Users Guide

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15 SR-IOV
This chapter provides information about single-root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV):
 Overview
 Enabling SR-IOV
 “Verifying that SR-IOV is Operational” on page 256
 “SR-IOV and Storage Functionality” on page 257
 “SR-IOV and Jumbo Packets” on page 257
Overview
Virtualization of network controllers allows users to consolidate their networking
hardware resources and run multiple virtual machines concurrently on
consolidated hardware. Virtualization also provides the user a rich set of features
such as I/O sharing, consolidation, isolation and migration, and simplified
management with provisions for teaming and failover.
Virtualization can come at the cost of reduced performance due to hypervisor
overhead. The PCI-SIG introduced the SR-IOV specification to address these
performance issues by creating a virtual function (VF), a lightweight PCIe function
that can be directly assigned to a virtual machine (VM), bypassing the hypervisor
layer for the main data movement.
Not all Marvell adapters support SR-IOV; refer to your product documentation for
details.
Enabling SR-IOV
Before attempting to enable SR-IOV, ensure that:
 The adapter hardware supports SR-IOV.
 SR-IOV is supported and enabled in the system BIOS.
 Configure NPAR mode (if using).