedicated vpn gateways
  - HIPAA-isolated web apps (lawyer said they were isolated enough...
even with ksmd)
  - various application layers/tiers (very sensitive to virtual
networking choices)

...almost always behind libvirt (virsh mostly).

> 
> thanks,
> -serge
> 

-- 
Mark Mims, Ph.D.
Canonical Ltd.
mark.mims at canonical.com
+1(512)981-6467