Solarflare
Server
Adapter
User
Guide
SR
‐
IOV
Virtualization
Using
KVM
Issue
20
©
Solarflare
Communications
2017
346
7.4
PF
‐
IOV
Physical
Function
I/O
Virtualization
allows
PFs
to
be
passed
to
a
VM.
Although
this
configuration
is
not
widely
used,
it
is
included
here
for
completeness.
This
mode
provides
no
advantage
over
“Network
Hostdev”
and
therefore
Solarflare
recommends
that
customers
deploy
“Network
hostdev
instead
of
PF
‐
IOV.
PF
‐
IOV
does
not
use
SR
‐
IOV
and
does
not
require
SR
‐
IOV
hardware
support.
Each
physical
port
is
partitioned
into
a
number
of
PFs
with
each
PF
passed
to
a
different
Virtual
Machine
(VM).
Each
VM
supports
a
TCP/IP
stack
and
Solarflare
adapter
driver
(sfc.ko).
This
mode
allows
switching
between
PFs
via
the
Layer
2
switch
function
configured
in
firmware.
Figure
57:
PFIOV
•
Up
to
16
PFs
and
16
MAC
addresses
are
supported
per
adapter
.
•
With
no
VLAN
configuration,
all
PFs
are
in
the
same
Ethernet
layer
2
broadcast
domain
i.e.
a
packet
broadcast
from
any
one
PF
would
be
received
by
all
other
PFs.
•
PF
VLAN
tags
can
optionally
be
assigned
when
creating
PFs
using
the
sfboot
utility.
•
The
layer
2
switch
supports
replication
of
received/transmitted
broadcast
packets
to
all
PFs
and
to
the
external
network.
•
The
layer
2
switch
supports
replication
of
received/transmitted
multicast
packets
to
all
subscribers.
•
VFs
are
not
supported
in
this
mode.