Technology Brief: Intel Virtualization Technology for Connectivity

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Figure 1. Overview of Intel® Virtualization Technology for Connectivity

Virtual Ethernet Bridge and Classiﬁer (L2 Switch)

Virtual

Function

Physical

Function

Intel® Ethernet Controller

PCIe Ethernet

Controller in OS

“Physical Function”

PCI Express

PCIe Ethernet

Controller in OS

“Virtual Function”

NetQueue* or VMQ

Rx/Tx queues assigned

by Hypervisor to VM

Rx/Tx

Queues

Two Methods to Take

Advantage of Intel® VT-c

• VMDq: Multiple Rx/Tx queue

available to Hypervisor

• Virtual Functions:

“Lightweight” PCIe functions

made up of Rx/Tx queues

Technology Brief

Telecom and Compute Products

Intel

Virtualization Technology for Connectivity

Each new generation of processor brings more processing power and

new capabilities to server platforms, and today’s servers are running

more applications and processes simultaneously than ever before. IT

departments are deploying 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) to meet the

I/O demands of these servers and also to support converged LAN

and SAN networking. 10GbE’s increased throughput and support

for multiple traffic types gives IT administrators the opportunity

to simplify their network infrastructures and increase network

flexibility to adapt to changes in demand quickly and effectively.

Intel® Virtualization Technology for Connectivity

(Intel® VT-c) is a key

feature of many Intel® Ethernet Controllers. With I/O virtualization and

Quality of Service (QoS) features designed directly into the controller’s

silicon, Intel VT-c enables I/O virtualization that transitions the tradi-

tional physical network models used in data centers to more efficient

virtualized models by providing port partitioning, multiple Rx/Tx queues,

and on-controller QoS functionality that can be used in both virtual and

non-virtual server deployments.

On-Controller Quality of Service for Virtualized

and Non-virtualized Environments

At the core of Intel VT-c are functions and technologies that are

integrated into the Intel Ethernet Controller to provide a common

QoS feature set that delivers a variety of capabilities that can be

used directly by an OS or hypervisor or configured by an IT

Administrator to meet a specific need (Figure 1).

Virtual Machine Device Queues (VMDq) and PCI-SIG* Single Root

I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) are two of the optimization technologies

used to enable the enhanced I/O virtualization functions of Intel VT-c.

These functions help reduce I/O bottlenecks and improve overall

server performance by offloading functionality to the Intel Ethernet

Controller. They share many of the same QoS features integrated into

the controller’s silicon, and they both provide native throughput,

balanced bandwidth allocation, and improved I/O scalability.

In virtualized servers, these functions help reduce I/O bottlenecks

and improve the overall server performance by offloading the data

sorting and queuing functionality from the hypervisor to the Intel

Ethernet Controller.

Summary of content (4 pages)

PAGE 1
Technology Brief Telecom and Compute Products Intel® Virtualization Technology for Connectivity On-Controller Quality of Service for Virtualized and Non-virtualized Environments Each new generation of processor brings more processing power and new capabilities to server platforms, and today’s servers are running more applications and processes simultaneously than ever before.
PAGE 2
In non-virtualized environments, port partitioning provides hardwarebased QoS features that enable a physical port to consolidate the traffic of a greater number of physical ports with no loss of functionality and more flexible bandwidth allocation. Both technologies enable a single Ethernet port to appear as multiple adapters to virtual machines (VMs) by allowing the Intel Ethernet Controller to place data packets directly into individual VM memory stacks using a process called direct memory access (DMA).
PAGE 3
Normal Process Web Server (v600) NFS (v400) iSCSI (v500) Normal Process Normal Process Back-up (v300) Normal Process Normal Process Management (v200) Normal Process Normal Process I/O Stack Linux* Kernel VF Driver VF Driver PF Driver Kernel Process Isolated with QoS VF Driver VF Driver VF Driver Virtual Function Virtual Function PCI Express Multiple SR-IOV Enabled Ethernet Controllers (Virtual Function) Virtual Function Virtual Function Virtual Function Physical Function Dedicated
PAGE 4
Conclusion Growing deployments 10GbE give IT administrators the opportunity to create simpler, more flexible network infrastructures. Integrated into Intel Ethernet Controllers, Intel Virtualization Technology for Connectivity provides functionality that can help these administrators address their various and unique I/O needs for both virtualized and non-virtualized servers.