| 1 | <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
|
|---|
| 2 | <!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN" "topic.dtd">
|
|---|
| 3 | <topic xml:lang="en-us" id="nichardware">
|
|---|
| 4 | <title>Virtual Networking Hardware</title>
|
|---|
| 5 |
|
|---|
| 6 | <body>
|
|---|
| 7 | <p>For each card, you can individually select what kind of <i>hardware</i> will be presented to the virtual machine.
|
|---|
| 8 | <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> can virtualize the following types of networking hardware: </p>
|
|---|
| 9 | <ul>
|
|---|
| 10 | <li>
|
|---|
| 11 | <p>AMD PCNet PCI II (Am79C970A) Not available on Arm guests.</p>
|
|---|
| 12 | </li>
|
|---|
| 13 | <li>
|
|---|
| 14 | <p>AMD PCNet FAST III (Am79C973), the default setting on x86 guests. Not available on Arm guests.</p>
|
|---|
| 15 | </li>
|
|---|
| 16 | <li>
|
|---|
| 17 | <p>Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop (82540EM)</p>
|
|---|
| 18 | </li>
|
|---|
| 19 | <li>
|
|---|
| 20 | <p>Intel PRO/1000 T Server (82543GC)</p>
|
|---|
| 21 | </li>
|
|---|
| 22 | <li>
|
|---|
| 23 | <p>Intel PRO/1000 MT Server (82545EM)</p>
|
|---|
| 24 | </li>
|
|---|
| 25 | <li>
|
|---|
| 26 | <p>Paravirtualized network adapter (virtio-net)</p>
|
|---|
| 27 | </li>
|
|---|
| 28 | <li>
|
|---|
| 29 | <p>Ethernet over USB network adapter (usbnet)</p>
|
|---|
| 30 | </li>
|
|---|
| 31 | </ul>
|
|---|
| 32 | <p>The PCNet FAST III is the default because it is supported by nearly all operating systems, as well as by the GNU
|
|---|
| 33 | GRUB boot manager. As an exception, the Intel PRO/1000 family adapters are chosen for some guest operating system
|
|---|
| 34 | types that no longer ship with drivers for the PCNet card, such as Windows Vista. </p>
|
|---|
| 35 | <p>The Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop type works with Windows Vista and later versions. The T Server variant of the Intel
|
|---|
| 36 | PRO/1000 card is recognized by Windows XP guests without additional driver installation. The MT Server variant
|
|---|
| 37 | facilitates OVF imports from other platforms. </p>
|
|---|
| 38 | <p>The Paravirtualized network adapter (virtio-net) is special. If you select this adapter, then <ph
|
|---|
| 39 | conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> does <i>not</i> virtualize common networking hardware that is
|
|---|
| 40 | supported by common guest operating systems. Instead, <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>
|
|---|
| 41 | expects a special software interface for virtualized environments to be provided by the guest, thus avoiding the
|
|---|
| 42 | complexity of emulating networking hardware and improving network performance. <ph
|
|---|
| 43 | conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> provides support for the industry-standard <i>virtio</i>
|
|---|
| 44 | networking drivers, which are part of the open source KVM project. </p>
|
|---|
| 45 | <p>The virtio networking drivers are available for the following guest operating systems: </p>
|
|---|
| 46 | <ul>
|
|---|
| 47 | <li>
|
|---|
| 48 | <p>Linux kernels version 2.6.25 or later can be configured to provide virtio support. Some distributions have
|
|---|
| 49 | also back-ported virtio to older kernels. </p>
|
|---|
| 50 | </li>
|
|---|
| 51 | <li>
|
|---|
| 52 | <p>For Windows 2000, XP, and Vista, virtio drivers can be downloaded and installed from the KVM project web
|
|---|
| 53 | page: </p>
|
|---|
| 54 | <p><ph>http://www.linux-kvm.org/page/WindowsGuestDrivers</ph>.
|
|---|
| 55 | </p>
|
|---|
| 56 | </li>
|
|---|
| 57 | </ul>
|
|---|
| 58 | <p><ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> also has limited support for <i>jumbo frames</i>. These are
|
|---|
| 59 | networking packets with more than 1500 bytes of data, provided that you use the Intel card virtualization and
|
|---|
| 60 | bridged networking. Jumbo frames are not supported with the AMD networking devices. In those cases, jumbo packets
|
|---|
| 61 | will silently be dropped for both the transmit and the receive direction. Guest operating systems trying to use
|
|---|
| 62 | this feature will observe this as a packet loss, which may lead to unexpected application behavior in the guest.
|
|---|
| 63 | This does not cause problems with guest operating systems in their default configuration, as jumbo frames need to
|
|---|
| 64 | be explicitly enabled. </p>
|
|---|
| 65 | </body>
|
|---|
| 66 |
|
|---|
| 67 | </topic>
|
|---|
