There's some interesting dichotomies in this question/response:
Drivers exist :
1) Within the ESX kernel for physical hardware, with ESX leveraging the api's
from the linux kernel/midlayer/etc in order to pick up linux drivers for
device support in their kernel/hypervisor. This was my discussion area.
Management of this area wants to happen via VMware-based paradigms.
2) Within a guest OS for : a) emulated hardware or b) direct pci function
passthru to the guest os.
3) VMware emulates a LSI adapter as a guest-os-to-hypervisor abstraction point
(e.g 2a). Thus LSI drivers could/can exist in both ESX and in the Guest OS
simultaneously, and if the guest is running linux, both driver instances are
effectively the linux driver. Atul/LSI is trying very hard to make the one
linux driver work in both environments.
Hope this helps.
-- james s
Mukker, Atul wrote:
We _are_ talking about the "optimized" driver :-)
-----Original Message-----
From: linux-scsi-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:linux-scsi-
owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Drew
Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2009 9:49 AM
To: linux-scsi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Recommended HBA management interfaces
VMware attempts to emulate the linux driver/midlayer api's, but
emulation is done
in their own way, with their own semantics, for their own purposes..
Anyone
that believes they just drop a linux driver into vmware and it works w/o
change has a screw loose.
I must confess to some confusion James. I thought that VMware emulates
hardware and that outside of optimized drivers they don't get involved
in the higher layers of the guest OS.
--
Drew
"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood."
--Marie Curie
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