Linux KVM vs. HandelSpielVM Virtualization

The PostgreSQL benchmark was faster with Linux KVM on the Sandy Bridge notebook, which is backed by a powerful Intel SSD. With the Core i7 870 notebook and its hard drive, HandelSpielVM was significantly faster. However, it was too fast and was even faster than the SSD laptop. It looks like HandelSpielVM is not respecting sync/fsync calls by default.

For the PostMark mail server disk benchmark, KVM was much faster on the SSD laptop while the HDD system performed about the same under both solutions.

For the POVRay and Smallpt benchmarks the performance was close.