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Content Owner: Roman Macek | ||||
Summary
Yes (SR-IOV and VMDirectPath)
Details
vSphere 6.0 SR-IOV support for 1024 Virtual Functions.
Enterprise Plus only; Enterprise, Standard - SR-IOV - n/a
vSphere 5.1 introduced support for SR-IOV (maintained in 5.5.) in addition to DirectPath I/O.
SR-IOV enables one PCI Express (PCIe) adapter to be presented as multiple, separate logical devices to virtual machines.
SR-IOV offers performance benefits and tradeoffs similar to those of DirectPath I/O. DirectPath I/O and SRIOV have similar functionality but you use them to accomplish different things. SR-IOV is beneficial in workloads with very high packet rates or very low latency requirements. Like DirectPath I/O, SR-IOV is not compatible with certain core virtualization features, such as vMotion (exception: Cisco UCS through VM-FEX)
SR-IOV does, however, allow for a single physical device to be shared amongst multiple guests.
With DirectPath I/O you can map only one physical function to one virtual machine. SR-IOV lets you share a single physical device, allowing multiple virtual machines to connect directly to the physical function. This functionality allows you to virtualize low-latency (less than 50 microsec) and high PPS (greater than 50,000) such as network appliances or purpose built solutions workloads.
vSphere 5.5. introduces some improvements to the SR-IOV support:
- The workflow of configuring the SR-IOV-enabled physical NICs is simplified. A new capability is introduced that enables users to communicate the port group properties defined on the vSphere standard switch (VSS) or VDS to the
virtual functions.
The new control path through VSS and VDS communicates the port group-specific properties to the virtual functions. For example, if promiscuous mode is enabled in a port group, that configuration is then passed to virtual functions, and the virtual machines connected to the port group will receive traffic from other virtual machines.
Enterprise Plus only; Enterprise, Standard - SR-IOV - n/a
vSphere 5.1 introduced support for SR-IOV (maintained in 5.5.) in addition to DirectPath I/O.
SR-IOV enables one PCI Express (PCIe) adapter to be presented as multiple, separate logical devices to virtual machines.
SR-IOV offers performance benefits and tradeoffs similar to those of DirectPath I/O. DirectPath I/O and SRIOV have similar functionality but you use them to accomplish different things. SR-IOV is beneficial in workloads with very high packet rates or very low latency requirements. Like DirectPath I/O, SR-IOV is not compatible with certain core virtualization features, such as vMotion (exception: Cisco UCS through VM-FEX)
SR-IOV does, however, allow for a single physical device to be shared amongst multiple guests.
With DirectPath I/O you can map only one physical function to one virtual machine. SR-IOV lets you share a single physical device, allowing multiple virtual machines to connect directly to the physical function. This functionality allows you to virtualize low-latency (less than 50 microsec) and high PPS (greater than 50,000) such as network appliances or purpose built solutions workloads.
vSphere 5.5. introduces some improvements to the SR-IOV support:
- The workflow of configuring the SR-IOV-enabled physical NICs is simplified. A new capability is introduced that enables users to communicate the port group properties defined on the vSphere standard switch (VSS) or VDS to the
virtual functions.
The new control path through VSS and VDS communicates the port group-specific properties to the virtual functions. For example, if promiscuous mode is enabled in a port group, that configuration is then passed to virtual functions, and the virtual machines connected to the port group will receive traffic from other virtual machines.
