I've been looking for real-world examples of this for a long time --
mainly because I'm trying to decide whether to restrict my build-options
to using only components (chipsets, processors, motherboards)
which are all compatible with IOV.
I'm thinking that the constraint would be worth it,
if IOV could provide a significant performance benefit for non-network
peripherals such as storage, video processing, etc. (compared to
passthru / VT-d).
- www.storage-switzerland.com/Articles/Entries/2010/9/29_Offloading_I_O_from_the_Hypervisor_with_SR-IOV.html
- www.plda.com/white-paper-why-using-single-root-io-virtualization-sr-iov-can-help-improve-io-performance-and
Almost everything I've found about this is in the abstract or inapplicable to multiple VMs in the same physical host. Examples:
hypothetical use with HBAs or multiple graphics cards
- blog.scottlowe.org/2009/12/02/what-is-sr-iov
- lists.xen.org/archives/html/xen-users/2013-04/msg00126.html ;
academic papers & theses, e.g.
- cs.uccs.edu/~gsc/pub/master/mkopps/doc/MKoppsReportRev3.pdf ;
conference presentations, e.g.
- searchstorage.techtarget.com/video/I-O-virtualization-video-SR-IOV-MR-IOV-NICs-and-more ;
hardware positioned between multiple hosts and a single peripheral, e.g.
- topics-cdn.dell.com/pdf/poweredge-vrtx_User's%20Guide_en-us.pdf ;
and conceptual support for IOV in the spec for NVM Express.
I did find an actual physical product which claims IOV support,
the LSI 3008 chip, which is used in some mobos and LSI HBAs.
I've even found some posts by people with virtualization rigs
who discuss various aspects of having and using one of these products.
But I have yet to find anyone -- certainly not anyone at or below
the level of of "enthusiast", i.e. not anyone with a
non-"enterprise-class" environment or budget -- who discusses
even attempting IOV-based I/O other than for networking,
let alone actually achieving it, let alone anyone with even
subjective descriptions of performance differences.
If non-networking IOV has the great potential discussed in the links above, can anyone tell me why it seems that no one is actually doing it? Kihl? Braren? zir_blazer? ScottLowe? Don Fountain? Boesch? John Howard? George Crump? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?...
