Dell QLogic Family of Adapters QLogic QME8242 Mezzanine Card User's Guide - Page 96

ESX NIC Driver Management Applications: QLogic QME8242 Mezzanine Card User's Guide Back to Contents Page VMware NIC Driver Management Applications: QLogic QME8242 Mezzanine Card User's Guide This section provides the following information about the VMware NIC driver management applications: Overview Using NPAR Under ESX Overview VMware® vSphere™ provides a Common Information Model (CIM) monitoring framework for both classic ESX and ESXi. Use this framework to configure and manage Ethernet interfaces. On an ESX Server™, you can configure and manage Ethernet interfaces using a command line interface. On an ESXi Server, use the remote Command Line Interfaces (remote CLIs). Using NPAR Under ESX All NPAR Ethernet functions are enumerated by the hypervisor, controlled by the driver running in the hypervisor, and configured similar to other Ethernet interfaces. For more details, see NIC Partitioning (NPAR). You would typically create a virtual switch (vSwitch) for each NPAR interface. You can configure Virtual Machines (VMs) to use the standard virtual network devices, such as VMXNET 3 adapters. On each interface, you can configure features such as NetQueue. Although it is possible to configure all standard aggregation and failover configurations supported by ESX using NPAR interfaces as uplinks, it is not useful to have multiple uplinks with NPARs belonging to the same physical port. The vSwitch switches the packets when VMs are assigned to share the same NPAR. The embedded switch (eSwitch) on the adapter switches packets when packets are sent by a VM on an NPAR destined to another VM that is connected to a vSwitch on a different NPAR belonging to the same physical port. If the two NPARs are associated with different physical ports, the external switch forwards packets between them. Perform vSwitch configuration using either standard service console commands or RCLI commands. For specific command options, refer to the VMware documentation. NOTE: The QME8242 adapter has eSwitches. Because all of the interfaces are assigned to the hypervisor, eSwitch operation is transparent, and the system administrator is not required to perform any additional configuration. Please read all restrictions and disclaimers. Back to Contents Page file:///T|/htdocs/NETWORK/QLogic/71922/en/esxdrivr.htm[9/26/2012 4:26:12 PM]