open-vm-tools-devel

vmmemctl not for linux ?

[Kostas T. <k.t...@da...>]

Hello everybody.
I have a rather simple question :)
Why the vmmemctl driver is not included in the modules/linux/ folder ?
I can't build vmmemctl for 64-bit linux kernel 2.6.35 ?

Thanks for your time.

-- 
Tamateas Kostas
iNODE R&D
Dataways Hellas
email : k.t...@da...

Re: vmmemctl not for linux ?

[Dmitry T. <dt...@vm...>]

Hi Kostas,

On Thursday, May 17, 2012 01:37:31 PM Kostas Tamateas wrote:
> Hello everybody.
> I have a rather simple question :)
> Why the vmmemctl driver is not included in the modules/linux/ folder ?
> I can't build vmmemctl for 64-bit linux kernel 2.6.35 ?
> 

Since we have contributed the driver to the mainline Linux kernel we have 
decided to remove it from open-vm-tools package to avoid dealing with too many 
versions of the code base. You can ether backport it yourself from the 
mainline or fetch a version that builds on multitude of kernels from the 
official VMware Tools package you get with the platform.

Thanks,
Dmitry

Re: vmmemctl not for linux ?

[Reindl H. <h.r...@th...>]

Am 17.05.2012 12:37, schrieb Kostas Tamateas:
> Hello everybody.
> I have a rather simple question :)
> Why the vmmemctl driver is not included in the modules/linux/ folder ?
> I can't build vmmemctl for 64-bit linux kernel 2.6.35 ?
> 
> Thanks for your time

i am not sure if 2.6.35 is recent enough

but it is since a long time in the upstream linux kernel
as "vmw_balloon" like also "vmxnet3" and "vmw_pvscsi"

hopefully sometimes "vsock", "vmci" and "vmsync" will also be included
directly in linux kernel upstream  as the modules needed for VMware
Workstation too to get rid of this boring kernel dependencies making
each kernel-major release on distributions like Fedora making to an
adventure because VMware is usually way behind upstream

VMware Workstation 8.0.3 as example is only a secuity update
and still needs months old patches for 3.2/3.3 to get it work
again :-(

Re: vmmemctl not for linux ?

[Dmitry T. <dt...@vm...>]

On Thursday, May 17, 2012 07:48:35 PM Reindl Harald wrote:
> Am 17.05.2012 12:37, schrieb Kostas Tamateas:
> > Hello everybody.
> > I have a rather simple question :)
> > Why the vmmemctl driver is not included in the modules/linux/ folder ?
> > I can't build vmmemctl for 64-bit linux kernel 2.6.35 ?
> > 
> > Thanks for your time
> 
> i am not sure if 2.6.35 is recent enough
> 
> but it is since a long time in the upstream linux kernel
> as "vmw_balloon" like also "vmxnet3" and "vmw_pvscsi"
> 
> hopefully sometimes "vsock", "vmci"

We are presently working on getting VMCI (and later vsock) upstream.

> and "vmsync" will also be included

vmsync will not be upstreamed since newer kernel provide FIFREEZE/FITHAW 
functionality needed to quiesce the filesystems in order to perform consistent 
backup. If VMware Tools detect that kernel supports these ioctls then vmsync 
driver is not used.

Thanks.
  
-- 
Dmitry

Re: vmmemctl not for linux ?

[Reindl H. <h.r...@th...>]

Am 17.05.2012 23:40, schrieb Dmitry Torokhov:
> On Thursday, May 17, 2012 07:48:35 PM Reindl Harald wrote:
>> but it is since a long time in the upstream linux kernel
>> as "vmw_balloon" like also "vmxnet3" and "vmw_pvscsi"
>>
>> hopefully sometimes "vsock", "vmci"
> 
> We are presently working on getting VMCI (and later vsock) upstream.

cool, what is exactly the need of "vsock"
"vmci" is AFAIK used for "VMware HA" and the most
important thing beside vmxnet3 in vSphere custers

>> and "vmsync" will also be included
> 
> vmsync will not be upstreamed since newer kernel provide FIFREEZE/FITHAW 
> functionality needed to quiesce the filesystems in order to perform consistent 
> backup. If VMware Tools detect that kernel supports these ioctls then vmsync 
> driver is not used.

if i understand you right i can thow away "kernel/drivers/misc/vmsync.ko"
in my open-vm-tools packages on Fedora with 3.3.x kernels and
VMware DataRecovery will still work?

Re: vmmemctl not for linux ?

[Dmitry T. <dt...@vm...>]

On Thursday, May 17, 2012 11:57:43 PM Reindl Harald wrote:
> Am 17.05.2012 23:40, schrieb Dmitry Torokhov:
> > On Thursday, May 17, 2012 07:48:35 PM Reindl Harald wrote:
> >> but it is since a long time in the upstream linux kernel
> >> as "vmw_balloon" like also "vmxnet3" and "vmw_pvscsi"
> >> 
> >> hopefully sometimes "vsock", "vmci"
> > 
> > We are presently working on getting VMCI (and later vsock) upstream.
> 
> cool, what is exactly the need of "vsock"

It is a new socket family with semantics similar to the standard TCP sockets 
which can be used to communicate with code running on hypervisor platform 
without network being involved.

> "vmci" is AFAIK used for "VMware HA" and the most
> important thing beside vmxnet3 in vSphere custers

Hmm, VMCI does not have userspace components (vsock and hgfs use it) so I am 
not sure how HA would make use of it... Heartbit from vmtools service uses 
different communication channel. This might change in the future though.

> 
> >> and "vmsync" will also be included
> > 
> > vmsync will not be upstreamed since newer kernel provide FIFREEZE/FITHAW
> > functionality needed to quiesce the filesystems in order to perform
> > consistent backup. If VMware Tools detect that kernel supports these
> > ioctls then vmsync driver is not used.
> 
> if i understand you right i can thow away "kernel/drivers/misc/vmsync.ko"
> in my open-vm-tools packages on Fedora with 3.3.x kernels and
> VMware DataRecovery will still work?

Yes.

Thanks,
Dmitry

Re: vmmemctl not for linux ?

[Reindl H. <h.r...@th...>]

first thank you for your feedback

feels good to see vmware-people giving direct
feedback besides non-tech support channels!

Am 18.05.2012 07:30, schrieb Dmitry Torokhov:
>>> We are presently working on getting VMCI (and later vsock) upstream
>> cool, what is exactly the need of "vsock"
> It is a new socket family with semantics similar to the standard TCP sockets
> which can be used to communicate with code running on hypervisor platform
> without network being involved.

are they really needed to have VSpehere / vCenter working properly

i am not a big friend of uneeded kernel-modules and communication
protocols which may be exploitet in the one or other way if i do
not need them for high ability and managment of my guests

> Hmm, VMCI does not have userspace components (vsock and hgfs use it) so I am 
> not sure how HA would make use of it... Heartbit from vmtools service uses 
> different communication channel. This might change in the future though.
> 
>> if i understand you right i can thow away "kernel/drivers/misc/vmsync.ko"
>> in my open-vm-tools packages on Fedora with 3.3.x kernels and
>> VMware DataRecovery will still work?
> 
> Yes

hmm - to finally make this clear for me

do i need any of the modules loadd on a 3.3 kernel to have
"VMware HA" and "VMware DataRecovery" working?
_________________________________________-

so if this all would work without this 3 modules i could compile
with "--without-kernel-modules" to get only the user-space "vmtoolsd"
which would work completly without any kernel-dependency results in
less headache if fedora starts to distribute kernel 3.4 which happens
in a few weeks

* vmci
* vmsync
* vsock