Any SBC SWe configuration (other than/outside of a D-SBC deployment) beyond 32 vCPUs is invalid and not supported.
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.
In this section:
This page covers the Ribbon-recommended host hardware settings for VMware and not the SBC VM instance size. Network operators must work with the designated Ribbon account team to determine the size of the VM that is required for the call flows and rate they require.
To install and configure SBC SWe, make sure the Virtual Machine (VM) host meets the following recommended hardware, server platform and software requirements.
SBC SWe for VMware – Server Hardware Requirements
Ribbon is retiring the 2 vCPU for the SBC SWe private cloud as of the 12.0 release.
The SBC SWe software only runs on platforms using Intel processors. Platforms using AMD processors are not supported. The following table lists the server hardware requirements: Intel Xeon processors (Nehalem micro-architecture or above) with 6 cores and above (processors should support hyper threading). 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. 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. 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. Minimum 4 NICs, if physical NIC redundancy is not required. Ribbon recommends using SR-IOV with 10 Gbps interfaces (e.g., x540/82599/x710). Although SR-IOV is supported on 1 Gbps, the 10 Gbps interfaces provide better throughput. Use the latest firmware for the specific NIC corresponding to the hardware platform. 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. The VMware Enterprise Plus license is required for SR-IOV. Number of ports allowed: Configuration Requirement Processor RAM Minimum 24 GB Hard Disk Minimum 500 GB Network Interface Cards (NICs) Ports
SBC SWe for VMware – Software Requirements
Using older versions of ESXi can trigger a VM instance shutdown. To prevent this from occurring, you must upgrade the VMware ESXi -- refer to the End of General Support column on https://lifecycle.vmware.com/#/ for supported versions. The following are the SBC SWe requirements for VMware ESXi environments: Version The version must be supported. See the End of General Support column at https://lifecycle.vmware.com/#/ for supported versions. The VMware Enterprise Plus license is required for SR-IOV.Software Tested and Qualified Version For More Information vSphere ESXi vCenter Server vCenter Server
Third-Party References:
- 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.