Server Processors

[fred_filozof]

Hi,

I would like to ask if anybody has experiance with kvm/qemu/libvirt virtualization with the following processors:

    "AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1920X"

    "AMD Ryzen 7 2700X"

Do the aforementioned processors support the following features or rather their AMD's equivalents?

    VT-d (I/O MMU virtualization)

    VT-x (Virtualization)

    VT-x with Extended Page Tables (EPT)

How is it performing? Maybe some issues noticed?

It's going to be used for quite large virtualization environment (home lab but used intensively). Dozen or more simultenous guest going to be a norm.

Intended guests: Linux and Windows

I do not overclock, I do not game. The CPU I look for must just reliably virtualize guests and do not make troubles;-)

Last question: do these processors support VmWare ESXi 6.7?

Regards,

Jan

[Anonymous]

Hi fred.filozof,

Below is a table that lists AMD's equivalent technologies to the ones you highlighted as being interested in.

AMD	Intel
AMD-Vi (IOMMU)	VT-d (I/O MMU virtualization)
AMD-V (Virtualization)	VT-x (Virtualization)
Rapid Virtualization Indexing (RVI)	Extended Page Tables (EPT)

These features are included on all Zen based processors which are included in the two you highlighted.

VMware ESXi 6.7 is only officially supported on our AMD EPYC processors, I would recommend that you reach out to them to determine if the functionality you require is supported on our AMD Threadripper or AMD Ryzen processors. Additionally, if you are using a NIC faster than 25GbE I would also recommend that you look at one of our technical documents here to help you optimize your NIC for best performance on VMware ESXi.

[fred_filozof]

Hi jesse_amd,

Thank you for the answer.
KVM is of crucial importance as it traditionally outpaced ESXi in terms of performance (especially IO) and is going to be the primary hypervisor.

Sadly, it seems Threadripper has some issues with Nested Pages Table when used with KVM.

Regards,

Jan

[akulbe]

Is this still the case in 2022? or can you do nested virt with KVM on a modern ThreadRipper Pro?