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InfiniBand OFED Driver for VMware® ESX Server

Overview

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 vSphere 4.X management software.

Enhance VMware Server Virtualization with Virtual-IQ

The Mellanox driver implementation within the VMware Virtual Infrastructure, comprised of VMware ESX Server 3.5 and vSphere 4.X, framework follows the software-based I/O virtualization model and implements Mellanox Virtual-IQ 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 from VMware based virtual machines.

Also visit VMware Infrastructure's product page and download page and the VMware vSphere™ 4 product page and download page.

  • The software drivers are based on OpenFabrics Enterprise Distribution (OFED) version 1.4.1 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 supported guest operating systems are supported
  • Management and configuration using VMware VirtualCenter 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.

IB OFED Driver for VMware ESX/ESXi 4.X


Download Drivers v1.4.1-2.0.000 for ESX/ESXi 4.0 (Build: 164009)

Download Drivers v1.4.1-2.0.000 for ESX/ESXi 4.0 U1 (Build: 241301)

Download Drivers v1.4.1-2.0.000 for ESX/ESXi 4.0 U2 (Build: 261974)

Download Drivers v1.4.1-2.0.000 for ESX/ESXi 4.1 (Build: 260247)

Download Drivers v1.4.1-2.0.000 for ESX/ESXi 4.1 U1 (Build: 348481)


Download ESX 4.x Patch

NOTE: For build numbers other than the ones listed above, the user can still install the driver as described in the User Manual section 2.4 “Installing Mellanox IB OFED Driver on Non Major ESX/ESXi 4.x Release”.
Please be advised that Mellanox Technologies has qualified only the official major updates released by VMware. For further information, please contact support@mellanox.com.


  • For the HCL click here. Please note that the HCL includes all the supported Mellanox VPI controller PCI Express Device IDs (DIDs). Hence, any Mellanox adapter card with a supported VPI controller is supported as well.
  • For the list of Mellanox IB/VPI cards and their PCI Device IDs, click here
  • For the list of IB OFED Driver for VMware ESX 3.5, see the Archive Tab

IB OFED Driver for VMware ESX/ESXi 4.0


Download IB OFED Drivers v1.4.1-222 for vSphere 4.0 U0 (Build: 164009) and U1 (Build: 208167)


    NOTE: For VMware ESX 4.1 support, please contact
    support@mellanox.com.

IB OFED Driver for VMware ESX 3.5


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)


  • For the HCL click here. Please note that the HCL includes all the supported Mellanox VPI controller PCI Express Device IDs (DIDs). Hence, any Mellanox adapter card with a supported VPI controller is supported as well.
  • For the list of Mellanox IB/VPI cards and their PCI Device IDs, click here

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.