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.

Instructions:

• 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.