Linux KVM Virtualization Performance

Looking over the virtualization performance results, KVM was not the clear winner in all of the benchmarks. KVM had taken the lead during Gzip compression, but in the other four benchmarks it had stumbled behind Xen 3.0.3. However, both Xen with full virtualization and the Kernel-based Virtual Machine had performed in front of QEMU with the QEMU accelerator in our select benchmarks using dual Intel Xeon LV processors with Intel Virtualization Technology. The benefits of KVM are high performance, stable, no modifications of the guest operating system are necessary, and a great deal of other capabilities (e.g. using the Linux scheduler). Once the Linux 2.6.20 kernel is officially out the door we will proceed with a greater number of KVM benchmarks in various environments including looking at the hardware virtualization performance between AMD and Intel.

If you have tried out Linux KVM, be sure to share your results in the Phoronix Forums.