Prepare SRIOV on the Network Adapter

This configuration requires SRIOV configured with the sfboot or sfboot_esxi utility on the network adapters.

• The adapter firmware variant must be full-feature/virtualization.
• When using the legacy drivers, - on the ESXi host, use the sfboot utility from the Solarflare Linux (and VMware ESX) Utilities Source package (SF-105095-LS):

  sfboot -i=<vmnicX> firmware-variant=full-feature switch-mode=sriov pf-count=1 vf-count=<N>

  where <N> is the number of VFs created. Each VM will require a separate VF. A maximum of 63 VFs are supported per PF.

• When using the native drivers, use the sfboot_esxi utility version 7.6.1.1000 or later to connect from a remote Linux server with the CIM provider installed on the ESXi host:

  sfboot_esxi -i<vmnicX> firmware-variant=full-feature switch-mode=sriov pf-count=1 vf-count=<N> -a "https://fully qualified server domain name>:5989" -u <user> -p <user password>

  where <N> is the number of VFs created. Each VM will require a separate VF. A maximum 63 VFs are supported per PF.

• The host server must be rebooted following sfboot adapter changes.
• The network adapter must have a PTP/HW timestamping activation key.