Below is my understanding on SR-IOV,
SR-IOV is a specification that allows a PCIe device to appear to be multiple separate physical PCIe devices.
SR-IOV is enabled by VT-d. [SR IOV is supported in Kawela 1Gbps and Niantic 10Gbps N/W card]
It requires support in BIOS/OS or hypervisor that is running on h/w.
No sure what it is your intention? can you throw more light on your question?.
SR-IOV is supported by two Intel Ethernet Controllers, the Intel 82576 GbE Controller and the 82599 10 GbE controller. Drivers are available for the Open Source hypervisers (Xen and KVM) from sourceforge.
Here is a blog explaining how to setup and use SR-IOV using the Intel 82576 GbE with Red Hat 5.4 Xen.
Hope this helps.
SR-IOV is indeed a technology that will allow a PCIe device to appear as multiple devices. It requires significantly more that just the enablement of VT-d, though that is certainly one of the ingredients.
I have written a SR-IOV Primer document that gives a fairly decent overview of what it is and how it works:
http://download.intel.com/design/network/applnots/321211.pdf
Give that a peek and see if it helps.
- Patrick
So , the question again, do Intel Server boards (S5520HC for example) support SR-IOV ? SuperMicro and others have VT-d on/off and SR-IOV on/off options on their BIOS while Intel mentions only VT-d.
Aaah, OK now I understand the question. Unfortunately I don't have a definitive answer for you. I've pinged a friend in the server division to find out if that system has a BIOS that supports SR-IOV. I know the Chipset has VT-d (a requirement for SR-IOV), however I am not sure if the server has the required updates to BIOS.
If/when I get a response, I'll post an answer for you.
My source in the server side of the Intel campus confirms that the BIOS does indeed support SR-IOV. So you shoudl be golden. Good luck and enjoy!
Hello,
Again, SuperMicro and others do have SR-IOV enable/disable option in their BIOS along with VT-d on/off.
Intel servers do not. Any idea ? Seems VT-d in Intel enables SR-IOV as well. Can someone confirm this ?
Tnx.
Below is the statement got from BIOS folks.
"The Intel BIOS is always SR-IOV enabled. If an SR-IOV enabled device is present, the BIOS will automatically enumerate and initialize its VFs without depending on the state of the VT-d option."
Let me know if you have questions.
