Microsoft* Hyper-V* makes it possible for one or more operating systems to run simultaneously on the same physical system as virtual machines. This allows you to consolidate several servers onto one system, even if they are running different operating systems. Intel® Network Adapters work with, and within, Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines with their standard drivers and software.
See http://www.intel.com/technology/advanced_comm/virtualization.htm for more information on using Intel Network Adapters in virtualized environments.
When a Hyper-V Virtual NIC (VNIC) interface is created in the parent partition, the VNIC takes on the MAC address of the underlying physical NIC. The same is true when a VNIC is created on a team or VLAN. Since the VNIC uses the MAC address of the underlying interface, any operation that changes the MAC address of the interface (for example, setting LAA on the interface, changing the primary adapter on a team, etc.), will cause the VNIC to lose connectivity. In order to prevent this loss of connectivity, Intel® PROSet will not allow you to change settings that change the MAC address.
The virtual machine switch is part of the network I/O data path. It sits between the physical NIC and the virtual machine NICs and routes packets to the correct MAC address. Enabling Virtual Machine Queue (VMQ) offloading in Intel(R) ProSet will automatically enable VMQ in the virtual machine switch. For driver-only installations, you must manually enable VMQ in the virtual machine switch.
If you create ANS VLANs in the parent partition, and
you then create a Hyper-V Virtual NIC interface on an ANS VLAN, then
the Virtual NIC interface *must* have the same VLAN ID as the ANS VLAN. Using a
different VLAN ID or not setting a VLAN ID on the Virtual NIC interface will result in loss of communication on that interface.
If you want to use a team or VLAN as a virtual NIC you must follow these steps:
Note: This applies only to virtual NICs created on a team or VLAN. Virtual NICs created on a physical adapter do not require these steps. |
Note: This step is not required for the team. When the Virtual NIC is created, its protocols are correctly bound. |
Microsoft Windows Server Core does not have a GUI interface. If you want to set use an ANS Team or VLAN as a Virtual NIC, you must use the prosetcl.exe and nvspbind.exe utilities to set up the configuration. Use the prosetcl.exe utility to create the team or VLAN. See the prosetcl.txt file for installation and usage details. Use the nvspbind.exe utility to unbind the protocols on the team or VLAN. The following is an example of the steps necessary to set up the configuration.
Enabling VMQ Filter offloading increases receive and transmit performance, as the adapter hardware is able to perform these tasks faster than the operating system. Offloading also frees up CPU resources. Filtering is based on MAC and/or VLAN filters.
Teaming Considerations
Last modified on 11/19/09 4:22p Revision 13