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Linux on Azure...and, how to tell which virtualization is in use?
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Linux on Azure...and, how to tell which virtualization is in use?

raindog308raindog308 Administrator, Veteran
edited June 2012 in General

My employer funds an MSDN subscription for me...which I have just used to get a Linux VPS on Azure :-)

How can I tell which virtualization is in use?

Some random things...this is the Medium VM (2x1.66Ghz CPU, 3.5GB RAM). Supposedly they're using SSD disk exclusively (not sure how I'd verify that). I accidentally provisioned in West Europe so I'm tearing down now to move to the states but I assume this is representative of their configs.

Linux somehostname 2.6.32-220.17.1.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Wed May 16 00:01:37 BST 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : AuthenticAMD
cpu family      : 16
model           : 8
model name      : AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 4171 HE
stepping        : 1
cpu MHz         : 2094.694
cache size      : 512 KB
physical id     : 0
siblings        : 2
core id         : 0
cpu cores       : 2
apicid          : 0
initial apicid  : 0
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 5
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb lm 3dnowext 3dnow rep_good extd_apicid unfair_spinlock pni cx16 popcnt hypervisor lahf_lm cmp_legacy cr8_legacy abm sse4a misalignsse 3dnowprefetch osvw
bogomips        : 4189.38
TLB size        : 1024 4K pages
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 46 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor       : 1
vendor_id       : AuthenticAMD
cpu family      : 16
model           : 8
model name      : AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 4171 HE
stepping        : 1
cpu MHz         : 2094.694
cache size      : 512 KB
physical id     : 0
siblings        : 2
core id         : 1
cpu cores       : 2
apicid          : 1
initial apicid  : 1
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 5
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb lm 3dnowext 3dnow rep_good extd_apicid unfair_spinlock pni cx16 popcnt hypervisor lahf_lm cmp_legacy cr8_legacy abm sse4a misalignsse 3dnowprefetch osvw
bogomips        : 4192.09
TLB size        : 1024 4K pages
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 46 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:
$ dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=64k count=16k conv=fdatasync
16384+0 records in
16384+0 records out
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 125.883 s, 8.5 MB/s

Ouch.

Nice control panel, though! It's actually amazingly slick - async notification, task queues, etc. Nicer than Amazon's EC2.

Comments

  • I would first look at running kernel modules and if you can modprobe any new ones.

  • raindog308raindog308 Administrator, Veteran
    
    $ lsmod
    Module                  Size  Used by
    udf                    84696  0
    crc_itu_t               1717  1 udf
    iptable_filter          2793  1
    ip_tables              17831  1 iptable_filter
    autofs4                26888  3
    sunrpc                243822  1
    ipv6                  322029  154
    sg                     30124  0
    hv_netvsc              23141  0
    hid_hyperv              4209  0
    hv_utils                6117  0
    microcode             112594  0
    hv_timesource           1079  0 [permanent]
    i2c_piix4              12608  0
    i2c_core               31276  1 i2c_piix4
    ext4                  364410  3
    mbcache                 8144  1 ext4
    jbd2                   88866  1 ext4
    sd_mod                 39488  5
    crc_t10dif              1541  1 sd_mod
    sr_mod                 16228  0
    cdrom                  39803  1 sr_mod
    pata_acpi               3701  0
    ata_generic             3837  0
    hv_storvsc             10372  3
    hv_vmbus               93781  5 hv_netvsc,hid_hyperv,hv_utils,hv_timesource,hv_storvsc
    dm_mirror              14101  0
    dm_region_hash         12170  1 dm_mirror
    dm_log                 10122  2 dm_mirror,dm_region_hash
    dm_mod                 81692  7 dm_mirror,dm_log
    
  • AlexBarakovAlexBarakov Patron Provider, Veteran

    I wonder how that panel looks, can you take a screenshot?

  • From what Google tells me, it could be Xen or KVM or Hyper V

  • Leaning towards Hyper V considering it's Microsoft's product.

  • miTgiBmiTgiB Member

    @TheHackBox said: Hyper V considering it's Microsoft's product.

    Linux (EL6) in Hyper-V is pretty slick with the kmod rpm loaded, KVM still kicks it's ass though. On a 16 disk array that I was pulling 500+MB/s with CentOS6 loaded on the machine, I am lucky to see 150MB/s in a CentOS 6 VM with the Linux Integration Services. I've yet to run GeekBench to see how it benches, but overall it's not terrible.

  • raindog308raindog308 Administrator, Veteran

    Some examples...

    image
    image

    The beauty is in the notifications, queue, etc. which is hard to show in just a screen shot.

  • Lol that makes solusvm look like toy, vs enterprise suite.

    Thanked by 1NanoG6
  • raindog308raindog308 Administrator, Veteran

    Amazon EC2 has a nice panel...Microsoft's is just slicker because it's new.

    They also have a suite of command-line tools that run on Linux...

    https://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/manage/linux/how-to-guides/command-line-tools/

  • miTgiBmiTgiB Member

    @raindog308 said: They also have a suite of command-line tools that run on Linux...

    As long as you remain with a supported kernel, I loaded the ovz kernel and none of the Linux Integration Services worked. This is on the theory Azure is Hyper-V

  • NickMNickM Member
    edited June 2012

    Considering that the hv_storvsc, hv_vmbus, hv_netvsc, hid_hyperv, hv_utils and hv_timesource modules are loaded, I'm going go out on a limb and say that it's Hyper-V...

    Thanked by 1tux
  • raindog308raindog308 Administrator, Veteran

    I think the azure cli tool uses their web api behind the scenes. Everything is "azure ..." and you use it to build/destroy VMs, start/stop, etc

  • nabonabo Member

    @raindog308 said: I think the azure cli tool uses their web api behind the scenes.

    Some more info about that here.

  • raindog308raindog308 Administrator, Veteran

    Further info...

    My first test was in the VM's root volume (/dev/mapper/VolGroup-lv_root). I just reran it on a VM provisioned in the US West region and got similar data:

    $ dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=64k count=16k conv=fdatasync
    16384+0 records in
    16384+0 records out
    1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 117.268 s, 9.2 MB/s
    

    I created a small separate data disk and mounted it, then reran the test in that space:

    # dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=64k count=16k conv=fdatasync
    16384+0 records in
    16384+0 records out
    1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 11.3234 s, 94.8 MB/s

    Much better but hardly exciting.

    I believe Azure VMs work like EC2 - there is a certain amount of local disk attached and then you can create storage volumes and attach/detach those as you wish. In the Azure case, it's a 28GB root and 66GB mounted as "/mnt/resource". No idea where that name comes from - it's just an ext4 filesystem.

    Reputedly, they are going all-SSD:

    http://gigaom.com/cloud/new-windows-azure-goes-all-ssd-to-one-up-amazon-in-the-cloud/

  • nabonabo Member

    Something to know about Windows Azure in the EU.

  • Same applies to Amazon however.

  • raindog308raindog308 Administrator, Veteran

    Speaking of Amazon...same test writing to EBS on a Micro instance:

    # dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=64k count=16k conv=fdatasync
    16384+0 records in
    16384+0 records out
    1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 32.1541 s, 33.4 MB/s
    
  • nabonabo Member
    edited June 2012

    @William said: Same applies to Amazon however.

    That is true.

    There are two important factors affecting the treatment of data. Firstly, knowing where it is physically located, as this determines the legal jurisdiction presiding over that data. For example, data stored in Germany is subject to German and EU law, whereas data stored in the U.S. is only subject to U.S. law. It’s also important to consider where customer records are kept, as sometimes they may be replicated beyond the raw data storage. For example, a company operating a public cloud may hold uploaded data in one place (the main published cloud location), but keep copies at its corporate HQ, which may be in another country.

    Secondly, knowing who controls the data is key as some country laws place obligations on companies beyond that country’s borders. For example, since a U.S. company operating in Europe is still subject to the U.S. Patriot Act, the European customers using those services are exposing themselves to U.S. jurisdiction. It’s important to note that subsidiaries of U.S. companies are also subject to the same U.S. data access abroad.

    And:

    So, the question remains – for companies holding EU citizens’ data in Europe, does placing such data under the control of a U.S.-based entity expose them to legal consequences? The simple answer is yes. If a German company were to place their customers’ data under the control of a U.S. entity or subsidiary, they could be held liable for any subsequent data release.

  • jhjh Member

    Nice panel! Do they have UK-based SSD VPS?

  • @raindog308 said: Amazon EC2 has a nice panel...Microsoft's is just slicker because it's new.

    EC2 is too overloaded IMO - I don't even understand what most of the buttons there do...

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