CHANNELS
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ON THE WEB
 
 
 
 
PRINT EDITION
 
 
 
 
BZ MEDIA
 
 
 
 
ADVERTISER LINKS
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
AS OF 11/21/2008 12:22PM EST
Virtualization Caveats
Stories Columns Opinions Resources

By Andrew Binstock

May 15, 2008 —  Tempting as it might be to virtualize everything, some requirements don’t work well with virtualization. Know them beforehand. Take high-end graphics, for instance. Microsoft Vista Aero Glass has a hard time running on most VMs because its graphical requirements exceed those available in most VMs. And you can’t install video drivers into the VM to remedy that because the graphics hardware is emulated. So, if your app does fancy graphics, virtualization is not for you.

Second is high network bandwidth. Again the network adapter is virtual, so no tweaking can be done. As seen in Figure 1, you can add virtual adapters, but you can’t make them faster than they are. Nor can their aggregate throughput exceed the bandwidth of your underlying system. And if other VMs are running on the same host machine, your bandwidth is commensurately lower.

This is very much the case as well for disk I/O, USB I/O and any related I/O. It will generally slightly underperform native hardware, and you won’t be able to improve performance by swapping in a component.

In summation, for high-end video applications or systems in which I/O performance is critical, virtualization is not ideal. However, don’t make a blind decision about virtualization’s suitability. Test it first.


Related Search Term(s): Virtualization


Share this link: http://www.sdtimes.com/link/32077
 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
SUBSCRIBE TODAY!
 E-Newsletters:
  News on Mon/Thurs.  More info
  Test & QA Report  More info
  EclipseNews  
  SPTech Report  More info
 
 
 
PDF & PRINT EDITION
* Requires Resource Account!  LOGIN or SIGN UP

Download Current Issue!
ISSUE 11/15/2008 PDF

Need Back Issues?
DOWNLOAD HERE

Receive The Print Edition?
SUBSCRIBE HERE
 
REGISTER
 
GET NOTIFIED!
About all of the latest Resources
 
 
SD TIMES 100
It's time once again to
recognize the organizations
or individuals that have
demonstrated leadership in
their markets.