Ikke's blog » virtualization http://eikke.com 'cause this is what I do Sun, 13 Feb 2011 14:58:55 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 Microsoft to release Linux HyperV drivers as GPLv2 http://eikke.com/microsoft-to-release-linux-hyperv-drivers-as-gplv2/ http://eikke.com/microsoft-to-release-linux-hyperv-drivers-as-gplv2/#comments Mon, 20 Jul 2009 17:37:05 +0000 Nicolas http://eikke.com/?p=116 Looks like Microsoft releases the Linux drivers to enable a Linux kernel running as a guest in a Hyper-V hypervisor to run in ‘enlightened mode’, which sounds pretty much like Xen‘s PV drivers for Windows, providing better IO performance, under the GPLv2 (which is the same open-source license as the Linux kernel itself). Quoting the Hyper-V Architecture and Feature Overview:

Enlightened I/O is a specialized virtualization-aware implementation of high level communication protocols (such as SCSI) that utilize the VMBus directly, bypassing any device emulation layer. This makes the communication more efficient but requires an enlightened guest that is hypervisor and VMBus aware.

The drivers seem to be developed by Novell, so I guess the Boycott Novell guys will have some more coverage^Wrants soon :-P (Update: can’t find the reference on this anymore, so this might be a false statement, sorry. Thanks for pointing out RubenV)

Interesting times on the virtualization front… Although I for one do not plan to replace Xen, xVM or VirtualBox anytime soon.

Sources:

On a side note: Red Hat entered the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, which might show Linux is gaining more interest from enterprises and investors.

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