Enable SR-IOV on VMware

This section describes how to enable SR-IOV on VMware. This step is optional, but it is necessary to realize the full benefit of DPDK to improve packet processing performance.

Prerequisites

This requires a specific NIC card. As of today, only the following chipset is certified by VeloCloud to work with the VCG.

• Intel 82599/82599ES
• X550 (under experimenting as this requires the latest Intel ixgbevf driver on the VCG VM and Malicious Driver Detection disabled on the ESXi host ixgbe driver)

Instructions to Enable SR-IOV

To enable SR-IOV on VMware:

1. Make sure that your NIC card supports SR-IOV. Check the VMware Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) at https://www.vmware.com/resources/compatibility/search.php?deviceCategory=io

   Brand Name: Intel

   I/O Device Type: Network

   Features: SR-IOV

   

   The following VMware KB article provides details of how to enable SR-IOV on the supported NIC: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2038739

2. Once you have a support NIC card, go to the specific VMware host, select the Configure tab, and then choose Physical adapters.

   

3. Select Edit Settings. Change Status to Enabled and specify the number of virtual functions required. This number varies by the type of NIC card.
4. Reboot the hypervisor.

   

5. If SR-IOV is successfully enabled, the number of Virtual Functions (VFs) will show under the particular NIC after ESXi reboots.