Paravirtualized driver for Windows: block and NIC

[andygee]

OK, I am trying to use the virtio block drivers in my server 2003 web install, however the server isn't even seeing the drive at all, i installed on an ide drive and then restarted and added a virtio
drive to install the drivers on however it never gets detected, what am i doing wrong?

Make sure you shutdown/power off and back on for it to add it.

Andy

 

[ndew]

I did that multiple times, didn't have any effect. I'll just stick with IDE it's always worked. Thanks though.

 

[TiagoRF]

I tried VIRTIO HD and NIC, and after some benchmarking on virtio HD, its twice as fast as IDE, quite stunning honestly.

 

[TiagoRF]

Windows Server 2008 R2 x64, VirtIO Disks and VirtIO NIC:

a little review:

on hd tach, ide disks gets an epic rape from a VirtIO, IDE from 107mb/s reading, to 208mb/s to a VirtIO

on the NICs, e1000 over a gigabit port, 2gb file, 16mb/s average
virtio, a stunning 48mb/s

quite impressive.

 

[JustaGuy]

Windows Server 2008 R2 x64, VirtIO Disks and VirtIO NIC:

What versions are the pve & kernel?

 

[TiagoRF]

Brand new iso from PVE 1.5

kernel 2.6.18, surely the most stable i've seen

 

[TiagoRF]

i was also successful using the guide IDE - VIRTIO from Tom

Thanks!

 

[aneubau]

You are using really kernel 2.6.18 not 2.6.32 for use with kvm and virtio ?
I thought kernel 2.6.18 allows only OpenVZ VMs.

Brand new iso from PVE 1.5

kernel 2.6.18, surely the most stable i've seen

 

[tom]

You are using really kernel 2.6.18 not 2.6.32 for use with kvm and virtio ?
I thought kernel 2.6.18 allows only OpenVZ VMs.

KVM in 2.6.18 is quite stable and the default since 1.5.

See http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Proxmox_VE_Kernel

 

[croeper]

I tried this but win2003 request a floppy in a: - did I miss anything? (on win2008 no problem)

What you can do is slipstream the HDD-driver into the Windows ISO-image. For non-commercial purposes there is nLite, for commercial purposes you have to do it manually or maybe ask the guys at DriverPacks.
Regards,

christoph

 

[JustaGuy]

I'm using the new 1.5 installed from the iso & have been looking forward to seeing if the virtio won't crash anymore.

And I can't even get them to install using the iso mentioned in this post.

My XP Pro boxes say the "driver is not intended for this platform", and Server 2008 "cannot start device (code 10)".

View attachment 177View attachment 180View attachment 178View attachment 179

 

[docent]

I have the same problem.

 

[croeper]

And I can't even get them to install using the iso mentioned in this post.

I had trouble with the drivers in the ISO as well, you can try the drivers provided at linux-kvm. More about that in another post.
Regards,

christoph

 

[rogeriomm]

Virtio-win from redhat virtio-win-1.0.0-7.39539.el5.noarch.rpm

http://rghost.net/853821

Anybody can upload virtio-win-1.0.0-11.45801.el5.noarch.rpm ?? http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2010-0494.html

 

[tom]

you need a redhat subscription to use these drivers, they are not free (afaik).
take a look on the fedora project, see http://alt.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/virtio-win/

 

[TiagoRF]

Hi all,

http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/WindowsGuestDrivers/Download_Drivers

We use those, never had a single issue with, both Windows Server 2003 x86, x64, Windows Server 2008 Std and R2 x86/x64

Cheers