Paravirtualized Network Drivers for Windows

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Revision as of 09:35, 20 May 2008 by Martin (talk | contribs) (added download link to kvm-guest-drivers-windows-2)
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Introduction

In order to improve network performance, special paravirtualized network drivers can be installed in Windows guests. The KVM project released drivers for Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The Windows XP drivers are known to work also on Windows 2003 Server.

Installation

Download

Download the latest kvm-driver-disc (ISO) from KVM to your desktop and upload the ISO to your Proxmox VE server (just use the "upload file" button on the Proxmox VE web interface: "VM Manager/Appliance Templates")

Direct download link to latest version: kvm-guest-drivers-windows-2

Prepare KVM guest on Proxmox VE

Network Card: virtio
  • Shutdown your KVM Virtual Machine and change the used Network Card to "virtio".
  • Select the previously uploaded ISO image as CDROM
  • Start your Virtual Machine

Installation of paravirtualized driver within Windows

The Windows device manager should now detect a new network device. Just point the driver wizard to the CDROM containing the drivers. The drivers are not signed, choose install anyway and you are done.

Performance improvements

tbd.