hi, On 1 November 2010 09:16, Daniel Pittman <[email protected]> wrote: > >>> Are there different types or levels of hardware virtualization available >>> off the shelf, or it is one-size-fits-all? >> >> Well there’s Intel VT-x and there’s AMD-V, which are the duopoly’s >> equivalents. Both are supported by VirtualBox, VMware, KVM, etc. >> >> Personally, I think that if you buy a new PC with hardware virtualisation, >> the performance benefit you will see will be coming from the faster hardware >> more than the VT-x/AMD-V support. > > *nod* Also, keep in mind that one of the biggest factors in VM performance is > going to be I/O for most users. > > That means that the performance of your paravirtualized devices is the key for > getting better performance - and that usually just means picking a VM solution > with appropriate "guest" drivers and all. > > (Unless you plan on mapping physical hardware into the VM, in which case VT-d > or the AMD equivalent makes a difference.)
yep, I/O is normally a killer. at work, all dev machines have (at least) two physical drives, so VMs can be given a disc separate from the host OS. we find that's the simplest, best bang-for-buck way to get good VM performance. cheers justin -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
