KVM hypervisor

SMC-D via ISM pass-through performance evaluation for KVM guests on IBM Z

This study compares two network interconnect solutions for KVM guests within a CPC running on IBM Z® and IBM LinuxONE. The conventional HiperSockets technology via MacVTap is compared with a new approach that utilizes pass-through of Internal Shared Memory (ISM) devices exploiting the Shared Memory Communications – Direct Memory Access (SMC-D) protocol.

The evaluation includes latency, throughput, and processor consumption using the uperf network benchmark with request-response and streaming workloads. Additionally, the study explores the impact of tuning buffer sizes on the performance of SMC-D workloads.

Results demonstrate that SMC-D via ISM pass-through for KVM guests exhibits superior performance characteristics, surpassing HiperSockets connectivity via MacVTap in terms of latency, throughput, and processor consumption.

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SMC-D via ISM pass-through performance evaluation for KVM guests on IBM Z

Creation date
December 2023

Improving Transactional Database Workloads in KVM Guests on IBM zSystems using Huge Pages

This study describes how huge pages can improve a setup with KVM where the guest runs a transactional database workload. It also gives advice on how to set up huge pages and what needs to be considered.

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Improving Transactional Database Workloads in KVM Guests on IBM zSystems using Huge Pages

Creation date
December 2022

KVM Network Performance - Best Practices and Tuning Recommendations

This presentation provides an overview of the different networking configuration choices running KVM guests on the IBM Z platforms. It also provides tuning recommendations for the KVM host and KVM guest environment to achieve greater network performance.

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KVM Network Performance - Best Practices and Tuning Recommendations

Creation date
October 2016
Last update
September 2020

KVM Network Performance - Exploitation of IP Routing

This presentation shows how to set up network connectivity for KVM guests via Open vSwitch on IBM Z platforms using IP routing capabilities of the TCP/IP stack. It shows how to provide a complex network connectivity to a KVM guest including HiperSockets, just defined by software. It also provides a network performance comparison and recommends configurations based on the application scenario.

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KVM Network Performance - Exploitation of IP Routing

Creation date
October 2019