AMD ARG "AMD Root Guest" Linux Patches Coming In 2027

A new feature of EPYC 9006 "Venice" server processors that isn't yet brought up in the public Linux software support is AMD Root Guest (ARG). The initial patches are expected in Q1'2027 for further enhancing the AMD SEV-SNP confidential computing experience. This week at the KVM Forum 2026 that took place in Vancouver, Canada, was a presentation on the AMD Root Guest functionality. Until that presentation I hadn't seen AMD Root Guest mentioned elsewhere though searching after the fact shows AMD last week also published their AMD Root Guest (ARG) technical whitepaper. Given the timing, it appears all aligned with the EPYC 9006 Venice series. AMD Root Guest aims to help improve the live migration experience for SEV-SNP protected guest virtual machines without needing any changes to the guest VM image or the guest OS. ARG extends SNP capabilities to support additional platform services. David Kaplan and Tom Lendacky of AMD presented on the AMD Root Guest architecture at the KVM Forum. ARG amounts to a signed SEV-SNP VM with elevated privileges and roof of trust with only one active ARG per system. The Linux enablement of ARG is still underway with the implementation still being prototyped and no public patches yet. AMD anticipates the initial ARG Linux patches will be out around Q1-2027. After that we'll see how many rounds of review are required before getting this AMD Root Guest support in the mainline kernel for easing live migration and other functionality within AMD confidential computing guest VMs backed by SEV-SNP on EPYC Venice. The KVM Forum presentation is embedded below.