Installation guide

Chapter 8. Virtualizing Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Other
Platforms
This chapter contains useful reference material for customers running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 as
a virtualized operating system on other virtualization hosts.
8.1. On VMware ESX
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0 and onward provide the vmw_bal l o on driver, a para-virtualized
memory ballooning driver used when running Red Hat Enterprise Linux on VMware hosts. For further
information about this driver, refer to http://kb.VMware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?
cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=1002586.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3 and onward provide the vmmo use_d rv driver, a para-virtualized mouse
driver used when running Red Hat Enterprise Linux on VMware hosts. For further information about
this driver, refer to http://kb.VMware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?
cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=5739104.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3 and onward provide the vmware_d rv driver, a para-virtualized video
driver used when running Red Hat Enterprise Linux on VMware hosts. For further information about
this driver, refer to http://kb.VMware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?
cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=1033557.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.3 and onward provide the vmxnet3 driver, a para-virtualized network
adapter used when running Red Hat Enterprise Linux on VMware hosts. For further information about
this driver, refer to http://kb.VMware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?
language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1001805.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.4 and onward provide the vmw_pvscsi driver, a para-virtualized SCSI
adapter used when running Red Hat Enterprise Linux on VMware hosts. For further information about
this driver, refer to http://kb.VMware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?
language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1010398.
8.2. On Hyper-V
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.4 and onward ships with Microsoft's Linux Integration Services, a set of
drivers that enable synthetic device support in supported virtualized operating systems. Further
details about the drivers provided are available from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/dn531030.aspx.
The following enhancements have been made to allow for easier deployment and management of
Red Hat Enterprise Linux guest virtual machines:
Upgraded VMBUS protocols - VMBUS protocols have been upgraded to Windows 8 level. As part
of this work, now VMBUS interrupts can be processed on all available virtual CPUs in the guest.
Furthermore, the signaling protocol between the Red Hat Enterprise Linux guest virtual machine
and the Windows host physical machine has been optimized.
Synthetic frame buffer driver - Provides enhanced graphics performance and superior resolution
for Red Hat Enterprise Linux desktop users.
Live Virtual Machine Backup support - Provisions uninterrupted backup support for live Red Hat
Enterprise Linux guest virtual machines.
⁠Chapt er 8 . Virt ualizing Red Hat Ent erprise Linux on O t h er Plat fo rms
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