Configuring for NIC Partitioning
NIC partitioning (NPAR) divides a Broadcom NetXtreme II 10 Gigabit Ethernet NIC into multiple virtual NICs by having multiple PCI physical functions per port. Each PCI function is associated with a different virtual NIC. To the OS and the network, each physical function appears as a separate NIC port.
NOTE: Link speed cannot be configured for 1 Gbps when NPAR is enabled.
The number of partitions for each port is from one to four; thus, making a dual-port NIC capable of a maximum of eight partitions. Each partition behaves as if it is an independent NIC port.
NOTE: On quad-port adapters with two 1G ports and two 10G ports, the 1G ports do not support NPAR.
Benefits of a partitioned 10G NIC include:
The Broadcom NetXtreme II 10 Gigabit Ethernet adapters support NIC partitioning on the following operating systems:
NIC partitioning can be configured using Broadcom's Comprehensive Configuration Management (CCM) utility.
To configure a NIC for partitioning using the CCM utility
Table 1 lists the configuration parameters available from the NIC Partitioning Configuration screen.
Parameter
|
Description
|
Options
|
---|---|---|
Flow Control
|
Configures the Flow Control mode for this port.
|
|
PF#0, PF#2, PF#4, PF#6
|
Displays the physical function (PF) information regarding the partition(s) on port 0. Select to configure.
|
See Table 2 for configuration options.
|
PF#1, PF#3, PF#5, PF#7
|
Displays the physical function (PF) information regarding the partition(s) on port 1. Select to configure.
|
See Table 2 for configuration options.
|
Reset Configuration to Default
|
Resets the NIC partition configuration to the factory default settings.
|
Table 2 describes the functions available from the PF# X screen.