Difference between revisions of "Windows VirtIO Drivers"

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==Introduction==
 
==Introduction==
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VirtIO Drivers are paravirtualized drivers for [[KVM|kvm]]/Linux (see http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/Virtio).  
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VirtIO Drivers are paravirtualized drivers for [[KVM|kvm]]/Linux (see http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/Virtio). In short, they enable direct (paravirtualized) access to devices and peripherals for virtual machines using them, instead of slower, emulated, ones. <br>
 
A quite extended explanation about VirtIO drivers can be found here http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-virtio.
 
A quite extended explanation about VirtIO drivers can be found here http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-virtio.
  
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In short, they enable direct (paravirtualized) access to device and peripherals to virtual machines using them, instead of slower, emulated, ones.
+
At the moment these kind of devices are supported:
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−
At the moment this kind of devices are supported:
 
 
* block (disks drives), see [[Paravirtualized Block Drivers for Windows]]
 
* block (disks drives), see [[Paravirtualized Block Drivers for Windows]]
 
* network (ethernet cards), see [[Paravirtualized Network Drivers for Windows|Paravirtualized Network Drivers for Windows]]
 
* network (ethernet cards), see [[Paravirtualized Network Drivers for Windows|Paravirtualized Network Drivers for Windows]]
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* baloon (dynamic memory management), see [[Dynamic Memory Management]]
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* balloon (dynamic memory management), see [[Dynamic Memory Management]]
  
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Usually using VirtIO drivers you can maximize performances, but this depends on the availability and status of guest VirtIO drivers for your guest OS and platform.
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You can maximize performances by using VirtIO drivers. The availability and status of the VirtIO drivers depends on the guest OS and platform.
  
 
== Windows OS support ==
 
== Windows OS support ==
  
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While recent Linux kernels already have those drivers so any distribution, running in a kvm VM, should recognize virtio devices exposed by the kvm hypervisor, all current Windows OS need special drivers to use virtio devices. Microsoft does not provide them, so someone kindly managed to make virtio drivers available also for windows systems.  
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Windows does not have VirtIO drivers included. The Fedora project provides CD ISO images with compiled and signed VirtIO drivers for Windows.
  
 
See  
 
See  
  
 +
*https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/quick-docs/creating-windows-virtual-machines-using-virtio-drivers/index.html
 
*http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/WindowsGuestDrivers  
 
*http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/WindowsGuestDrivers  
 
*http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/WindowsGuestDrivers/Download_Drivers
 
*http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/WindowsGuestDrivers/Download_Drivers
  
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Following info on those page you can find:  
+
The source code of those drivers can be found on Github. See https://github.com/virtio-win/kvm-guest-drivers-windows
  
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*a git repository: https://github.com/YanVugenfirer/kvm-guest-drivers-windows
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=== Driver ISOs ===
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*:this is the source for the Windows drivers and is hosted in a repository on GIT hub. Anonymous users can clone the repository
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*a web repository http://alt.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/virtio-win/  
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Each of the ISOs is labelled with a numeric release.
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*:here you can find both stable and latest sets of drivers  
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*Older versions could still be useful when, as it happens, a Windows VM shows instability or incompatibility with the latest drivers.
 +
*a web repository https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/archive-virtio/
 +
*:here you can find both [https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/stable-virtio/virtio-win.iso stable] and [https://fedorapeople.org/groups/virt/virtio-win/direct-downloads/latest-virtio/virtio-win.iso latest] sets of drivers  
 
*:*in source format (.zip)  
 
*:*in source format (.zip)  
 
*:*in compiled format (.iso)  
 
*:*in compiled format (.iso)  
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*:*'''Those binary drivers are digitally signed, and will work on 64-bit versions of Windows'''
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*:*'''The binary drivers are digitally signed by Red Hat (but NOT WHQL), and will work on 64-bit versions of Windows'''
  
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=== Packaged sets of drivers ===
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In the iso there are several dirs, with subdir for each supported OS version (2k19, 2k16, 2k12, 2k12R2, 2k3, 2k8, 2k8R2, w7, w8, w8.1, w10):
 +
*Balloon
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*guest-agent
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*NetKVM
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*pvpanic
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*qemupciserial
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*qxl
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*qxldod
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*viorng
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*vioscsi
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*vioserial
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*viostor
  
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Each of those "packaged" sets of drivers available is labelled with a numeric release, and differs by features &amp; bugs as it improves through the time.
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= See also =
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*Most recent set is virtio-win-0.1-74, with updates to virtio drivers as of 16 Oct 2013.
 
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*Previous versions could still be useful when, as it happens, some Windows VM shows instability or incompatibility with latest drivers set.
 
−
 
 
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==== Choose the right driver ====
 
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{{Template:VirtIOFedoraISOFolderNames}}
 
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'''NB:'''
 
−
 
 
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*Windows XP drivers are known to work also on Windows 2003 Server
 
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*Win7 drivers can be used for Windows 2008r2
 
−
 
 
−
==See also==
 
 
* [[Windows_VirtIO_Drivers/Changelog]]
 
* [[Windows_VirtIO_Drivers/Changelog]]
 
* [[Paravirtualized Block Drivers for Windows]]
 
* [[Paravirtualized Block Drivers for Windows]]
 
* [[Paravirtualized Network Drivers for Windows]]
 
* [[Paravirtualized Network Drivers for Windows]]
 
* [[Dynamic Memory Management]]
 
* [[Dynamic Memory Management]]
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 +
[[Category: HOWTO]]
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[[Category: Qemu/KVM]]

Revision as of 13:07, 5 November 2019

Introduction

VirtIO Drivers are paravirtualized drivers for kvm/Linux (see http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/Virtio). In short, they enable direct (paravirtualized) access to devices and peripherals for virtual machines using them, instead of slower, emulated, ones.
A quite extended explanation about VirtIO drivers can be found here http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-virtio.

At the moment these kind of devices are supported:

You can maximize performances by using VirtIO drivers. The availability and status of the VirtIO drivers depends on the guest OS and platform.

Windows OS support

Windows does not have VirtIO drivers included. The Fedora project provides CD ISO images with compiled and signed VirtIO drivers for Windows.

See

The source code of those drivers can be found on Github. See https://github.com/virtio-win/kvm-guest-drivers-windows

Driver ISOs

Each of the ISOs is labelled with a numeric release.

In the iso there are several dirs, with subdir for each supported OS version (2k19, 2k16, 2k12, 2k12R2, 2k3, 2k8, 2k8R2, w7, w8, w8.1, w10):

  • Balloon
  • guest-agent
  • NetKVM
  • pvpanic
  • qemupciserial
  • qxl
  • qxldod
  • viorng
  • vioscsi
  • vioserial
  • viostor

See also

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