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17
Jan
2012
SUSE Linux Enterprise Virtual Machine Driver Pack
Category: Products
Improve Performance Boost the performance of your virtualized systems with these paravirtualized drivers The paravirtualized drivers in the SUSE Linux Enterprise Virtual Machine Driver Pack make it easy to achieve the level of performance you need, with support for a broad range of software and hardware.

Boost the performance of your virtualized systems with these paravirtualized drivers

The paravirtualized drivers in the SUSE Linux Enterprise Virtual Machine Driver Pack make it easy to achieve the level of performance you need, with support for a broad range of software and hardware.

Improve the performance of your virtualized system

Paravirtualization is a way of increasing the performance of virtualized systems. The SUSE Linux Enterprise Virtual Machine Driver Pack is a fee-based bundle of paravirtualized network, bus and block device drivers. It lets you run fully virtualized Windows and Linux workloads on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server with near-native performance. It does this by opening additional channels of communication between the Xen hypervisor in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and the unmodified guest operating systems running in a virtual environment. This accelerates network and storage input/output and improves overall efficiency.

How the paravirtualizaed drivers deliver higher performance

Paravirtualization typically delivers higher performance than full virtualization because the operating system and hypervisor work together more efficiently without the overhead imposed by the emulation of the entire system's resources.

However, paravirtualization requires that guest operating systems be modified to recognize the hypervisor, and while more and more operating systems today are being modified to recognize the Xen hypervisor, only a subset of the major operating platforms have been modified.

Although fully virtualized workloads run slower than their equivalent paravirtualized ones, full virtualization does not require that the guest operating system be modified. Therefore, more workloads and guest operating systems today can be fully virtualized than can be paravirtualized.

The paravirtualized drivers in the Driver Pack deliver the performance benefits of paravirtualization, with the wider availability of full virtualization.

Support for Paravirtualization

Enjoy paravirtualization with full enterprise support

Purchasing the Driver Pack entitles you to maintenance and technical support (installation and break/fix) for the paravirtualized drivers contained in the Driver Pack. The support terms and conditions are carried over, or are inherited from the underlying SUSE Linux Enterprise Server subscription used to host the virtual servers.

You must have a valid SUSE Linux Enterprise Server subscription in order to receive support for these paravirtualized drivers. They are not supported in any host environment, other than SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP1/SP2, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, as minimum Xen 3.0.4 is needed to enable them.

Note: Purchasing the Driver Pack without a valid SUSE Linux Enterprise Server subscription does not entitle customers to support for the paravirtualized drivers.

Platform Support

Paravirtualized network, bus, and block drivers are available for a wide range of platforms.

Get drivers for a comprehensive assortment of platforms

Contains 32-bit and 64-bit paravirtualized network, bus and block drivers for the following platforms:

  • Windows Server 2008 on Xen (32-bit and 64-bit)

  • Windows Vista on Xen (32-bit and 64-bit)

  • Windows Server 2003 on Xen (32-bit and 64-bit)

  • Windows 2000 on Xen (32-bit only)

  • Windows XP on Xen (32-bit and 64-bit)

  • Windows 2008 R2 on Xen

  • Windows 7 on Xen

Paravirtualized device drivers for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 are also available.

The Driver Pack also contains an installation wizard, documentation and an End User License Agreement (EULA). The Driver Pack is only available electronically. Customers purchasing the Driver Pack will receive an e-mail directing them to a secure site where they can download the bundle.

Important: Paravirtualized drivers for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server are available, but not included in this Driver Pack. These drivers are distributed under an open source license and included in both physical and electronic media of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and corresponding Customer Center update channels.

Customers with a valid SUSE Linux Enterprise Server subscription are automatically entitled to maintenance and support for these paravirtualized drivers. The support terms and conditions for the drivers are inherited from the customer's underlying SUSE Linux Enterprise Server subscription.


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