How soon during install you know if the hardware is Intel-VT & 64bit ?

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vanDivX

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Jun 24, 2010
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First post and have question.
I want to buy HP HP DL360 G4P SERVER - Dual Intel XEON 3.6 GHz / 800MHz / 2MB Cache CPUs

I am not sure if the xeon has Intel VT instructions, system is supposed to be 64 bit (the p in G4P means that it is) but of course deciding time is when Proxmox installs and allows both KVMs and OpenVZ modes.

I was wondering if poping in CD and starting install would tell you if the system is supporting Intel VT before you commit to install fully, that is you can cancel it and know if you have right hardware.

Anyone has opinion on this server?

Thanks
 
take a look on the data-sheet from HP if this server supports VT, a good idea before you buy one.

Proxmox VE: you need to install and after reboot you will if VT works or not. On most servers, VT needs to be enable in the BIOS
 
I downloanded spec pfd from HP and it only says this: 64-bit Intel® Xeon™ processors supporting 64-bit extension and 64-bit Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems

As Linux it lists RHEL5 and previous versions but likely would run later versions too. I should ask the seller (private person who says he ran VMware LAB on it) for what its worth but likely he might be selling precisely because it doesn't have those instructions as it seems otherwise still decent piece of hardware (1U, 2x 72GB U320 SCSI, 6GB RAM

I installed Proxmox in VMware on my desktop that has i7-860 CPU which I believe has those VT instructions and somehow it said it couldn't make KVMs because the VT instructions are missing... I thought maybe it is because of being run in VMware it doesn't have access to it. I am not 100% sure about BIOS VT setting if there is any on my desktop but I doubt it.

Also I expected in VMware that Proxmox will 'see' my new Intel Dual NIC but no such luck (choice was only those virtual adapters it makes galore of), again I figured it might be something to do with VMware... I do have CD with drivers for it (supposed to work with ESXi either during install or later but don't know if Proxmox provides for anything like such injection of drivers). I wanted to install router firewall gateway that runs on linux and needs two hardware NICs dedicated - one for modem a the other for LAN and as it was I had to ditch that try. Perhaps installing directly on hardware will be different.

Asking around I was told that perhaps my NIC was way too new to be supported in open source releases which it sort of is - Dell still ship it currently with their desktop servers like T310s (E1G42ET) which leads me to ask what would be some common dual port NIC to look for that is known to work in server and hopefully it would have drivers for windows (win7) desktops as well (to be used at least for something if it should turn up useless in servers)
 
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vanDivX said:
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I installed Proxmox in VMware on my desktop that has i7-860 CPU which I believe has those VT instructions and somehow it said it couldn't make KVMs because the VT instructions are missing... I thought maybe it is because of being run in VMware it doesn't have access to it. I am not 100% sure about BIOS VT setting if there is any on my desktop but I doubt it. ...
Click to expand...

You cannot use VT inside another virtualization solution (only in some special combinations). So if you install vmware on your desktop, vmware uses VT. and its not available a guest. So you can only use OpenVZ in such a test setup.
 
thx, that's what I wanted to know but not wanted to hear ;)

I checked in BIOS and VT is enabled all right (not easy to find that setting but it is on by default, on my machine anyway) but that is mute point now, thanks.

I have then another question, maybe its daft but here goes: currently I run win7 on the desktop machine, suppose I installed Proxmox on its hardware and then installed this win7 OS in KVM container...

I suppose I wouldn't be able to use that win7 as I am using it now since then my display would be just a console of Proxmox installation and the video card on this machine would be totally wasted... right?

then I have the followup question, if I had Proxmox installed on some decent server and used this win7 desktop machine with good video card to connect to another win OS running as KVM on the server, would it run as fast and with good video performance in the browser window view as the windows installed directly on this desktop?

What I'd like to know is whether there are some inherent limitations in such setting that you can't overcome with better hardware and which then means that such OS are ok for experimenting with but not for real day to day usage (in that even a relatively mediocre desktop would outperform winOS in KVM on Proxmox server)

By decent server I would consider Dell T310 with midrange Xeon (with HT), 8GB RAM and fast 15k SCSI HDDs
 
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vanDivX said:
thx, that's what I wanted to know but not wanted to hear ;)

I checked in BIOS and VT is enabled all right (not easy to find that setting but it is on by default, on my machine anyway) but that is mute point now, thanks.

I have then another question, maybe its daft but here goes: currently I run win7 on the desktop machine, suppose I installed Proxmox on its hardware and then installed this win7 OS in KVM container...

I suppose I wouldn't be able to use that win7 as I am using it now since then my display would be just a console of Proxmox installation and the video card on this machine would be totally wasted... right?
Click to expand...

KVM have just basic VGA, so no 3D power in graphics. I suggest you run Win7 as a KVM guest and access with a RDP client, would be interesting what remoteFX can improve here (available in win7 sp1, but as far as I know there is no remotefx client for Linux).

Also take a look on SPICE protocol, maybe integrated some time in Proxmox VE when it goes stable.

vanDivX said:
then I have the followup question, if I had Proxmox installed on some decent server and used this win7 desktop machine with good video card to connect to another win OS running as KVM on the server, would it run as fast and with good video performance in the browser window view as the windows installed directly on this desktop?

What I'd like to know is whether there are some inherent limitations in such setting that you can't overcome with better hardware and which then means that such OS are ok for experimenting with but not for real day to day usage (in that even a relatively mediocre desktop would outperform winOS in KVM on Proxmox server)

By decent server I would consider Dell T310 with midrange Xeon (with HT), 8GB RAM and fast 15k SCSI HDDs
Click to expand...
 
tom said:
KVM have just basic VGA, so no 3D power in graphics. I suggest you run Win7 as a KVM guest and access with a RDP client.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I wouldn't have thought of RDP or that it would work in such setting. I would be accessing the vin7 KVM from win7 desktop, linux would not be an issue. Also don't do 3d gaming but would like if at least DVD movies would play and such like. Demanding apps I suppose I would run directly on the win7 desktop.
Will read up on SPICE protocol, looks interesting from having just had a glance at it now.

Edit: this is just what I had in mind :D
http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&sourc...bdsNsC&usg=AFQjCNHeHsWa9izsjIKrR3OlQJ7FCTsC7A
 
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