Build 3186/88 and Linux: reports?

H

Hagbard

Member
I am currently using build 1970 for multiple GNU/Linux virtual machines, and have had excellent performance and stability. I tested the betas and RCs and found all of them to have considerably worse performance and frequent crashes. I have searched the forums but I havent found much information on how the 'final' releases do with Linux. Is anyone out there currently using build 3186/88 for PRODUCTION development and webserving? "I installed distro X and it seems to work OK" isn't the kind of information I need, I'm interested in users who require extended (multi-day) uptime and who either do development or deploy customized software, especially web applications within standard LAMP architecture.

The problems I had with the RCs included: much higher CPU% usage while the VM was basically idle, inability to maintain uptime beyond 12-24 hours without crashing, excessive disk space utilzation by the automatic geneation of huge .mem files, excessive consumption of host machine RAM, display video corruption with frequent tearing and flickering in the X windows environment, and more sluggish performance. None of these issues exist for me in build 1970, and I am not interested in upgrading to build 3186/88 unless these issues have been resolved.

I spent dozens and dozens of hours testing the betas and RCs, sent in numerous reports to beta@parallels.com and sent in several feedback and suggestion emails. I never received any response from Parallels whatsoever, not even a form letter acknowledging my input, although I understand there is always the potential that email has been falsely blocked as spam at some point in the transmission chain. Consequenly, I would like to turn to my fellow forum readers and Parallels users to help me make a decision:

If build 1970 is meeting my needs and providing the performance and stability I need for production development and testing for LAMP based GNU/Linux web applications, is there ANY reason that I should upgrade to the current release version? Have any serious Linux users noticed any improvements in performance, stability, or networking in 3186/88 in comparison to build 1970? I use a core 2 duo 2.0 ghz iMac w/ 1 gb as my platform. Thank you very much in advance for any feedback, information, or advice.
 
I'm having problems with 3186 and Trixbox, which uses CentOS. It installs fine but freezes upon reboot when it gets to the kernel decompression stage. Trixbox installed fine on 1970
 
I have Fedora 6, ubuntu 6.10, openSUSE 10.2, CentOS 4.4, Openfiler 2.2, and Trixbox 2.0 installed and running (not at the same time) in Parallels. I only use Parallels to test build servers, not to run production. So far, for the most part, they all work fine in 3186 and 3188.
 
I do a lot of development work using ubuntu. I've had pretty good success with all the betas and 3186/3188.

A couple of things though. I had to turn off "Enable Intel VT-x support" it was throwing off the scheduler, so sleep cycles where running in picoseconds instead of seconds.

Second thing, had to disable usb support. With usb support enabled I was seeing between 20-40 CPU utilization during idle. Afterwards, it was back down to 7-10%.

Last thing, for some reason every time I restart the VM it resets the clock. So, I manually have to sync it back up for the correct time.

I run an SQL server, an AOS server, and a Webserver continuously for development. All of them ubuntu. I usually do a manual reboot every three or four days, so at minimum I'm seeing three day uptime.
 
Thanks very much for the information, especially the tip about disabling USB support to recover wasted CPU resources. Since I don't normally use any USB devices with my virtual machines, it never occurred to me that most of my processor was being to used to support peripherals that weren't even attached to the VM. From the sound of it, I might be able to use 3186/88 successfully, but so far I've seen a few negative reports, a few 'no problems' reports, and nothing to indicate any positive advantages for me. I think I will hold back on the update for now, until there is a little more data, or some information indicating that the latest build actually offers any improvements, in the context of linux development work.

In case these posts sound negative, I would like to re-emphasize that build 1970 has been a very effective and important tool for me, and I am a happy Parallels customer. (My experience as a beta/RC tester was much less positive, but I know these are separate issues). Thanks again very much for the feedback and information, and I am still interested in additional user experiences.
 
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