Virtio is a virtualization standard for network and disk device drivers where just the droplet's device driver "knows" it is running in a virtual environment, and cooperates with the hypervisor. This enables droplets to get high performance network and disk operations, and gives most of the performance benefits of paravirtualization.

TL;DR: VirtIO is a better virtualization driver that enables better network/disk performance.

I have a question, if i am using VirtIO, ¿this has an impact on my billing?

Thanks.

csalinas, enabling VirtIO does not incur any extra charges. We recommend enabling it :]

So is there any penalty or side effect using VirtIO? I mean is there any reason to not select the VirtIO on droplet creation?

Thanks.

VirtIO doesn't have any side effects. You should enable it unless you have a valid reason not to. :]

How to enable VirtIO in old droplets ?

@Sabbir: Please open up a support ticket so we can enable VirtIO on your old droplets.

Is there any way to know if i have VirtIO activated in my droplet? Thanks!

@marana: Run the following command to check if VirtIO is enabled.

[[ `df | grep '/dev/vda' | wc -l` -ne 0 ]] && echo 'enabled'

What are the valid reasons not to enable it?

I would like to know that too, when should i NOT enable VirtIO?

VirtIO doesn't have any side effects usually. You should enable it unless you have a valid reason not to (which is usually rare). :]

Can you provide any specific examples where VirtIO should be disabled?

You might need to disable VirtIO if you're using a program that's not compatible with it. Usually you're fine with VirtIO enabled.

I think VirtIO is interfering with my php uploads. I find it impossible to upload larger files. I have made all of the required changes to php.ini but still not luck. I have tried using nginx and apache. VirtIO seems to be the last variable to eliminate.