In this section:
This section describes SBC SWe hardware and software requirements and recommendations.
To install and configure SBC SWe, make sure the Virtual Machine (VM) host meets the following recommended hardware, server platform and software requirements.
Warning
The recommended hardware and software settings are intended to ensure optimum SBC SWe stability and performance. If the recommended settings are not used, the SBC SWe system may not behave as expected.
SBC SWe for VMware – Server Hardware Requirements
The following table lists the server hardware requirements:
Table : Server Hardware Requirements
Configuration | Requirement |
---|---|
Processor | Intel Xeon processors (Nehalem micro-architecture or above) with 6 cores and above (processors should support hyper threading). Note Ribbon recommends using Westmere (or newer) processors for better SRTP performance. These processors have the AES-NI instruction set for performing cryptographic operations in hardware. Note The supported CPU Family number is 6 and CPU Model number must be newer than 26. Refer to the Intel Architecture and Processor Identification document for more information. Note ESXi 6.5 and later releases require approximately 2 physical cores to be set aside for hypervisor functionality. The number of VMs which can be hosted on a server must be planned for accordingly. |
RAM | Minimum 24 GB |
Hard Disk | Minimum 500 GB |
Network Interface Cards (NICs) | Minimum 4 NICs, if physical NIC redundancy is not required. Otherwise, 8 NICs (preferably with SR-IOV capability to support SWe optimizations). Note Make sure NICs have multi-queue support which enhances network performance by allowing RX and TX queues to scale with the number of CPUs on multi-processor systems. Note
Note Intel x710 NICs are also supported on VMware (ESXi versions 6.5 and above) with SR-IOV enabled. x710 NICs are not supported on Direct I/O or KVM. |
Ports | Number of ports allowed:
|
Warning
The SBC SWe software only runs on platforms using Intel processors. Platforms using AMD processors are not supported.
BIOS Setting Recommendations
Ribbon recommends the following BIOS settings for optimum performance:
Table : Recommended BIOS Settings for Optimum Performance
BIOS Parameter | Recommended Setting | Details |
---|---|---|
Intel VT-x (Virtualization Technology) | Enabled | For hardware virtualization |
Intel VT-d (Directed I/O) | Enabled | If available |
Intel Hyper-Threading | Enabled | |
Intel Turbo Boost | Enabled | |
CPU power management | Maximum Performance |
For example, the BIOS settings shown below are recommended for HP DL380p Gen8 servers. For BIOS settings of other servers, refer to the respective vendor's website.
Table : BIOS Setting Recommendations for HP DL380p Gen8 Server
BIOS Parameter | Recommended Setting | Default Value |
---|---|---|
HP Power Profile | Maximum Performance | Balanced Power and Performance |
Thermal Configuration | Maximum Cooling | Optimal Cooling |
HW Prefetchers | Disabled | Enabled |
Adjacent Sector Prefetcher | Disabled | Enabled |
Processor Power and Utilization Monitoring | Disabled | Enabled |
Memory Pre-Failure Notification | Disabled | Enabled |
Memory Refresh Rate | 1x Refresh | 2x Refresh |
Data Direct I/O | Enabled | Disabled |
SR-IOV | Enabled | Disabled |
Intel® VT-d | Enabled | Disabled |
SBC SWe for VMware – Software Requirements
The following are the SBC SWe requirements for VMware ESXi environments:
VMware ESXi Requirements
Table : VMWare ESXi Requirements
Software | Version | Tested and Qualified Version | For More Information |
---|---|---|---|
vSphere ESXi | 6.0 or above |
|
|
vSphere Client | 5.1 or above | VMware Knowledge Base | |
vCenter Server | 5.1 or above | vCenter Server |
Note
The VMware Enterprise Plus license is required for SR-IOV.
- Refer to the VMware Compatibility Guide (external site) for a list of VMware-supported Intel processors.
- Refer to ESXi hardware requirements to ensure the VMware-supported Intel processor meets the ESXi hardware requirements.
Downloading the SBC SWe Software Package
For more information, refer to Downloading the SBC SWe Software Package.
Recommendations for Optimum Performance
The following general recommendations apply to all platforms where SBC SWe is deployed:
- The number of vCPUs deployed on a system should be an even number (4, 6, 8, etc.).
- For best performance, deploy only a single instance on a single NUMA. Performance degradation occurs if you host more than one instance on a NUMA or if a single instance spans multiple NUMAs.
- Make sure that the physical NICs associated with an instance are connected to the same NUMA/socket where the instance is hosted. In the case of a dual NUMA host, ideally two instances should be hosted, with each instance on a separate NUMA and the associated NICs of each of the instances connected to their respective NUMAs.
- To optimize performance, configure memory card equally on both NUMA nodes. For example if a dual NUMA node server has a total of 128 GiB of RAM, configure 64 GiB of RAM on each NUMA node.
General ESXi Recommendations
The following are recommendations for VMware ESXi configurations:
- Plan enough resources (RAM, CPU, NIC ports, hard disk, etc.) for all the virtual machines (VMs) to run on server platform, including resources needed by ESXi itself.
- Allocate each VM only as much virtual hardware as that VM requires. Provisioning a VM with more resources than it requires can, in some cases, reduce the performance of that VM as well as other virtual machines sharing the same host.
- Under BIOS settings, disconnect or disable any physical hardware devices (floppy devices, network interfaces, storage controllers, optical drives, USB controllers, etc.) that you will not be using to free up CPU resources.
Use virtual hardware version 8 and above when creating new VMs (available starting in ESXi 5.x). This provides additional capabilities to VMs such as supporting a VM with up to 1 TB RAM, up to 32 vCPUs, etc.
ESXi Host Configuration Parameters
Use the VMware vSphere client to configure the following ESXi host configuration parameters on the Advanced Settings page (see figure below) before installing the SBC SWe.
Table : ESXi Advanced Settings
ESXi Parameter |
ESXi 5.1 Settings | ESXi 5.5 Settings | ESXi 6.0 Settings | ESXi 6.5 Settings | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Recommended |
Default |
Recommended |
Default |
Recommended |
Default |
Recommended | Default | |
Cpu.CoschedCrossCall |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 | 1 |
Cpu.CreditAgePeriod |
500 |
3000 |
1000 | 1000 | 1000 | 1000 | 1000 | 3000 |
DataMover.HardwareAcceleratedInit |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 | 1 |
DataMover.HardwareAcceleratedMove |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 | 1 |
Disk.SchedNumReqOutstanding |
256 |
32 |
n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Irq.BestVcpuRouting |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 | 0 |
Mem.BalancePeriod |
0 |
15 |
0 |
15 |
n/a |
n/a |
n/a | n/a |
Mem.SamplePeriod |
0 |
60 |
0 |
60 |
n/a |
n/a |
n/a | n/a |
Mem.ShareScanGHz |
0 |
4 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
4 |
0 | 4 |
Mem.VMOverheadGrowthLimit |
0 |
4294967295 |
0 |
4294967295 |
0 |
4294967295 |
0 | 4294967295 |
Misc.TimerMaxHardPeriod |
2000 |
100000 |
2000 |
100000 |
2000 |
100000 |
2000 | 500000 |
Misc.TimerMinHardPeriod |
100 | 100 |
n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Net.AllowPT |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 | 1 |
Net.MaxNetifRxQueueLen |
500 |
100 |
500 |
100 |
500 |
100 |
500 | n/a |
Net.MaxNetifTxQueueLen |
1000 |
500 |
1000 |
500 |
1000 |
500 |
1000 | 2000 |
Net.NetTxCompletionWorldlet |
0 |
1 |
0 | 1 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Net.NetTxWordlet |
0 |
2 |
1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | n/a |
Numa.LTermFairnessInterval |
0 |
5 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
5 |
0 | 5 |
Numa.MonMigEnable |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 | 1 |
Numa.PageMigEnable |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 | 1 |
Numa.PreferHT |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 | 0 |
Numa.RebalancePeriod |
60000 |
2000 |
60000 |
2000 |
60000 |
2000 |
60000 | 2000 |
Numa.SwapInterval |
1 |
3 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
3 |
1 | 3 |
Numa.SwapLoadEnable |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 | 1 |
Figure : ESXi Parameters
VM Configuration Recommendations
The following configurations are recommended to improve performance.
Configure the VM Latency Sensitivity setting to High in VM Options > Advanced configurations as shown below:
Figure : VM Options Window
Limit instances to using cores from a single NUMA by configuring the numa.nodeaffinity option according to the number of the NUMA node the VM is on. Access this option using the path: VM Options > Advanced > Configuration Parameters > Edit Configuration For example, in the following figure the Numa node is 0.
Figure : Configuration Parameters Window
Additional VM configuration recommendations appear in the following table.
Table : VM Configuration Recommendations
Settings | Recommended Configuration |
---|---|
vCPU | Minimum 4 vCPUs required. Any number of vCPUs may be configured depending upon the call capacity requirements, but the number should be even (4, 6, 8, etc.) to avoid impacting performance. Keep the Resource Allocation setting marked as 'unlimited.' Refer to Adjusting Resource Allocations for a VM for more information on setting CPU-related parameters. |
vRAM | Keep the Resource Allocation setting marked as 'unlimited'. Reserve the memory based on call capacity and configuration requirements. Refer to SBC SWe Performance Metrics for supported call capacities with different configuration limits. |
Virtual Hard Disk | Set the Hard Disk (virtual) size as 100 GB or more (based on requirements of retaining CDRs, logs, etc. for number of days)
|
vNICs | Set the number of virtual NICs as 4 (1-MGMT, 1-HA, 1-PKT0 and 1-PKT1).
|
vSwitch settings |
|
Note
Make sure the Processors, ESXi version and VM configuration (vCPUs, vRAM, Virtual Hard Disk, vNICs, and vSwitch Settings) are identical for an SBC SWe HA pair.
Note
Make sure that the BIOS and ESXi settings and recommendations are not changed once they are applied on the server.
Note
To configure VLAN on SRIOV and PCI Passthrough Ethernet interfaces, disable the Data Center Bridging (DCB) on the switch connected to the interfaces.