User Manual

Driver FeaturesRev 2.2-1.0.1

Mellanox Technologies

For the full list of mlx4_vnic module parameters, run:

# modinfo mlx4_vnic

Network Configuration

PV-EoIB supports both L2 (bridged) and L3 (routed) network models. The 'physical' interfaces

that can be enslaved to the Hypervisor virtual bridge are actually EoIB vNics, and they can be

created as on an native Linux machine. PV-EoIB driver supports both host-administrated and net-

work-administrated vNics. Please refer to Section 4.3.2, “EoIB Configuration”, on page 63 for

more information on vNics configuration.

Once an EoIB vNic is enslaved to a virtual bridge, it can be used by any Guest OS that is sup-

ported by the Hypervisor. The driver will automatically manage the resources required to serve

the Guest OS network virtual interfaces (based on their MAC address).

To see the list of MAC addresses served by an EoIB vNic, log into the Hypervisor and run the

command:

# mlx4_vnic_info -m <interface>

The driver detects virtual interfaces MAC addresses based in their outgoing packets, so

you may notice that the virtual MAC address is being detected by the EoIB driver only

after the first packet is sent out by the Guest OS. Virtual resources MAC addresses

cleanup is managed by mlx4_vnic daemon as explained in Section , “Resources

Cleanup”, on page 75

Multicast Configuration

Virtual machines multicast traffic over PV-EoIB is supported in promiscuous mode. Hence, all

multicast traffic is sent over the broadcast domain, and filtered in the VM level.

• To enable promiscuous multicast, log into the BridgeX CLI and run the command:

# bxm eoib mcast promiscuous

Please refer to BridgeX CLI Guide for additional details.

• To see the multicast configuration of a vNic from the host, log into the Hypervisor and

run:

# mlx4_vnic_info -i <interface> | grep MCAST

VLANs

Virtual LANs are supported in EoIB vNic level, where VLAN tagging/untagging is done by the

EoIB driver.

• To enable VLANs on top of a EoIB vNic:

a. Create a new vNic interface with the corresponding VLAN ID

b. Enslave it to a virtual bridge to be used by the Guest OS. The VLAN tagging/untagging is trans-

parent to the Guest and managed in EoIB driver level.

The vconfig utility is not supported by EoIB driver, a new vNic instance must be cre-

ated instead. For further information, see Section 4.3.2.3, “VLAN Configuration”,

on page 66