Before you configure an STS NIC using VMware Telco Cloud Automation, follow these prerequisites.

  1. Use the following recommended firmware and driver versions or later for STS cards:

    Firmware

    4.01 0x80014757 1.3256.0

    ESXi driver

    Icen 1.9.5

    ice (PCI Passthrough)

    1.9.11

    iavf

    4.5.3

    tsyncd

    2.1.2.11

  2. Enable SR-IOV in the BIOS settings of the ESXi host:

    1. Navigate to BIOS > Advanced > PCIe/PCI/PnP Configuration in the ESXi host.

    2. Enable the global SR-IOV Support.


      Enable SR-IOV in BIOS of ESXi Host

  3. Configure port bifurcation on the ESXi host, if you are using STS4 cards that have 8 x 10G ports and 4 x 25G ports:

    Note:

    For STS4 cards with 8 x 10G ports and 4 x 25G ports, port bifurcation is required to view all the ports. You must insert the STS4 card into a PCI slot that support x8x8 bifurcation.

    For STS2 cards with 8 x 10G ports, port bifurcation is not required to view all the ports.

    1. Navigate to BIOS > Advanced > Chipset Configuration > North Bridge > IIO Configuration > CPU Configuration in the ESXi host.

    2. Select a PCIe port that supports bifurcation and set the port value to x8x8.

      The following illustration is for reference:


      Port Bifurcation for STS4 Card