User Manual

Rev 2.3-1.0.1
Mellanox Technologies
171
3.4 Virtualization
3.4.1 Single Root IO Virtualization (SR-IOV)
Single Root IO Virtualization (SR-IOV) is a technology that allows a physical PCIe device to
present itself multiple times through the PCIe bus. This technology enables multiple virtual
instances of the device with separate resources. Mellanox adapters are capable of exposing in
ConnectX®-3 adapter cards up to 126 virtual instances called Virtual Functions (VFs). These vir-
tual functions can then be provisioned separately. Each VF can be seen as an addition device con-
nected to the Physical Function. It shares the same resources with the Physical Function, and its
number of ports equals those of the Physical Function.
SR-IOV is commonly used in conjunction with an SR-IOV enabled hypervisor to provide virtual
machines direct hardware access to network resources hence increasing its performance.
In this chapter we will demonstrate setup and configuration of SR-IOV in a Red Hat Linux envi-
ronment using Mellanox ConnectX® VPI adapter cards family.
3.4.1.1 System Requirements
To set up an SR-IOV environment, the following is required:
MLNX_OFED Driver
A server/blade with an SR-IOV-capable motherboard BIOS
Hypervisor that supports SR-IOV such as: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server Version 6.*
Mellanox ConnectX® VPI Adapter Card family with SR-IOV capability
3.4.1.2 Setting Up SR-IOV
Depending on your system, perform the steps below to set up your BIOS. The figures used in this
section are for illustration purposes only
. For further information, please refer to the appropriate
BIOS User Manual:
Step 1. Enable "SR-IOV" in the system BIOS.