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Table Of Contents
In vSphere, though a virtual switch (standard switch or distributed switch) does not handle the network
traffic of an SR-IOV enabled virtual machine connected to the switch, you can control the assigned virtual
functions by using switch configuration policies at port group or port level.
SR-IOV Support
vSphere supports SR-IOV in an environment with specific configuration only. Some features of vSphere
are not functional when SR-IOV is enabled.
Supported Configurations
To use SR-IOV in vSphere, your environment must meet several configuration requirements.
Table 101. Supported Configurations for Using SR-IOV
Component Requirements
Physical host
n
Must be compatible with the ESXi release.
n
Must have an Intel or an Intel or AMD processor.
n
Must support I/O memory management unit (IOMMU), and
must have IOMMU enabled in the BIOS.
n
Must support SR-IOV, and must have SR-IOV enabled in the
BIOS. Contact the server vendor to determine whether the
host supports SR-IOV.
Physical NIC
n
Must be compatible with the ESXi release.
n
Must be supported for use with the host and SR-IOV
according to the technical documentation from the server
vendor.
n
Must have SR-IOV enabled in the firmware.
n
Must use MSI-X interrupts.
PF driver in ESXi for the physical NIC
n
Must be certified by VMware.
n
Must be installed on the ESXi host. The ESXi release
provides a default driver for certain NICs, while for others
you must download and manually install it.
Guest OS Must be supported by the NIC on the installed ESXi release
according to the technical documentation from the NIC vendor.
VF driver in the guest OS
n
Must be compatible with the NIC.
n
Must be supported on the guest OS release according to the
technical documentation from the NIC vendor.
n
Must be Microsoft WLK or WHCK certified for Windows
virtual machines.
n
Must be installed on the operating system. The operating
system release contains a default driver for certain NICs,
while for others you must download and install it from a
location provided by the vendor of the NIC or the host.
To verify that your physical hosts and NICs are compatible with ESXi releases, see the VMware
Compatibility Guide.
vSphere Networking
VMware, Inc. 147