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Oracle VM: Comparison/Conversion between Guest Virtualisation Modes: HVM, PVM and HVM with PV Drivers (Doc ID 757719.1)

Last updated on MAY 09, 2024

Applies to:

Private Cloud Appliance X8-2 - Version All Versions and later
Oracle VM - Version 2.1 to 3.4.1 [Release OVM21 to OVM34]
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure - Version N/A and later
Linux x86-64
Linux x86

Goal

The purpose of this article is to:

The article is intended for both Oracle VM and Linux System Administrators

Solution

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In this Document
Goal
Solution
 1. Oracle VM Virtualisation Modes
 1A. Hardware Virtualised (HVM)
 1B. Paravirtualised (PVM)
 1C. Hardware Virtualised (HVM) with Paravirtualised (PV) Drivers (HVM+PV)
 2. Supported Guest Operating Systems and Permissible Virtualisation Modes
 2.1 Special note regarding Oracle Linux
 2.2 Special note regarding Oracle Solaris
 3. Virtualisation Mode Hardware Requirements
 3A. HVM Requirements
 3B. PVM Requirements
 3C. HVM+PV Requirements
 4. Virtualisation Modes - Advantages & Disadvantages
 4A. HVM Advantages & Disadvantages
 4B. PVM Advantages & Disadvantages
 4C. HVM+PV Advantages & Disadvantages
 5. Virtualisation Mode Validation
 5A. HVM Mode Validation
 5B. PVM Mode Validation
 5C. HVM+PV Mode Validation
 6. Legacy Oracle Linux Kernel Information
 6A. HVM
 6B. PVM
 6C. HVM+PV
 7. Conversion from One Virtualisation Mode to Another
 7A. Oracle VM 2.x: Oracle Linux Legacy guest VM Conversion from HVM to HVM+PV (applicable to < OL4U7, < OL5U3 only)
 7A1. Backup the guest
 7A2. Install kmod-xenpv and modversions/module-init-tools
 7A3 Modify /etc/modprobe.conf to use PV Drivers
 7A4. Create Initial Ramdisk (initrd) with PV Drivers
 7A5. Modify /boot/grub/grub.conf
 7A6. Configure 'xm console' access to guest
 7A7. Shutdown the guest
 7A8. Reconfigure the guest configuration file (vm.cfg)
 7A9. Restart the guest
 8. Virtualisation Mode Testing and Selection
 A. Appendix
 A1. Sample Oracle Linux HVM Guest Configuration
 A2. Sample Oracle Linux PVM Guest Configuration
 A3. Sample Oracle Linux HVM+PV Guest Configuration
References

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