Paravirtualized Network Drivers for Windows
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, Windows XP and Vista. The Windows XP drivers are known to work also on Windows 2003 Server (also the Vista drivers can be used for Windows 2008).
For production systems (windows), the stable e1000 emulations is recommended (but you need the latest drivers from Intel, the built in e1000 drivers are not working).
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")
Prepare KVM guest on Proxmox VE
- 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 CD-ROM containing the drivers. The drivers are not signed, choose install anyway and you are done.
Alternative: e1000
Windows is known to work well with the Intel e1000 network card. Please download and use the latest drivers from Intel.
Performance improvements
tbd.