13.3. Installation and Configuration of Para-virtualized Drivers

13.3. Installation and Configuration of Para-virtualized Drivers

The following three chapters describe how to install and configure your fully virtualized guests to run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1 or above with para-virtualized drivers.

Verify your architecture is supported before proceeding

Para-virtualized drivers are only supported on certain hardware and version combinations. Verify your hardware and operating system requirements are met before proceeding to install para-virtualized drivers.

Maximizing the benefit of the para-virtualized drivers for new installations

If you are installing a new guest system, in order to gain maximal benefit from the para-virtualized block device drivers, you should create the guest with at least two disks.

Specifically, use the first disk to install the MBR and the boot loader (GRUB), and to contain the /boot partition. (This disk can be very small, as it only needs to have enough capacity to hold the /boot partition.

Use the second disk and any additional disks for all other partitions (e.g. /, /usr) or logical volumes.

Using this installation method, when the para-virtualized block device drivers are later installed after completing the install of the guest, only booting the guest and accessing the /boot partition will use the virtualized block device drivers.


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