Mellanox Products: InfiniBand OFED Driver for VMware(R) Infrastructure 3

As a result of the VMware Community Source co-development effort with Mellanox Technologies, Mellanox is pleased to announce the availability of the InfiniBand adapter support package for VMware Virtual Infrastructure, comprised of VMware ESX Server 3.5 and VirtualCenter 2.5 virtual infrastructure management software.

Supported Adapters	Details
MT25408 [ConnectX® IB SDR]	ConnectX IB HCA/TCA IC, dual-port, SDR, PCIe 2.0 2.5 GT/s, x8, mem-free, RoHS
MT25418 [ConnectX® IB DDR, PCIe 2.0 2.5GT/s]	ConnectX IB HCA/TCA IC, dual-port, DDR, PCIe 2.0 5.0 GT/s, x8, mem-free, RoHS
MT26418 [ConnectX® IB DDR, PCIe 2.0 5.0GT/s]	ConnectX IB HCA/TCA IC, dual-port, DDR, PCIe 2.0 5.0 GT/s, x8, mem-free, RoHS
MT26428 [ConnectX® IB QDR, PCIe 2.0 5.0GT/s]	ConnectX IB HCA/TCA IC, dual-port, QDR, PCIe 2.0 5.0 GT/s, x8, mem-free, RoHS
MT25204 [InfiniHost III Lx HCA]	InfiniHost III HCA/TCA IC, single-port, SDR/DDR, PCIe x8/x4, mem-free, A0, RoHS
MT25208 InfiniHost III Ex (Tavor / InfiniHost compatibility mode)	InfiniHost™ III HCA/TCA IC, dual-port, SDR/DDR, PCIe x8, DDR memory interface, RoHS
MT25208 InfiniHost III Ex	InfiniHost™ III HCA/TCA IC, dual-port, SDR/DDR, PCIe x8, mem-free, RoHS

InfiniBand Channel I/O Virtualization (CIOV) Technology

The Mellanox driver implementation within the VMware Virtual Infrastructure, comprised of VMware ESX Server 3.5 and VirtualCenter 2.5, framework follows the software-based I/O virtualization model and implements Mellanox InfiniBand CIOV technology. By doing so, all critical value adds provided by VMware are preserved while bringing in the benefits of unified I/O and higher performance.

Software and Documentation

The software package includes binary RPMs for enabling networking and storage (SAN) support form VMware based virtual machines.

Also visit VMware Infrastructure's product page and download page.

Solution Benefits
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The software drivers are based on OpenFabrics Enterprise Distribution (OFED) version 1.3.1 enabling broad interoperability with other operating systems and the ecosystem of OEM supplied servers, switches, gateways and storage systems
LAN and SAN functionality is available over unified server I/O using high bandwidth InfiniBand connectivity. This reduces cabling complexity and reduces I/O cost (50 – 60%) and power (25-30%) significantly
LAN performance (from VMs) of close to 8X Gigabit Ethernet has been achieved
SAN performance (from VMs) of close to 10X 2Gb/s Fibre Channel has been achieved
LAN and SAN performance scales linearly across multiple VMs
Ability to expose multiple network and storage adapters over a single physical InfiniBand port allowing the same 'look and feel' of traditional storage and network devices
Completely transparent to VMs as applications in VMs continue to work over legacy NIC and HBA interfaces that have been already qualified on
All VMware functionality including migration, high availability and others are available over the InfiniBand fabric (just as they are available over Ethernet and Fibre Channel fabrics)
All VMware ESX Server 3.5 supported guest operating systems are supported
Management and configuration using VMware VirtualCenter 2.5 maintains the look an feel of configuring NICs and HBAs, making it easier for IT managers to configure the allocation and management of LAN and SAN resources over InfiniBand
InfiniBand to Ethernet and InfiniBand to Fibre Channel gateways from leading OEMs are supported, ensuring end to end connectivity with Ethernet LANs and Fibre Channel SANs respectively. Some native InfiniBand attached storage solutions are also being qualified – contact your Mellanox account representative for more details.
View Presentation: InfiniBand: Enhancing Virtualization ROI With New Data Center Efficiencies

Download Drivers v1.2.0 for ESX 3.5 (Build: 64607)

Download Drivers v1.2.0 for ESX 3.5 U1 (Build: 82663)

Download Drivers v1.2.0 for ESX 3.5 U2 (Build: 110268)

Download Drivers v1.2.0 for ESX 3.5 U3 (Build: 123630)

Download Drivers v1.2.0 for ESX 3.5 U4 (Build: 153875)

NOTE: For build numbers other than the ones listed above, the user can still install the RPM using the command "rpm -i --nopre ". Please be advised that Mellanox Technologies has qualified only the official major updates released by VMware. For further information, please contact support@mellanox.com.