cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
cancel
7225
Views
5
Helpful
2
Comments
timoma
Level 1
Level 1

Overview:

A virtualized server implementation consists of one or more VMs running as 'guests' on a single physical server. The guest VMs are hosted and managed by a software layer called the hypervisor or virtual machine manager (VMM). The hypervisor typically presents a virtual network interface to each VM and performs Layer 2 switching of traffic from a VM to other local VMs or to a physical interface to the external network. Working with a Cisco virtual interface card (VIC) adapter, Cisco Virtual Machine Fabric Extender (VM-FEX)bypasses software-based switching of VM traffic by the hypervisor in favor of external hardware-based switching in the fabric interconnect. This method results in a reduced load on the server CPU, faster switching,and the ability to apply a rich set of network management features to local and remote traffic. VM-FEX extends the (prestandard) IEEE 802.1Qbh port extender architecture to the VMs, providing each VM interface with a virtual Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) device and a virtual port ona switch. This solution allows precise rate limiting and quality of service (QoS) guarantees on the VM interface.

Infrastructure Requirements

  • The host must be managed by Cisco UCS Manager Release 2.1 or later.
  • The host operating system must be an edition of Windows Server 2012 or later that includes Hyper-V support. For more information about installing Microsoft Hyper-V, see the Microsoft Windows Server documentation.
  • In the host BIOS Processor settings, you must enable Virtualization Technology (VT) and Direct Cache Access.
  • In the host BIOS Intel Directed I/O settings, you must enable VT For Directed I/O and Interrupt Remap.
  • For more information about configuring UCS server BIOS settings, see the Cisco UCS Manager GUI Configuration Guide.
  • HTTPS communication must be enabled on the Cisco UCS Manager. For more information about enabling HTTPS communication, see the Cisco UCS Manager GUI Configuration Guide.
  • One or more Cisco VIC adapters must be installed in the host. For more information about installing a Cisco VIC adapter, see the Cisco UCS 5108 Server Chassis Hardware Installation Guide.
  • An SR-IOV PF cannot be used as an iSCSI vNIC. An existing iSCSI vNIC cannot be defined as a PF.

VM-FEX Mode of Operations


Windows
Windows

VM-FEX Mode

Emulation

Hypervisor Bypass with SR-IOV

Minimum Hypervisor Version

Windows 2012

Windows 2012

Minmum ENIC Driver Version

UCSM 2.1(1a)

UCSM 2.1(1a)
Minimum VIC Firmware Version

UCSM 2.1(1a)

UCSM 2.1(1a)

VM-FEX Tool Pleaese refer to attachment Please refer to attachment

VMotion / Live Migration

SupportSupport
Support Guest OSAny OS support by Hyper-V

Windows 2012 only

VM-FEX Scalability

UCSM Configuration Limit 2.1 Release -http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/sw/configuration_limits/2.1/b_UCS_Configuration_Limits_2_1.html

Cisco UCS 6100 / 6200 Series

Hypervisor

Half-Width Blade with Single VIC

Full-Width Blade with Dual VIC

ESX 4.0 – 4.1 (DirectPath I/O)

56 (54 vNIC + 2 vHBA)

56 (54 vNIC + 2 vHBA)

ESXi 5.0 – 5.1 (DirectPath I/O)

116 (114 vNIC + 2 vHBA)

116 (114 vNIC + 2 vHBA)*

Windows 2012 (SR-IOV)

116 (114 vNIC + 2 vHBA)

232 (228 vNIC + 4 vHBA)

KVM 6.1 – 6.3 (SR-IOV)

116 (114 vNIC + 2 vHBA)

232 (228 vNIC + 4 vHBA)

* Additional VIC will NOT increase the total VIF count due to OS limitation

* Multiple VICs are Supported for full width blade and B200M3

Video Configuration Demo Topology

hyperv-vmfex-demo-topology.png

Hyper-V VM-FEX Configuration Workflow

hyper-V VMFEX walkthrough.png

Video Link : 11298

Reference Documentation

UCSM Hyper-V VM-FEX GUI Configuratoin Guide

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/sw/vm_fex/hyperv/gui/config_guide/2.1/b_GUI_Hyper-V_VM-FEX_UCSM_Configuration_Guide_chapter_010.html

UCSM Hyper-V VM-FEX CLI Configuratoin Guide

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/sw/vm_fex/hyperv/cli/config_guide/2.1/b_CLI_Hyper-V_VM-FEX_UCSM_Configuration_Guide_chapter_010.html

Hyper-V VM-FEX Configuration Example - TAC

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10281/products_configuration_example09186a0080c1780d.shtml

Cisco-Live-BRKCOM-2005-Virtual Machine Fabric Extension (VM-FEX)-2013

VM-FEX Configuration & Best Practice for Multiple Hypervisor

Please refer to the attachmenta

Cisco VM-FEX Performance Testing verus VMware vSwitch

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns340/ns517/ns224/ns944/whitepaper_c11-727581.html

External (Light Reading) VM-FEX Peroformance Testing verus VMware vSwitch

http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=693092

                                                        

VM-FEX Performance Testing with SAP

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns340/ns517/ns224/ns944/whitepaper_c11_703103.pdf

VM-FEX Performance Testing with Microsoft SharePoint 2010

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/UCS_CVDs/ucs_sharepoint2010_flexpod_vmware.html#wp402742

VM-FEX Performance Testing with Microsoft SQL Server 2012

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/ps10265/ps10281/whitepaper_c11-711915.html

VM-FEX Performance Testing with Citrix Xenapp 6.5

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/UCS_CVDs/citrix_emc_ucs_XDXAscale.pdf

Microsoft Private Cloud Fast Track 3.0 with VM-FEX

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/UCS_CVDs/ucs_flexpod_mspc30_sc12_deploy.pdf

Comments
Drwhorulez
Community Member

This page need to be updated to support Windows 2012 R2.

csco11542695
Level 1
Level 1

Surely! This page must update to support Windows Server 2012R2 64-Bit !!!!

We can't find VMFEX Tools newer version to install on OS Host.

Getting Started

Find answers to your questions by entering keywords or phrases in the Search bar above. New here? Use these resources to familiarize yourself with the community: