SMP kernel test on Freebsd7.0-BETA4 inside VMWARE: Good results!

[Daniel Ponticello]

Hello Everyone,
I'm writing this to the list to let you know about some tests on SMP 
kernel of 7.0:

i'm testing both FreeBSD 7.0-BETA4 and FreeBSD6.3 on VMWARE ESX Server 
3.5, using 2 virtual cpu (SMP Kernel).

On freebsd 6.2 and FreeBSD6.3 in ESX Server, SMP kernel is very unstable 
and many processes (like compiling something from source or installing 
from the ports) will end with segmentation fault. Also, the VM won't 
survive a buildworld (the process just freezes).

I've noticed that the problem is no longer present in FreeBSD7.0-BETA4: 
the VM i'm testing is up since 2 days and survived several buildworlds 
and installation from the ports (SMP kernel with 2 processors, APIC 
enabled). Also the clock derive problem is no longer present: while in 
freebsd6.2 the clock was loosing 5 seconds per day, on freebsd 7 it is 
loosing only 0.9 seconds per day. Looks promising.

I guess this is due to several rewrites of SMP in freebsd7 kernel.

Anyone can confirm these results?


Thanks,


Daniel Ponticello