The Advanced Settings section in mPanel allows modification of some of the internal settings of your cloud server. Any modifications to advanced settings requires a server reboot to apply, so be sure to select an appropriate time for a short outage.


Normally there is no requirement to touch any of these settings: if you do not have any issues with your server we recommend that you do not alter any advanced settings.


This document describes what settings are available and what they do.


Processor Model

The "Processor Model" determines the level of host CPU functionality exposed to your cloud server's virtual processor. In other words, it determines the CPU flags - and thus advanced processor features - available for use. It does *not* change the physical processor that your server is running on. 


The default setting is "Automatic", and is recommended for most scenarios. When set to "Automatic", your server will use the best processor model that is compatible with your host node. This provides all available features.


By selecting "Customise..." you may select a specific processor definition that is supported by your host node. This will reduce the available functionality and prevent additional features from being added in the future. This is likely only useful when using licensed software that is tied to a specific CPU type, or software that misbehaves when exposed to newer processor functionality.


Video card

The video card option determines what type of graphics card is emulated.  Note that whichever option is selected, neither is a "real" graphics card and the performance is relatively poor.  The video card is used purely for rendering the rescue console from within mPanel.  There are two options:

  • Standard VGA with VESA extensions. This is the more capable of the two options in terms of resolution and bit-depth, so it is preferable if your operating system has good support for it.
  • Cirrus Logic GD5446: This is an emulatation of a very old video card. It is less capable than the first option, but due to its age is well supported by older or more esoteric operating systems. 


There is no difference in terms of performance; the only reason to change this option is if your operating system is having issues with the current selection.


HyperV Extensions

HyperV is a hypervisor produced by Microsoft; the KVM hypervisor that BinaryLane uses implements some of its functionality to improve performance for Windows servers.  We pre-enable this for all our Windows servers that support it; for other operating systems it defaults to off and there is likely no reason to enable it.


Emulated Devices

When emulated devices is enabled, the KVM specific "VirtIO" disk drive and network devices are removed, and replaced with emulated versions of physical hardware: an old IDE HDD and an Intel E1000 network card.  Emulated devices are much slower than the VirtIO devices, and so this option should not be enabled unless absolutely necessary.


For all our operating system images except the "BYO Operating System (with virtio disabled)", this option is disabled and should remain left off.


Nested Virtualization

When this option is enabled, the functionality necessary to run your own KVM guests within your server is enabled. This would allow you to install and operate ProxMox for example. Nested Virtualization is disabled by default.


Note that all the BinaryLane networking limits - one MAC address per VPS, restricted to specific IPs -  still apply to public cloud so this is feature is generally only useful in combination with Virtual Private Cloud.


Windows driver CD

When this option is enabled, a copy of the KVM driver disc for Windows ("virtio-win.iso") will be attached to your server as a virtual CD. If access the Windows recovery environment,  This option can also be used in combination with your own attached backup when installing Windows.


BIOS UUID

When this option is enabled, a 128-bit unique identifier is exposed to your server through the virtual BIOS. Each BinaryLane server receives a different UUID. Some propriety licensed software utilise this identifier to "tie" the license to a specific server.


Real-time Clock

When a BinaryLane server is booted, the virtual BIOS receives the current date and time from the host node. The BIOS does not have an explicit timezone, so the timezone used is implicit and must be understood by the operating system. Most operating systems other than Windows expect the time to be UTC since it allows the operating system to control the timezone used when displaying the time.


BinaryLane's Windows installations have also been customized to use UTC, but when using your own installation of Windows this should be set to the host node's local timezone.


Machine Type

This option controls the KVM "machine type" that is used when running your server, which corresponds to the KVM version in use.  The default value is "Automatic" which selects the latest available version. As with processor model, generally the only reason to explicitly select a value is when using licensed software that is tied to a specific machine type, or software that misbehaves when exposed to newer functionality.