1 # VMWARE vmxnet3 device driver plugin {#vmxnet3_doc}
4 This plugin provides native PCI driver support for VMWare vmxnet3.
7 * This code is tested with vfio-pci driver installed with Ubuntu 18.04 which
8 has kernel version 4.15.0-33-generic.
10 * This driver is tested with ESXi vSwitch version 6.5/6.7 for LRO/TSO support, VMware Workstation 15 Pro (no LRO/TSO), and VMware Fusion 11 Pro (no LRO/TSO)
12 * Driver requires MSI-X interrupt support, which is not supported by
13 uio_pci_generic driver. So vfio-pci must be used. On systems without IOMMU,
14 vfio driver can still be used with 4.15.0-33-generic kernel (Ubuntu 18.04) which supports no-iommu mode.
25 sudo modprobe vfio-pci
28 2. Make sure the interface is down
30 sudo ifconfig <if-name> down
33 Steps 3 and 4 are optional. They can be accomplished by specifying the optional keyword "bind" when creating the vmxnet3 interface.
35 3. (systems without IOMMU only) enable unsafe NOIOMMU mode
37 echo Y | sudo tee /sys/module/vfio/parameters/enable_unsafe_noiommu_mode
40 4. Bind interface to vfio-pci
42 sudo dpdk-devbind.py --bind vfio-pci 0b:00.0
45 ### Interface Creation
46 Interface can be dynamically created with following CLI, with or without the bind option. If step 3 and 4 were executed, bind can be omitted.
48 create interface vmxnet3 0000:0b:00.0 bind
49 set int state vmxnet3-0/b/0/0 up
52 ### Interface Deletion
53 Interface can be deleted with following CLI:
55 delete interface vmxnet3 <if-name>
58 ### Interface Statistics
59 Interface statistics can be displayed with `show hardware-interface <if-name>`
62 ### Show Interface CLI
63 Interface and ring information can be obtained with
64 `show vmxnet3 [if-name] [desc]`