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Posts Tagged ‘SR-IOV’

Windows 8 : Why should my hardware have SR-IOV capabality ?

April 4, 2012 1 comment

Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV)

SR-IOV capability will significantly reduce the overhead on network IO operations.

It allows for a virtual machine to have near native IO against the physical NIC, allowing applications that require very low latency to work inside of virtual machines.

What does it require?

  • It must bypass teaming
  • Interrupt and DMA remapping
  • Access Control Services (ACS) on PCIe root ports
  • Alternative Routing ID Interpretation (ARI)
  • Hardware virtualization, EPT or NPT

Where to create:

– In the Hyper-V Manager, click on Virtual Switch Manager on the right panel

– Click Add New Virtual Switch

– Type the name of the virtual switch

– Tick box for Enable Single Root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV)

IMPORTANT :

More about SR-IOV here : SR-IOV feature (Single Root – I/O Virtualization)

Microsoft SR-IOV Support on Dell PowerEdge Servers (source : http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/os-applications/w/wiki/3459.dell-supported-platforms-for-windows-server-8-sr-iov-feature.aspx):

Dell PowerEdge 12th Generation servers support the SR-IOV servers but previous generations have exceptions.

Below is a list of Dell 11th Generation platforms that support the SR-IOV feature:

  • R910

The following platforms are also supported and must be an 11G Generation II server:

  • T410, R410, R510, R610, T610, R710, T710.

How to identify an 11G Generation II system:

  1. These servers will be physically marked with symbol “II” on the Express service tag.  The Express service tag is located in front panel of the system.
  2. These systems support Intel 56XX (Westmere) processors
  3. The System Revision Field in the iDRAC GUI will have “II”

Supported SR-IOV network cards:

  • Intel X520 10GB Ethernet adapters.

Because Windows Server 8 Beta is a pre-release product still in active development, Dell does not provide any support for this pre-release software and it is not recommended for use in a production environment.

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Categories: Dell, Microsoft, Virtualization Tags: , ,

Understanding SR-IOV in Hyper-V

March 27, 2012 1 comment

 

 John Howard, Senior Program Manager in the Hyper-V team at Microsoft, have been  talking about the use of SR-IOV in Hyper-V in Windows Server “8”.  You can start reading about it here:

Part 1:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/jhoward/archive/2012/03/12/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-sr-iov-in-hyper-v-part-1.aspx

Part 2 :http://blogs.technet.com/b/jhoward/archive/2012/03/13/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-sr-iov-in-hyper-v-part-2.aspx

Part 3: http://blogs.technet.com/b/jhoward/archive/2012/03/14/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-sr-iov-in-hyper-v-part-3.aspx

Part 4: http://blogs.technet.com/b/jhoward/archive/2012/03/15/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-sr-iov-in-hyper-v-part-4.aspx

Categories: Virtualization Tags: , ,