To enable a virtual machine to exchange data by using RDMA, you must associate the virtual machine with a PVRDMA network adapter.

Prerequisites

  • Verify that the host on which the virtual machine is running is configured for RDMA. See Configure an ESXi Host for PVRDMA.
  • Verify that the host is connected to a vSphere Distributed Switch.
  • Verify that the virtual machine uses virtual hardware version 13 or higher.
  • Verify that the guest operating system is a Linux 64-bit distribution.

Procedure

  1. Locate the virtual machine in the vSphere Web Client.
    1. Select a data center, folder, cluster, resource pool, or host and click the VMs tab.
    2. Click Virtual Machines and double-click the virtual machine from the list.
  2. Power off the virtual machine.
  3. On the Configure tab of the virtual machine, expand Settings and select VM Hardware.
  4. Click Edit and select the Virtual Hardware tab in the dialog box displaying the settings.
  5. From the New device drop-down menu, select Network and click Add.
  6. Expand the New Network section and connect the virtual machine to a distributed port group.
  7. From the Adapter type drop-down menu, select PVRDMA.
  8. Select protocol version RoCEv1 or RoCEv2 if the virtual machine uses virtual hardware version 14.
  9. Expand the Memory section, select Reserve all guest memory (All locked), and click OK.
  10. Power on the virtual machine.