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Knowledge Base

Configuration maximums for NIC ports on ESXi/ESX 4.x and ESXi 5.x (1020808)

Last Updated: 2/28/2024Categories: Best PracticesTotal Views: 68898Language:
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Details

This article provides additional details about the NIC configuration maximums stated in the vSphere 4.0 Configuration Maximums document, the vSphere 4.1 Configuration Maximums document, the vSphere 5.0 Configuration Maximums document and the Configuration Maximums for vSphere 5.5.

This article provides maximums for NICs based upon tested configurations at 1 Gb and 10 Gb speeds, as well as theoretical maximums based on resource utilization estimates. The maximums provided here do not apply to 1 Gb drivers with NetQueue enabled.

The information applies to ESXi/ESX 4.x and ESXi 5.0, 5.1 and 5.5.

Solution

VMware Tested Maximum Configuration

VMware limit testing is performed with these settings:

1500-byte MTU (no jumbo frames)

The default number of queues for the NIC

These are maximums tested by VMware on systems with all NICs in a system in the same configuration. The testing below does not include mixed configurations where more than one kind of NIC is present in the system at the same time. That is, the adapters in one row cannot be combined with adapters in another row.

Manufacturer and NIC model

NIC Driver

Maximum Number of Supported NIC Ports

Number of CPUs

Memory

Intel PCI-x NIC

e1000

32

12

5.2 GB

Intel PCI-e NIC

e1000e

24

16

32 GB

Intel Zoar 1GigE

igb

16

16

32 GB

Broadcom 1GigE

tg3

32

16

32 GB

Broadcom 1GigE

bnx2

16

16

32 GB

NVIDIA 1GigE

forcedeth

2

4

8 GB

Neterion 10GigE

s2io

4

8

32 GB

Netxen 10GigE

nx_nic

4 (8 in ESXi 5.0)

8

32 GB

Netxen 1GigE

nx_nic

32

Intel 10GigE

ixgbe

4 (8 in ESXi 5.0)

4

16 GB

Broadcom 10GigE 5771x

bnx2x

4 (8 in ESXi 5.0)

8

72 GB

HP Flex-10

bnx2x

4 (physical NICs)

The maximum configurations in the table above have been verified using ESX 4.0 build 164009 using the drivers provided with that release. The configurations above have not been tested in any of these conditions:

With drivers released on separate CDs outside of the base ESXi/ESX installation

With jumbo frames (MTU > 1500 bytes)

With any NetQueue settings other than the defaults

Note: Some hardware vendors re-brand existing cards, but the underlying hardware will be the same. Refer to your hardware information to identify the correct hardware model.

Maximum Configurations

You can model the behavior of multiple adapter/driver classes running concurrently on a single system based on estimated CPU and memory requirements for various NICs. When using a large number of NICs on an ESXi/ESX system, make sure that the system has adequate memory and an appropriate number of CPUs. You must thoroughly qualify all such configurations prior to deployment.

Based on this modeling, VMware believes that you should be able to deploy these untested maximum configurations:

ESXi/ESX 4.x

For 1500 MTU configurations:

4 x 10G ports or

16 x 1G ports or

When combining different speeds: 2 x 10G ports + 8 x 1G ports

For jumbo frame (for MTU up to 9000 bytes) configurations:

4 x 10G ports (only if the number of cores in the system is more than 8) or

12 x 1G ports or

When combining different speeds: 2 x 10G ports and 4 x 1G ports

For more information on networking maximums, see the vSphere 4.0 Configuration Maximums or vSphere 4.1 Configuration Maximums documents.

ESXi 5.0, 5.1 and 5.5

For 1500 MTU and jumbo frame (for MTU up to 9000 bytes) configurations:

8 x 10G ports

or

32 x 1G ports

or

A combination of 10Gb and 1Gb ethernet ports:

ESXi 5.0 and 5.1 : 6 X 10Gb + 4 X 1Gb ports

ESXi 5.5 : 8 X 10Gb + 4 X 1Gb ports

For more information on networking maximums, see:

The Configuration Maximums Guide vSphere 5.1/ vSphere 5.5.

Configuration Maximums when using virtualized networking (2004353).

Notes:

VMware recommends that you use a mixed environment to avoid a single point of failure for a driver issue.

These estimates do not take into account platform-specific limitations. The configurations depend on the hardware, number of cores, overall system memory, and other factors.

Some 1 GigE NICs can support a maximum configuration of 24 or 32 networking ports as indicated in the table above (in ESXi/ESX 4.x), but note that these are with 1500 MTU configurations.

Additional Information

For translated versions of this article, see:

日本語: ESXi/ESX 4.x および ESXi 5.x で NIC ポート数の上限値を構成する (2086721)

简体中文: ESXi/ESX 4.x 和 ESXi 5.x 上的网卡端口的最高配置 (2091659)

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