User Manual

Rev 4.70

Mellanox Technologies

8.10.4 Configuring Mellanox Network Adapter for SR-IOV

The following are the steps for configuring Mellanox Network Adapter for SR-IOV:

8.10.4.1 Enabling SR-IOV in Firmware

SR-IOV can be enabled and managed by using one of the following methods:

 To burn firmware with SR-IOV support:

Step 1. Verify that HCA is configured for SR-IOV by dumping the device configuration file to user-

chosen location <ini device file>.ini..

Step 2. Verify in the [HCA] section of the .ini that the following fields appear:

Step 3. If the fields do not appear, please, edit the .ini file and add them manually.

Step 4. Create a binary image using the modified ini file.

Step 5. Burn the firmware.

The file <file name>.bin is a firmware binary file with SR-IOV enabled that has 16 VFs.

Step 6. Reboot the system for changes to take effect.

For more information, please, contact Mellanox Support.

 To enable SR-IOV using mlxconfig tool (beta)

mlxconfig is part of MFT tools used to simplify firmware configuration. The tool is available

with MFT tools 3.6.0 or higher in beta version.

Step 1. Download MFT.

www.mellanox.com > Products > Software > Firmware Tools

Step 2. Check the current SR-IOV configuration.

flint -d <device> dc > <ini device file>.ini

[HCA]

num_pfs = 1

total_vfs = 16

sriov_en = true

Parameter Recommended Value

num_pfs 1

Note: This field is optional and might not always appear.

total_vfs <0-126> (The chosen value should be within BIOS limit of MMIO

available address space)

sriov_en true

Warning: Care should be taken in increasing the number of VFs. All

servers are guaranteed to support 16 VFs. More VFs can lead to exceed-

ing the BIOS limit of MMIO available address space.

mlxburn -fw <fw name>.mlx -conf <ini device file>.ini -wrimage <file name>.bin

flint -dev <PCI device> -image <file name>.bin b

mlxconfig -d mt4099_pciconf0 q