User Manual
The MAC and VLAN values are set using the configuration files only, other tools such
as (vconfig) for VLAN modification, or (ifconfig) for MAC modification, are not sup-
ported.
Features Overview and ConfigurationRev 2.3-1.0.1
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3.2.5.3.2.5 EoIB Network Administered vNic
In network administered mode, the configuration of the vNic is done by the BridgeX®. If a vNic
is configured for a specific host, it will appear on that host once a connection is established
between the BridgeX and the mlx4_vnic module. This connection between the mlx4_vnic mod-
ules and all available BridgeX boxes is established automatically when the mlx4_vnic module is
loaded. If the BridgeX is configured to remove the vNic, or if the connection between the host
and BridgeX is lost, the vNic interface will disappear (running ifconfig will not display the inter-
face). Similar to host administered vNics, a network administered, vNic resides on a specific
vHub.
For further information on how to configure a network administered vNic, please refer to
BridgeX documentation.
To disable network administered vNics on the host side load mlx4_vnic module with the
net_admin module parameter set to 0.
3.2.5.3.2.6 VLAN Configuration
A vNic instance is associated with a specific vHub group. This vHub group is connected to a
BridgeX external port and has a VLAN tag attribute. When creating/configuring a vNic you
define the VLAN tag it will use via the vid or the VNICVLAN fields (if these fields are absent,
the vNic will not have a VLAN tag). The vNic's VLAN tag will be present in all EoIB packets
sent by the vNics and will be verified on all packets received on the vNic. When passed from the
InfiniBand to Ethernet,the EoIB encapsulation will be disassembled but the VLAN tag will
remain.
For example, if the vNic "eth23" is associated with a vHub that uses BridgeX "bridge01", eport
"A10" and
VLAN tag 8, all incoming and outgoing traffic on eth23 will use a VLAN tag of 8.
This will be enforced by both BridgeX and destination hosts. When a packet is passed from the
internal fabric to the Ethernet subnet through the BridgeX it will have a "true" Ethernet VLAN
tag of 8.
The VLAN implementation used by EoIB uses operating systems unaware of VLANs. This is in
many ways similar to switch tagging in which an external Ethernet switch adds/strips tags on
traf
fic preventing the need of OS intervention. EoIB does not support OS aware VLANs in the
form of vconfig.
3.2.5.3.2.7 Configuring VLANs
To configure VLAN tag for a vNic, add the VLAN tag property to the configuration file in host
administrated mode, or configure the vNic on the appropriate vHub in network administered
mode. In the host administered mode when a vHub with the requested VLAN tag is not available,
the vNIC's login request will be rejected.
• Host administered VLAN configuration in centralized configuration file can be modified
as follow:
Add "vid=<VLAN tag>" or remove vid property for no VLAN
• Host administered VLAN configuration with ifcfg-ethX configuration files can be modi-
fied as follow: