General question about Intel and AMD virtualiztion support in hardware

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KC8LDO

General question about Intel and AMD virtualiztion support in hardware

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Who seems to have the edge in hardware virtualization Intel or AMD? I've
heard comments both ways with one IT person suggesting that AMD was the way
to go.

Also are there extra "features" supported under the various open source
virtualization systems, KVM and Xen, under one manufacture but not the other
of any real significance?

73's

Leland C. Scott
KC8LDO

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Chris Adams-3

Re: General question about Intel and AMD virtualiztion support in hardware

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Once upon a time, KC8LDO <[hidden email]> said:
> Who seems to have the edge in hardware virtualization Intel or AMD? I've
> heard comments both ways with one IT person suggesting that AMD was the way
> to go.

As far as functionality, I believe they are pretty much equivalent.

If you are buying a desktop and want virtualization, then (the last time
I looked), almost all (if not all) AMD CPUs have hw-virt extensions,
while Intel seems to reserve it for the higher-end (read: more
expensive) CPUs.

> Also are there extra "features" supported under the various open source
> virtualization systems, KVM and Xen, under one manufacture but not the
> other of any real significance?

KVM is essentially a driver for the hw-virt CPU extensions, so of course
it supports them. :-)  Xen also supports hw-virt I believe.

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Chris Adams <[hidden email]>
Systems and Network Administrator - HiWAAY Internet Services
I don't speak for anybody but myself - that's enough trouble.

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Kam Leo

Re: General question about Intel and AMD virtualiztion support in hardware

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On Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 2:06 PM, Chris Adams <[hidden email]> wrote:

> Once upon a time, KC8LDO <[hidden email]> said:
>> Who seems to have the edge in hardware virtualization Intel or AMD? I've
>> heard comments both ways with one IT person suggesting that AMD was the way
>> to go.
>
> As far as functionality, I believe they are pretty much equivalent.
>
> If you are buying a desktop and want virtualization, then (the last time
> I looked), almost all (if not all) AMD CPUs have hw-virt extensions,
> while Intel seems to reserve it for the higher-end (read: more
> expensive) CPUs.

Newer steppings of some Intel processors, e.g. E7400 and Q8300, now
have VT enabled. Check http://ark.intel.com/VTList.aspx to verify if
the processor you're interested has VT.

[snip]

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Bill Davidsen

Re: General question about Intel and AMD virtualiztion support in hardware

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In reply to this post by Chris Adams-3
Chris Adams wrote:

> Once upon a time, KC8LDO <[hidden email]> said:
>> Who seems to have the edge in hardware virtualization Intel or AMD? I've
>> heard comments both ways with one IT person suggesting that AMD was the way
>> to go.
>
> As far as functionality, I believe they are pretty much equivalent.
>
> If you are buying a desktop and want virtualization, then (the last time
> I looked), almost all (if not all) AMD CPUs have hw-virt extensions,
> while Intel seems to reserve it for the higher-end (read: more
> expensive) CPUs.
>
If you are going to do anything but play with VM you will probably have one with
hardware VM support. The prices are not Celeron (<$100) prices, but they are
only $100-150 more from Intel. I have some of each, at one time the AMD did a
better job of real mode handling, I still have a need to run Win-95 in a VM, and
it does way too much in real mode. Haven't tried it on recent Intel, I leave
well enough alone.

>> Also are there extra "features" supported under the various open source
>> virtualization systems, KVM and Xen, under one manufacture but not the
>> other of any real significance?
>
> KVM is essentially a driver for the hw-virt CPU extensions, so of course
> it supports them. :-)  Xen also supports hw-virt I believe.
>
It does, but unless I missed something, Fedora doesn't support Xen, because the
patches needed aren't in the mainline kernel and took too much effort to
maintain. I have RHEL, so it's not an issue for me.

I would say right now that Intel has the edge in performance per watt, if power
use and heat are an issue at all. Other than that, not an issue. But be sure the
BIOS doesn't disable the VM capability, some vendors do that.

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Bill Davidsen <[hidden email]>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot

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Chris Adams-3

Re: General question about Intel and AMD virtualiztion support in hardware

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Once upon a time, Bill Davidsen <[hidden email]> said:
> It does, but unless I missed something, Fedora doesn't support Xen, because
> the patches needed aren't in the mainline kernel and took too much effort
> to maintain. I have RHEL, so it's not an issue for me.

Fedora kernels can run as Xen domU para-virtualized, but Fedora doesn't
include a dom0 kernel (that is still not in the upstream source).
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Chris Adams <[hidden email]>
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I don't speak for anybody but myself - that's enough trouble.

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