Managing Cisco Virtual Machine Fabric Extender For VMware

This chapter contains the following sections:

About Cisco Virtual Machine Fabric Extender

A virtualized server implementation consists of one or more VMs that run 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). Typically, the hypervisor presents a virtual network interface to each VM and performs Layer 2 switching of traffic from a VM to other local VMs or to another interface to the external network.

Working with a Cisco virtual interface card (VIC) adapter, the Cisco Virtual Machine Fabric Extender (VM-FEX) bypasses software-based switching of VM traffic by the hypervisor for external hardware-based switching in the fabric interconnect. This method reduces the load on the server CPU, provides faster switching, and enables you to apply a rich set of network management features to local and remote traffic.

Integrating Cisco VM-FEX in Cisco UCS Director

To successfully integrate Cisco VM-FEX in Cisco UCS Director, complete the tasks outlined in the table below:

Task Description Reference

Edit computing policy

To enable DirectPath I/O, full guest memory reservation is necessary on the VM. This can be achieved by editing the VM's computing policy.

Editing Computing Policy For Cisco VM-FEX Support

Edit networking policy

The adapter type must be VMXNET3 and should be associated with the VM's DirectPath enabled portgroup.

Editing Network Policy For VM-FEX Support

Editing Computing Policy For Cisco VM-FEX Support

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Policies > Virtual/Hypervisor Policies > Computing.

Step 2

On the Computing page, click VMware Computing Policy.

Step 3

Click the row with the policy that you want to edit.

Step 4

Click Edit.

Step 5

On the Edit Computing Policy screen, check Override Template and Reserve all guest memory, and specify the reserved guest memory.

Note 

The reserved guest memory should always be greater than 4096MB.

Step 6

Click Submit.

Editing Network Policy For VM-FEX Support

Procedure

Step 1

Choose Policies > Virtual/Hypervisor Policies > Network.

Step 2

On the Network page, click VMware Network Policy.

Step 3

Click the row with the policy that you want to edit.

Step 4

Click Edit.

Step 5

On the Network Policy Information screen, click the + icon next to VM Networks.

Step 6

Click the + icon to add a new entry to the VM Networks table.

Step 7

On the Add Entry to VM Networks screen, choose VMXNET3 in the Adapter Type drop-down list.

Step 8

Click the row with the portgroup that you want to add.

Step 9

Click the Edit icon.

Step 10

On the Add Entry to Port Groups screen, choose the VM DirectPath enabled portgroup.

Step 11

Click Submit.

Step 12

In the Add VM Networks Entry screen, click Submit.

Step 13

In the Network Policy Information screen, click Submit.