Solarflare
Server
Adapter
User
Guide
Solarflare
Adapters
on
VMware
Issue
20
©
Solarflare
Communications
2017
282
The
purpose
of
this
section
is
to
highlight
adapter
driver
settings
that
affect
the
performance
metrics
described.
This
guide
covers
the
tuning
of
all
members
of
the
Solarflare
family
of
adapters.
Performance
between
adapters
should
be
identical,
with
the
exception
of
latency
measurements.
Latency
will
be
affected
by
the
type
of
physical
medium
used:
CX4,
XFP,
10GBase
‐
T
or
SFP+.
This
is
because
the
physical
media
interface
chip
(PHY)
used
on
the
adapter
can
introduce
additional
latency.
Tuning
Settings
Install
VMware
Tools
in
the
Guest
Platform
Installing
VMware
tools
will
give
greatly
improved
networking
performance
in
the
guest.
If
VMware
Tools
are
not
installed,
ESX
emulates
a
PC
‐
Lance
device
in
the
guest.
If
VMware
Tools
are
installed,
the
guest
will
see
a
virtual
adapter
of
type
vmxnet.
To
check
that
VMware
Tools
are
installed:
1
From
the
VMware
Infrastructure
Client,
power
on
the
virtual
machine
and
click
the
Summary
tab.
2
In
the
General
panel,
check
the
status
of
VMware
Tools
.
To
install
VMware
Tools:
1
Power
on
the
virtual
machine
2
From
the
Inventory
>
Virtual
Machine
menu,
select
Install/Upgrade
VMware
Tools
.
This
will
mount
a
virtual
CD
‐
ROM
in
the
guest
OS.
If
the
guest
OS
is
Windows,
it
can
autorun
the
CD
and
install
tools
(if
not,
navigate
to
the
CD
‐
ROM
device
and
run
the
setup
program
yourself).
If
the
guest
is
a
Linux
OS,
you
must
mount
the
CD,
install
the
tools,
and
configure
them.
For
example,
if
the
guest
is
Red
Hat:
#
mount
/dev/cdrom
/mnt
#
rpm
–i
/mnt/VMwareTools*.rpm
#
vmware
‐
tools
‐
config.pl
VMware
ESX
NetQueue
Solarflare
adapters
supports
VMware’s
NetQueue
technology,
which
accelerates
network
performance
in
10
Gigabit
Ethernet
virtualized
environments.
NetQueue
is
enabled
by
default
in
VMware
versions.
There
is
usually
no
reason
not
to
enable
NetQueue.
NOTE:
VMware
NetQueue
accelerates
both
receive
and
transmit
traffic.