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I'm being told that only Servers support VM. Desktop models do not. What if the hardware characteristic so that I know if box supports real VM?

In this CentOS wiki: http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/KVM It explains that this test must be done to determine if KVM can be run:

egrep '(vmx|svm)' --color=always /proc/cpuinfo

If you get back results with vmx, then you have an Intel processor. If you get back results with svm, then you have an AMD processor. If you receive a null return, then your processor is not built for hardware supported full virtualization. The xen approach, used in the CentOS 5 series, supports para virtualization.

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    Server and Desktop models of what? It's not clear what you're referring to. Most computers manufactured in the last five years or so can do virtualization, whether they are servers or desktops or even laptops.
    – Michael Hampton
    May 10, 2014 at 19:24
  • But what is the hardware feature which allows it to do VM while others not?
    – Edward_178118
    May 10, 2014 at 19:33
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    It's the feature you noted in your question.
    – Michael Hampton
    May 10, 2014 at 19:33
  • So the answer is: Unless it is Intel or AMD processor, it won't support VM? But it doesn't explain which models of those products and what hardware feature is required to support VM.
    – Edward_178118
    May 10, 2014 at 19:35

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You have been incorrectly advised. Looking at "Intel" CPU's - most Intel i5/i7 systems and newer I3 systems support KVM virtualization - even laptops. As the manuals say, if the check you quoted confirms the Virtualization flag, the device supports virtualization. A list can be found here.

As others have indicated, the distinction between a server and workstation is somewhat arbitrary as well - and very often the identical motherboard - and often CPU - is used in a server and workstation.

Also, while this flag is required for KVM, there are other virtualization solutions which will work even in the absence of this these hardware bits - for example XEN and Virtualbox spring to mind. In fact, Virtualbox is very often touted as a solution to run Windows under a Linux environment.

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Certain processors support various extensions which enable more efficient virtualization. Some virtualization software requires the extensions, others do not, and still other are somewhere in-between.

Whatever your intended purpose, check the requirements of your virtualization platform as well as the recommendations and plan your buying decisions based on those requirements.

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  • What in the hardware specs would tell me it does or does not support VM? For example, I'm looking at Dell products. They sell a VM package, but what doesn't tell me those that don't offer the VM software package won't run VM.
    – Edward_178118
    May 10, 2014 at 19:39
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    The Processor mainly (though some of this extends to the PCIe bridge logic). You'd have to figure out which processor extensions are required, such as Intel's VT-x (aka "vmx") and EPT, AMD's AMD-V (aka "svm") and RVI. But might also include GVT-d, GVT-g, GVT-s, AMD-Vi, VT-d, VT-c, VMDQ, ATS, SR-IOV, or MR-IOV. That pile of alphbet soup is why you need to consult the requirements of your particular virtualization platform and peripheral hardware.
    – Chris S
    May 10, 2014 at 19:47
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    Its pretty simple - at least for Intel products. Find the exact processor model, go to ark.intel.com and search for it. Check that the processor has support for "Intel Virtualization Technology". (There are extensions to this, you don't need to worry about those, just VT-x). I'd imagine AMD have a similar site for their products, but I've not used AMD processors for a long time so maybe someone else can advise
    – davidgo
    May 10, 2014 at 21:48

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