Filename	MD5 Checksum	SHA1 Checksum
VMDP-WIN-2.5.1.exe	7163f60daff8606b4a649cb22636a197	06843ca155b898ce91a955fb1c868748f159e366
VMDP-WIN-2.5.1_virtio.iso	6ec3f3473227721f421f84d936361e8d	db88f4a4dc0c9d43fad427576ea29c7a5f0f6ab4
VMDP-WIN-2.5.1.iso	4cdb1a14136986178595ec454c365398	28205870cb950a269e7aca9679eed5eef8814d78

SUSE® Linux Enterprise Virtual Machine Driver Pack (SLE VMDP) contains disk, network, and balloon device drivers for Microsoft Windows Operating Systems that enable the high performance hosting of the unmodified guests on top of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 (SLES 11) SP4 or later, though the recommended host is SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 (SLES 12) or later. In order to use these paravirtualized drivers, the underlying hardware must be Intel* Virtualization Technology (Intel-VT) or AMD Virtualization (AMD-V) enabled. The guest Operating Systems supported by this driver pack are:

• Microsoft Windows Server 2016 or later (WHQL certified)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 or later (WHQL certified)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2012 or later (WHQL certified)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 or later (WHQL certified)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 SP2 or later(WHQL certified)
• Microsoft Windows 10 or later
• Microsoft Windows 8.1 or later
• Microsoft Windows 8 or later

Note: Customers can now download the latest versions of these drivers directly from the Novell download site. Relevant subscription is necessary for support and maintenance requests of SLE VMDP.

Virtualization allows the consolidation of Windows and Linux workloads on newer, more powerful, energy-efficient hardware while promoting effective utilization of unused capacity, quick recovery from datacenter disaster and significant reduction of costs. While the paravirtualized flavor of a guest OS is aware of the underlying virtualization platform, and can therefore interact efficiently with the network and block devices, the situation is less promising for a full-virtualized guest OS (a.k.a HVM guest). Thus, unmodified operating systems such as Windows are unaware of the virtualization platform and expect to interact directly with the hardware. Because this is not possible when consolidating servers, the hardware must be emulated for the operating system. Emulation can be slow, but it is especially troubling for high-throughput disk and network subsystems, resulting in considerable performance loss.

The device drivers in SLE VMDP bring many of the performance advantages of paravirtualized operating systems to unmodified operating systems because only the paravirtualized device driver (not the rest of the operating system) is aware of the virtualization platform. For example, a paravirtualized disk appears as a normal, physical disk to the operating system. However, the disk device driver interacts directly with the virtualization platform (with no emulation) to efficiently deliver disk access, allowing the disk and network subsystems to operate at near native speeds in a virtualized environment, without requiring changes to existing operating systems.

SLE VMDP also includes memory ballooning capabilities. Memory ballooning allows the memory available to a virtual machine to shrink and expand within the range specified by the virtual machine's configuration parameters.

For Systems Requirements, click on this link.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Virtual Machine Driver Pack

The SUSE® Linux Enterprise Virtual Machine Driver Pack (VMDP) is available in the following formats:

• A Windows* self-extracting zip file. (VMDP-WIN-[version].exe)
• An ISO image containing the extracted installation sources. (VMDP-WIN-[version].iso)
• An OEM ISO disk for use during installations of Windows* 2008 and newer VMs running on KVM. (VMDP-WIN-[version]_virtio.iso)

Prerequisites

1. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11 SP2 or later, or SLES 12 GA or later
2. Fully virtualized Windows virtual machines

Installation instructions for existing KVM and Xen virtual machines

1. Create the VMDP installation sources within the virtual machine (VM) using one of the following methods:
   1. Download and execute the self-extracting Windows VMDP-WIN-[version].exe file in a temporary directory within the VM.

   --OR--

   2. Connect the VMDP-WIN-[version].iso file as a virtual CD-Rom to the VM.
2. Launch setup.exe from the root of the extracted VMDP installation directory, or the root of the virtual CD-Rom.
3. Accept the EULA and follow the prompts to complete the driver installation.
4. Reboot the VM when prompted by the installation program.

Additional KVM VirtIO setup and configuration instructions

virtio devices

The VMDP setup program can be run with and without VirtIO devices present in the VM. If VirtIO devices are present during setup, the VirtIO drivers are installed and loaded at that time. If no VirtIO devices are present when setup is run, shutdown the VM, add the VirtIO devices, and start the VM. Once booted, Windows will discover the new VirtIO devices and load the previously installed drivers.

To boot a running VM on a VirtIO/VirtIO SCSI disk, the corresponding VMDP disk driver must be installed for a secondary/temporary (e:) VirtIO/VirtIO SCSI disk. After the driver is installed and controlling the disk, shutdown the VM. From virt-manager, delete the secondary disk and delete the original IDE boot disk. Create a new disk of type VirtIO or VirtIO SCSI (the same type as the previously deleted secondary disk) and point to the location of the original boot disk. Start the VM. The VMDP driver will now be controlling the boot disk.

NOTE: Failure to install a VMDP disk driver on a secondary disk before changing the boot disk to a VirtIO or VirtIO SCSI disk may cause the VM to crash with bug check 0x7b, inaccessible boot disk.

qemu guest agent

The VMDP setup program is also used to install the qemu guest agent service for Windows when invoked with the /qemu-ga command line parameter. The qemu guest agent requires the VM to be equipped with the qemu guest agent channel. If the qemu guest agent channel is not assigned to the VM, the qemu guest agent can be installed, but will not load. If the qemu guest agent tries to load without the channel assigned to the VM, errors will be written to the event log.

memory statistics

The pvvxsvc service can report VM memory statistics to the host via the virtio balloon driver. By default, memory statistics reporting is disabled. The capability can be enabled during setup with the /enable_mem_stats command line parameter or with the -mp pvvxsvc command line parameter. The periodicity of the statistics reporting can be managed with the -mp pvvxsvc parameter. A value greater than 0 enables and sets the period to that value. A value of 0 disables reporting. For example, a period of 5 seconds can be achieved with the command, pvvxsvc -mp 5. Memory statistics reporting can be disabled with the command, pvvxsvc -mp 0.

For the host to receive the memory statistics, memory statistics reception must also be enabled. Use the virsh dommemstat --period to enable or disable statistics collection. The command virsh dommemstat will display the latest collected values.

.iso instructions for VirtIO Boot Disk installation at VM creation

Note This method is only used for VMs running on KVM and is used to install the VirtIO/VirtIO SCSI disk driver on the boot disk while the VM is being installed.

A Windows* VM may attach the VMDP iso. The ISO contains the VMDP VirtIO/VirtIO SCSI disk drivers for Windows* 2008 and newer. It also includes the VMDP exe that contains all the Windows VirtIO and Xen drivers.

1. See instructions on creating VMs for attaching ISOs as well as setting the boot disk as a VirtIO disk or VirtIO SCSI disk.
2. Add the iso to the VM configuration. Use the iso for Windows* 2008 and newer.
3. Set the boot disk to be of type VirtIO or VirtIO SCSI.
4. Finish all other VM configuration options.
5. Start the VM installation.
6. On the “Where do you want to install Windows” screen, select “Load driver” and follow the prompts. This will allow the VMDP VirtIO/VirtIO SCSI disk driver to be installed for the boot disk.
7. Continue the Windows installation.
8. After the VM is completely installed, the additional VirtIO drivers can be installed by copying the .exe from the iso onto the VM's disk and performing a normal .exe installation.

Additional Xen setup instructions

Setup and the /boot_vscsi option: The Xen VMDP SCSI driver is capable of controlling a physical SCSI disk such as /dev/sdb. To run the VMDP SCSI driver on the boot disk, use setup /boot_vscsi. If the /boot_vscsi option is not used in conjunction with setup, pvctrlw.exe can be used later to indicate that the VMDP SCSI driver should control the boot disk. Before using the /boot_vscsi option or pvctrlw.exe, the VM's config file must already contain the necessary SCSI information for the boot disk: the disk line needs to reference the physical disk e.g. disk=['phy:/dev/sdb,...'] and there must be a vscsi= line that corresponds to the physical disk. SCSI devices and disks, other than the boot disk, that are to be controlled by the VMDP SCSI driver are not placed in the disk= line but are only referenced in the vscsi= line.

For information on known issues for this release, see the README file within the archive, or consult the SUSE Linux Enterprise Virtual Machine Driver Pack Guides.

Legal notices

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