Implementing SR-IOV on HP ProLiant Servers with VMware vSphere 5.1

Technical white paper | Implementing SR-IOV on HP ProLiant Servers with VMware vSphere 5.1
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– Available Interrupt Vectors on host
VMware provides 256 interrupt vectors to each ESXi host. Of those 256 interrupt vectors, 128 are available for use for
SR-IOV. As VMs power on and the Guest OS VF driver starts, interrupt vectors are consumed. Depending on the network
adapter and VF driver, the quantity consumed per VF differs. In addition, other devices on the system may consume a
large number of interrupt vectors and reduce the number available for SR-IOV. Refer to the section “SR-IOV limitations”
for additional information.
Refer to Table 1 for the maximum potential number of VFs supported per host.
Table 1. Maximum VFs per ESXi host
Network Adapter Interrupt Vectors Per VF Maximum VFs Per Host Maximum VFs per Port
HP 560 Series*
3 42 63
*The HP 560 series includes 560FLB, 560M, 560SFP+ and 560FLR-SFP+
For additional details on SR-IOV, refer to the SR-IOV section of the vSphere 5.1 document, vSphere Networking, available at
pubs.vmware.com.
SR-IOV is included in a Peripheral Component Interconnect Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG) specification for partitioning
PCI Express (PCIe) network adapter bandwidth. For more information on the SR-IOV standard and industry support for the
standard, go to the PCI-SIG site at
pcisig.com.
vSphere 5.1 recommended system configurations
In order to utilize SR-IOV on vSphere 5.1, your server must meet the following requirements:
• We have engineered ProLiant servers to be compatible with SR-IOV and vSphere with the following capabilities:
– The processor must provide Second Level Address Translation (SLAT) and I/O Memory Management Unit (IOMMU)
technology.
– To meet these requirements, use Intel Xeon® Processors with Intel64 architecture with Virtualization Technology (VT)
VT-x and Extended Page Tables (EPT).
– VMware does not currently enable SR-IOV on AMD based platforms.
• The System ROM must be capable of enabling and describing the SR-IOV capabilities to the vSphere 5.1 operating
system. See the “SR-IOV-compliant ProLiant servers” section for details on the minimum ROM revisions required for
support.
• An SR-IOV-capable network adapter with the appropriate firmware and corresponding ESXi network device drivers are
required. In addition, drivers for the VFs within each VM’s Guest OS must also comprehend SR-IOV. See the “SR-IOV-
compliant network adapters” section for additional details.
• The SR-IOV-capable network adapter should be connected to a 10Gb Ethernet switch. VF enumeration will not function
properly when connected to a 1Gb switch.
• Appropriate Guest OS version. See the “Supported Guest Operating System Versions” section for additional details.
HP highly recommends using the HP Customized ESXi Image to ensure you are utilizing HP-validated drivers and additions
for ProLiant servers and server options. Each HP Customized ESXi Image has a supported HP Service Pack for ProLiant (SPP)
release or set of SPP releases that provide updated System ROM and component firmware. For additional information on
the HP Customized ESXi Image refer to the white paper, HP Custom ESXi images for ProLiant servers, available at
hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c02946823/c02946823.pdf. The minimum required revisions for SR-IOV support
are the following:
• HP Customized ESXi Image: The minimum recommended HP Customized ESXi Image was released February 2013. The
file name for this image is VMware-ESXi-5.1.0-799733-HP-5.34.23.iso. The HP Customized images are available for
download at hp.com/go/esxidownload.
• HP Service Pack for HP ProLiant (SPP): The minimum recommended SPP version is 2013.02.0. The SPP image is available
for download at hp.com/go/spp.
As additional device, server, and Guest OS revisions are supported, this paper will be updated to reflect the support changes.