KVM virtio disk drivers for Windows SVR 2016?

Solution 1:

This is how I install Windows on KVM with proper virtio storage drivers for best performance.

This example uses Server 2019, but the process is virtually identical for previous versions of Windows back to 2008/Vista.

First, create the VM.

Select your ISO image and your edition of Windows.

Select to customize the VM before install.

Select the Q35 chipset. It is the default now, but older versions of virt-manager default to I440FX.

You could begin the installation now with SATA drives and no virtio storage drivers, but performance will be poor.

Change the disk bus to SCSI.

Click Add Hardware. Select Controller on the left. On current virt-manager versions, SCSI and VirtIO SCSI will be preselected. On old versions, select them yourself. Then click Finish.

Click Add Hardware. Add the virtio-win ISO image as an SATA CDROM. Then click Finish.

Now you can click Begin installation. Windows installation starts.

There is no disk shown. Click Load Driver.

Click Browse.

Select the virtio-win ISO image and expand it using the arrow.

Select the folder named vioscsi and expand it using the arrow.

Select the folder named for your Windows edition, then the folder named amd64 (or x86 if you are installing 32-bit Windows). Use win2k16 for both Server 2016 and Server 2019 until a future virtio-win update provides a win2k19 build. Then click OK.

The Red Hat VirtIO SCSI pass-through controller driver appears. Click Next.

The virtual disk now appears. Click Next.

The Windows installation begins. Wait for it to finish.

Installation is finished and Windows is ready to use.