Bug 442991

*** Bug 446099 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 441471 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 438479 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Posted patches for 5.3 on 7/17 for i686 & x86_64 bare-metal kernels.
Posted patches for 5.3 on 7/25 for ia64 bare-metal kernel.

in kernel-2.6.18-105.el5
You can download this test kernel from http://people.redhat.com/dzickus/el5

Reverting back to POST so I can bring in the ia64 patch series too.

in kernel-2.6.18-111.el5
You can download this test kernel from http://people.redhat.com/dzickus/el5

This bug (feature request) has been marked for inclusion in the Red Hat
Enterprise Linux 5.3 Release Notes.

To aid in the development of relevant and accurate release notes, please fill
out the "Release Notes" field above with the following 4 pieces of information:


Cause:   What actions or circumstances induced the feature request.

Consequence:  What action was inhibited by the feature's absence.

Fix:   What was done to implement the feature.

Result:  now happens when the actions or circumstances above occur. (NB: this
is not the same as 'the feature request was fulfilled')

First attempt at release note request(s):

Cause:   Performance is improved for fully virtualized (Xen) RHEL guests when paravirtualized drivers are used in the guest system.

Consequence:  Xen-based, fully-virtualized RHEL5 guests had sub-optimal performance in disk and network performance due to emulated disk(IDE) and network (8139) devices.  


Fix:   The asynchronous, kmod-xenpv package was backported and included into RHEL5.3 to simplify the use of Xen paravirtulaized disks and networks in fully virtualized RHEL5 guests.

Result:  The inclusion of the Xen pv drivers in fully virtualized guests can significantly improved the performance and functionality of fully virtualized guests.   Bug fixes made for netfront and block front xen drivers are immediately realized and synchronized with the kernel package (not asynchronous, as the kmod-xenpv package is wrt the kernel package).

Release note added. If any revisions are required, please set the 
"requires_release_notes" flag to "?" and edit the "Release Notes" field accordingly.
All revisions will be proofread by the Engineering Content Services team.

New Contents:
Fully virtualized Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 guests encountered suboptimal performance when using emulated disk and network devices. In this update, the kmod-xenpv package has been included to simplify the use of paravirtulaized disks and networks in fully virtualized guests. 

Using these drivers in fully virtualized guests can significantly improve the performance and functionality of fully virtualized guests. Bug fixes made for netfront and block front drivers are immediately realized and synchronized with the kernel package.

Release note updated. If any revisions are required, please set the 
"requires_release_notes"  flag to "?" and edit the "Release Notes" field accordingly.
All revisions will be proofread by the Engineering Content Services team.

Diffed Contents:
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
-Fully virtualized Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 guests encountered suboptimal performance when using emulated disk and network devices. In this update, the kmod-xenpv package has been included to simplify the use of paravirtulaized disks and networks in fully virtualized guests. 
+Fully virtualized Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 guests encountered suboptimal performance when using emulated disk and network devices. In this update, the kmod-xenpv package has been included to simplify the use of paravirtualized disks and networks in fully virtualized guests. 
 
 Using these drivers in fully virtualized guests can significantly improve the performance and functionality of fully virtualized guests. Bug fixes made for netfront and block front drivers are immediately realized and synchronized with the kernel package.

Partners, this bug should be fixed in the latest RHEL 5.3 Snapshot. We believe that you have some interest in its correct functionality, so we're making a friendly request to send us some testing feedback. 

If you have a chance to test it, please share with us your findings. If you have successfully VERIFIED the fix, please add PartnerVerified to the Bugzilla keywords, along with a description of the results. Thanks!

~~ Snapshot 6 is out ~~ Partners, please test and let us know if this bug has been fixed. Add PartnerVerified keyword if everything works as expected. For any new issues encountered, CLONE this bug and report the issues in the new bug.

*** Bug 452370 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 452303 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

An advisory has been issued which should help the problem
described in this bug report. This report is therefore being
closed with a resolution of ERRATA. For more information
on therefore solution and/or where to find the updated files,
please follow the link below. You may reopen this bug report
if the solution does not work for you.

http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2009-0225.html