KB: Running AES on Virtual Machines - Support and Performance Guidance

Understanding Support for VM Deployments

Questions about running AES in a virtual machine environment commonly arise during new deployments, infrastructure upgrades, migrations, or virtualization platform changes. The primary concern is whether AES is supported on virtualized infrastructure and whether performance differs from deployments on physical hardware.

Infrastructure Factors Affect Performance

AES relies on the operating system and the resources available to it, regardless of whether it runs on physical hardware or a virtual machine. In virtualized environments, performance is influenced by factors such as CPU allocation, available memory, storage throughput, network performance, resource contention, and hypervisor configuration. Any observed performance differences are generally related to the underlying infrastructure rather than the AES application itself.

Recommended Deployment Practices

• Verify that the deployment meets all published AES operating system and hardware requirements.
• Size virtual machines appropriately for the expected workload and user activity.
• Allocate sufficient CPU, memory, storage, and network resources.
• Use high-performance storage and avoid excessive resource overcommitment.
• Validate functionality and performance after significant infrastructure or platform changes.

Validating Virtual Machine Readiness

1. Review the official AES system requirements documentation: System Requirements
2. Verify that the guest operating system is supported and that the virtual machine meets or exceeds the documented hardware requirements.
3. Confirm that adequate CPU, memory, storage performance, and network capacity have been allocated to the virtual machine.
4. Ensure that the host infrastructure can consistently provide the allocated resources and is not heavily overcommitted.
5. Verify that the underlying storage and network infrastructure can provide reliable performance for the expected workload.
6. Perform functional and performance testing in a test or staging environment before production deployment and after major infrastructure changes.

Additional Notes

• AES is supported on both physical and virtualized systems that meet the documented requirements.
• AES has no dependency on a specific hypervisor, virtualization technology, or cloud-hosted VM platform.
• This article does not certify, benchmark, or recommend specific virtualization vendors or hypervisors.
• Performance outcomes in virtualized environments depend on infrastructure design, resource allocation, and workload characteristics.
• Proper capacity planning and validation testing help reduce the risk of performance-related issues.
• Testing infrastructure changes in a non-production environment is recommended before deployment to production systems.

References

• System Requirements
• Installing the Software