[SLUG] Is Windows XP much faster under hardware virtualization?
I'm currently running Windows XP for work in VirtualBox under Mint, and it is usable but sluggish. I'm in the market for a new PC and one of the options is to get one with hardware-assisted virtualization. Can anyone comment from personal experience on whether this will make a) a spectacular difference; b) a moderate difference; c) no difference at all to the speed of virtualized XP? Are there different types or levels of hardware virtualization available off the shelf, or it is one-size-fits-all? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware-assisted_virtualization Thanks, Jon. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Is Windows XP much faster under hardware virtualization?
Hi Jon, Jon Jermey said: I'm currently running Windows XP for work in VirtualBox under Mint, and it is usable but sluggish. I'm in the market for a new PC and one of the options is to get one with hardware-assisted virtualization. Can anyone comment from personal experience on whether this will make a) a spectacular difference; b) a moderate difference; c) no difference at all to the speed of virtualized XP? From personal experience, I can say that cannot notice any (perceptible) performance difference whatsoever in VirtualBox whether hardware virtualisation is turned on or off. None at all. That said, VirtualBox is the fastest virtualisation software I have ever used (whether hardware or software). Windows VMs running atop Ubuntu on my Eee 901 (1.6 GHz Intel Atom, 1 GB RAM) are snappy and responsive. I actually remember reading an article in the VirtualBox manual on the subject: http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch10.html#hwvirt Contains a lot of great reading material. One thing the manual points out is that you’ll be able to benefit from being able to do emulate 64-bit VMs if you have hardware virtualisation support. 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. Just my AU$0.05. Jeremy. signature.asc Description: OpenPGP digital signature -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Is Windows XP much faster under hardware virtualization?
Jeremy Visser jer...@visser.name writes: Jon Jermey said: I'm currently running Windows XP for work in VirtualBox under Mint, and it is usable but sluggish. I'm in the market for a new PC and one of the options is to get one with hardware-assisted virtualization. Can anyone comment from personal experience on whether this will make a) a spectacular difference; b) a moderate difference; c) no difference at all to the speed of virtualized XP? From personal experience, I can say that cannot notice any (perceptible) performance difference whatsoever in VirtualBox whether hardware virtualisation is turned on or off. None at all. Almost no one will - the performance difference is real, but mostly shows up in memory bandwidth, page-mapping performance, and context switching performance. That means you need to be doing something that pushes one of those to the limit *without* hitting other limitations of the VM to actually see any change. [...] 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.) Daniel -- ✣ Daniel Pittman✉ dan...@rimspace.net☎ +61 401 155 707 ♽ made with 100 percent post-consumer electrons -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] Is Windows XP much faster under hardware virtualization?
hi, On 1 November 2010 09:16, Daniel Pittman dan...@rimspace.net 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
Re: [SLUG] Is Windows XP much faster under hardware virtualization?
justin randell justin.rand...@gmail.com writes: On 1 November 2010 09:16, Daniel Pittman dan...@rimspace.net 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. Only if you have PV disk drivers - performance with the emulated hardware, even SAS and SCSI controllers, is generally way lower than the PV stuff because of the overheads of emulation.[1] FWIW, using KVM we reproduced the widely reported native performance using direct I/O and an LVM slice results; those later should work for any raw block device, not just LVM. (Which matches your comment, of course. :) Daniel Footnotes: [1] Really good non-PV drivers and good hardware can reduce it to the equivalent of only a few transitions into kernel mode, but they can't be as efficient as the one or less that PV drivers manage. -- ✣ Daniel Pittman✉ dan...@rimspace.net☎ +61 401 155 707 ♽ made with 100 percent post-consumer electrons -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] 3 weeks until OSDC starts in Melbourne
With only 22 days to go until the 7th Australian Open Source Developers' Conference, and a maximum capacity of 240, now is the time to register to attend. http://2010.osdc.com.au/register At only $300 for professional delegates and $200 for students (valid proof of student status required upon arrival), this 3 day conference plus one day workshop represents the best value for money for Australian developer conferences. PHP Pre-Day ~~ Thanks to sponsorship from Microsoft, OSDC will feature a PHP Pre-day. Attendance and food is free thanks to the sponsorship, but numbers are limited, so get in fast! http://2010.osdc.com.au/register You will not be borg'd and powerpointed to death with Microsoft speak, says Nick Hodge, one of the Microsoft folks attending the conference. The day is all about PHP. If you'd like to present on a PHP-related topic at this pre-day, please contact Nick Hodge directly at nho...@microsoft.com. WHO IS THIS CONFERENCE FOR? ~~ Programmers who use open source tools and languages for open source projects, or even closed source projects; along with those use proprietary tools for open source projects are all welcome; as is anyone who would just like to learn more about software development and the tools and languages we're using. This is a great conference for developers to improve their knowledge and make connections with the Australian open source community. Register today to make sure you don't miss out on this great opportunity: http://2010.osdc.com.au/register WHAT WILL I LEARN? WHO WILL I MEET? ~~ This year's awesome presenters and talk topics are listed here: http://2010.osdc.com.au/programme Whether your ticket includes dinner or you choose to buy a ticket to come along, the conference dinner is a great opportunity to mingle and meet peers. Partners are also welcome at this event. Extra dinner tickets can be purchased online: http://2010.osdc.com.au/register -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
