
Issue 11
© Solarflare Communications 2014
1
Solarflare Server Adapter
User Guide
Chapter 1: Introduction
This is the User Guide for Solarflare® Server Adapters. This chapter covers the following topics:
• Virtual NIC Interface...Page 1
• Advanced Features and Benefits...Page 2
• Product Specifications...Page 4
• Software Driver Support on page 12
• Solarflare AppFlex™ Technology Licensing....Page 12
• Open Source Licenses...Page 13
• Support and Download...Page 14
• Regulatory Information...Page 14
• Regulatory Approval...Page 15
1.1 Virtual NIC Interface
Solarflare’s VNIC architecture provides the key to efficient server I/O and is flexible enough to be
applied to multiple server deployment scenarios. These deployment scenarios include:
•
Kernel Driver
– This deployment uses an instance of a VNIC per CPU core for standard operating
system drivers. This allows network processing to continue over multiple CPU cores in parallel.
The virtual interface provides a performance-optimized path for the kernel TCP/IP stack and
contention-free access from the driver, resulting in extremely low latency and reduced CPU
utilization.
•
Accelerated Virtual I/O
– The second deployment scenario greatly improves I/O for virtualized
platforms. The VNIC architecture can provide a VNIC per Virtual Machine, giving over a
thousand protected interfaces to the host system, granting any virtualized (guest) operating
system direct access to the network hardware. Solarflare's hybrid SR-IOV technology, unique to
Solarflare Ethernet controllers, is the only way to provide bare-metal I/O performance to
virtualized guest operating systems whilst retaining the ability to live migrate virtual machines.
•
OpenOnload
™ – The third deployment scenario aims to leverage the host CPU(s) to full
capacity, minimizing software overheads by using a VNIC per application to provide a kernel
bypass solution. Solarflare has created both an open-source and Enterprise class high-
performance application accelerator that delivers lower and more predictable latency and
higher message rates for TCP and UDP-based applications, all with no need to modify
applications or change the network infrastructure. To learn more about the open source
NOTE:
Throughout this guide the term Onload refers to both OpenOnload
®
and EnterpriseOnload
®
unless otherwise stated. Users of Onload should refer to the
Onload User Guide
, SF-104474-CD,
which describes procedures for download and installation of the Onload distribution, accelerating
and tuning the application using Onload to achieve minimum latency and maximum throughput.