64 lines
3.6 KiB
XML
64 lines
3.6 KiB
XML
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
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<!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN" "topic.dtd">
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<topic xml:lang="en-us" id="nichardware">
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<title>Virtual Networking Hardware</title>
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<body>
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<p>For each card, you can individually select what kind of <i>hardware</i> will be presented to the virtual machine.
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<ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> can virtualize the following types of networking hardware: </p>
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<ul>
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<li>
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<p>AMD PCNet PCI II (Am79C970A) Not available on Arm guests.</p>
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</li>
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<li>
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<p>AMD PCNet FAST III (Am79C973), the default setting on x86 guests. Not available on Arm guests.</p>
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</li>
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<li>
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<p>Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop (82540EM) </p>
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</li>
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<li>
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<p>Intel PRO/1000 T Server (82543GC) </p>
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</li>
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<li>
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<p>Intel PRO/1000 MT Server (82545EM) </p>
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</li>
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<li>
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<p>Paravirtualized network adapter (virtio-net) </p>
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p>The PCNet FAST III is the default because it is supported by nearly all operating systems, as well as by the GNU
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GRUB boot manager. As an exception, the Intel PRO/1000 family adapters are chosen for some guest operating system
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types that no longer ship with drivers for the PCNet card, such as Windows Vista. </p>
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<p>The Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop type works with Windows Vista and later versions. The T Server variant of the Intel
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PRO/1000 card is recognized by Windows XP guests without additional driver installation. The MT Server variant
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facilitates OVF imports from other platforms. </p>
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<p>The Paravirtualized network adapter (virtio-net) is special. If you select this adapter, then <ph
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conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> does <i>not</i> virtualize common networking hardware that is
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supported by common guest operating systems. Instead, <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>
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expects a special software interface for virtualized environments to be provided by the guest, thus avoiding the
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complexity of emulating networking hardware and improving network performance. <ph
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conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> provides support for the industry-standard <i>virtio</i>
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networking drivers, which are part of the open source KVM project. </p>
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<p>The virtio networking drivers are available for the following guest operating systems: </p>
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<ul>
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<li>
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<p>Linux kernels version 2.6.25 or later can be configured to provide virtio support. Some distributions have
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also back-ported virtio to older kernels. </p>
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</li>
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<li>
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<p>For Windows 2000, XP, and Vista, virtio drivers can be downloaded and installed from the KVM project web
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page: </p>
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<p><ph>http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/WindowsGuestDrivers</ph>.
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</p>
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p><ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> also has limited support for <i>jumbo frames</i>. These are
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networking packets with more than 1500 bytes of data, provided that you use the Intel card virtualization and
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bridged networking. Jumbo frames are not supported with the AMD networking devices. In those cases, jumbo packets
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will silently be dropped for both the transmit and the receive direction. Guest operating systems trying to use
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this feature will observe this as a packet loss, which may lead to unexpected application behavior in the guest.
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This does not cause problems with guest operating systems in their default configuration, as jumbo frames need to
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be explicitly enabled. </p>
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</body>
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</topic>
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