| 1 | <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
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| 2 | <!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN" "topic.dtd">
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| 3 | <topic xml:lang="en-us" id="gimproviders">
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| 4 | <title>Paravirtualization Providers</title>
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| 5 |
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| 6 | <body>
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| 7 | <p>
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| 8 | <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> enables the exposure of a paravirtualization
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| 9 | interface, to facilitate accurate and efficient execution of
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| 10 | software within a virtual machine. These interfaces require the
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| 11 | guest operating system to recognize their presence and make use of
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| 12 | them in order to leverage the benefits of communicating with the
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| 13 | <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> hypervisor.
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| 14 | </p>
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| 15 | <p>
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| 16 | Most modern, mainstream guest operating systems, including Windows
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| 17 | and Linux, ship with support for one or more paravirtualization
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| 18 | interfaces. Hence, there is typically no need to install
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| 19 | additional software in the guest to take advantage of this
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| 20 | feature.
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| 21 | </p>
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| 22 | <p>
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| 23 | Exposing a paravirtualization provider to the guest operating
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| 24 | system does not rely on the choice of host platforms. For example,
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| 25 | the <i>Hyper-V</i> paravirtualization provider can
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| 26 | be used for VMs to run on any host platform supported by
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| 27 | <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> and not just Windows.
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| 28 | </p>
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| 29 | <p>
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| 30 | <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> provides the following interfaces:
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| 31 | </p>
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| 32 | <ul>
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| 33 | <li>
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| 34 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Minimal</b>: Announces the
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| 35 | presence of a virtualized environment. Additionally, reports
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| 36 | the TSC and APIC frequency to the guest operating system. This
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| 37 | provider is mandatory for running any Mac OS X guests.
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| 38 | </p>
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| 39 | </li>
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| 40 | <li>
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| 41 | <p><b outputclass="bold">KVM</b>: Presents a Linux KVM
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| 42 | hypervisor interface which is recognized by Linux kernels
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| 43 | version 2.6.25 or later. <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>'s implementation
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| 44 | currently supports paravirtualized clocks and SMP spinlocks.
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| 45 | This provider is recommended for Linux guests.
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| 46 | </p>
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| 47 | </li>
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| 48 | <li>
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| 49 | <p><b outputclass="bold">Hyper-V</b>: Presents a Microsoft
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| 50 | Hyper-V hypervisor interface which is recognized by Windows 7
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| 51 | and newer operating systems. <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/>'s implementation
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| 52 | currently supports paravirtualized clocks, APIC frequency
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| 53 | reporting, guest debugging, guest crash reporting and relaxed
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| 54 | timer checks. This provider is recommended for Windows guests.
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| 55 | </p>
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| 56 | </li>
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| 57 | </ul>
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| 58 | </body>
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| 59 |
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| 60 | </topic>
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