Please note that this article / this category refers either on older software / hardware components or is no longer maintained for other reasons.
This page is no longer updated and is purely for reference purposes still here in the archive available.
This article will explain the various components of
Intel Virtualization Technology
(Intel VT).
Intel VT-x (Intel Virtualization Technology for IA-32 and Intel 64 Processors)
Intel VT-x
(previously known as
Intel VT
) is the implementation of an Intel
Secure Virtual Machine
for the x86
IA-32
and
Intel 64
architectures. The older designation, “Intel VT” (without the “x”), continues to be used by many BIOS menus.
VT-x is necessary for Intel systems in order to:
run domUs under Xen Hardware Virtual Machine (HVM) (as well as run a guest system under Windows).
Intel VT-d (Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O)
Intel VT-d
makes direct access to a PCI device possible for guest systems with the help of the Input/Output Memory Management Unit (
IOMMU
) provided. This allows a LAN card to be dedicated to a guest system, which makes attainment of increased network performance beyond that of an emulated LAN card possible. Of course, once such a direct access system has been implemented, live migration of the guest system is no longer possible. VMware can be configured for use with an activated Intel VT-d system using
VMware VMDirectPath for direct access to PCI cards
.
Pre-requisites for Intel VT-d
The chip set as well as the BIOS used must support Intel VT-d.
Requires the Intel Nehalem or later micro-architecture, such as that found in Xeon 34xx, 55xx and more recent, as well as other, desktop CPUs (see
A List of Intel CPUs
).
There are no special requirements placed on the CPUs themselves, since VT-d is a function of the chip set. The CPU need merely support VT in general (see
[5]
).
Werner Fischer, working in the Knowledge Transfer team at Thomas-Krenn, completed his studies of Computer and Media Security at FH Hagenberg in Austria. He is a regular speaker at many conferences like LinuxTag, OSMC, OSDC, LinuxCon, and author for various IT magazines. In his spare time he enjoys playing the piano and training for a good result at the annual Linz marathon relay.
