PacketDirect Provider Interface

As of v5.25, WinOF supports NDIS PacketDirect Provider Interface. PacketDirect extends NDIS with an accelerated I/O model, which can increase the number of packets processed per second by an order of magnitude and significantly decrease jitter when compared to the traditional NDIS I/O path.

System Requirements

• Hypervisor OS: Windows Server 2016

• Virtual Machine (VM) OS: Windows Server 2012 and above

• Mellanox ConnectX-3 Pro Adapter Card family

• Mellanox WinOF 5.25 or higher

• Firmware version: 2.36.5150 or higher

Using PacketDirect for VM

To allow a VM to send/receive traffic in PacketDirect mode:

1. Enable PacketDirect: 
   • On the Ethernet adapter. 

   PS $ Enable-NetAdapterPacketDirect -Name <EthInterfaceName>
   

   • In the Device Manager:
      

   
   

2. Create a vSwitch with PacketDirect enabled.

   PS $ New-VMSwitch <vSwitchName> -NetAdapterName <EthInterfaceName> -EnablePacketDirect $true -AllowManagementOS $true
   

3. Enable VFP extension: 
   • On the vSwitch. 

   PS $ Enable-VMSwitchExtension -VmSwitchName <vSwitchName> -Name "Windows Azure VFP
   Switch Extension"
   

   
   • In the Hyper-V Manager: Action->Virtual Switch Manager...
     
   
   

4. Shut down the VM.

   PS $ Stop-VM -Name <VMName> -Force -Confirm
   

5. Add a virtual network adapter for the VM.

   PS $ Add-VMNetworkAdapter -VMName <VMName> -SwitchName <vSwitchName> -StaticMacAddress <StaticMAC Address>
   

6. Start the VM. 

   PS $ Start-VM -Name <VMName>
   

   Since VFP is enabled, without any forwarding rules, it will block all traffic going through the VM. 
   Follow the following steps to unblock the traffic: 
   • Find the port name for the VM.

   CMD > vfpctrl /list-vmswitch-port
   …...
   Port name            : E431C413-D31F-40EB-AD96-0B2D45FE34AA
   Port Friendly name   :
   Switch name          : 8B288106-9DB6-4720-B144-6CC32D53E0EC
   Switch Friendly name : MlnxSwitch
   PortId               : 3
   VMQ Usage            : 0
   SR-IOV Usage         : 0
   Port type            : Synthetic
   Port is Initialized.
   MAC Learning is Disabled.
   NIC name             : bd65960d-4215-4a4f-bddc-962a5d0e2fa0--e7199a49-6cca-4d3c-a4cd-22907592527e
   NIC Friendly name    : testnic
   MTU                  : 1500
   MAC address          : 00-15-5D-4C-46-00
   VM name              : vm
   ......
   Command list-vmswitch-port succeeded!
   

7. Disable the port to allow traffic.

   CMD > vfpctrl /disable-port /port <PortName>
   Command disable-port succeeded!
   

   The port should be disabled after each reboot of the VM to allow traffic.

Last updated: March 18, 2019