Solarflare
Server
Adapter
User
Guide
Issue
20
©
Solarflare
Communications
2017
351
8
SR
‐
IOV
Virtualization
Using
ESXi
This
chapter
includes
procedures
for
installation
and
configuration
of
Solarflare
adapters
for
SR
‐
IOV
and
Virtualization
deployment
using
VMware®
ESXi.
For
details
of
installation
and
configuration
on
VMware®
platforms
refer
to
8.1
Introduction
This
chapter
describes
SR
‐
IOV
and
DirectPath
I/O
using
the
VMware
ESXi
hypervisor
and
Solarflare
SFN7000
and
SFN8000
series
adapters.
SR
‐
IOV
enabled
on
Solarflare
adapters
provides
accelerated
cut
‐
through
performance
and
is
compatible
with
hypervisor
based
services
and
management
tools.
The
advanced
design
of
Solarflare
SFN7000
and
SFN8000
series
adapters
incorporates
a
number
of
specific
features
when
deploying
the
adapter
into
virtualized
environments.
•
PCIe
Physical
Functions
(PF)
By
partitioning
the
NIC,
each
physical
network
port
can
be
exposed
to
the
host
as
up
to
16
PCIe
Physical
Functions
(PF)
with
each
having
a
unique
interface
name
and
unique
MAC
address.
•
PCIe
Virtual
Functions
(VF)
A
PCIe
physical
function,
PF,
can
support
a
configurable
number
of
PCIe
virtual
functions.
In
total
240
VFs
can
be
allocated
between
the
PFs.
The
adapter
can
also
support
a
total
of
2048
MSI
‐
X
interrupts.
Figure
58:
Per
Adapter
‐
Configuration
Options