Server Hardware Requirements
The following table lists the server hardware requirements:Server Configuration | Requirement |
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Processor | 2nd Generation Intel Core or Intel Xeon Processor (Sandy bridge or later) |
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RAMMinimum 16 GB | Hard Disk | Minimum ??? GB |
Network Interface Cards (NICs) | ???Ports | Number of ports allowed: - ??? Management port
- ??? HA port
- ??? Media ports
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Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard | HypervisorHyper-V, KVM, ESXi, VMWare ESXi | System TypeESXi 5.5 or above | Architecture | 64-bit |
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architecture and 64-bit OSIntel processor | RAM | RAM requirements are dependent upon the number of VMs hosted, the memory assigned to each VM instance, and the relative overhead memory associated with each. | Datastore | Hard disk requirements are dependent upon the number of VMs hosted, the size of each VM at full size, and whether snapshots will be enabled. |
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Warning |
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Warning |
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The software only runs on platforms using Intel processors. Platforms using AMD processors are currently not supported. |
BIOS Setting Recommendations
Sonus recommends the following BIOS settings for optimum performance:
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0 | Table |
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1 | Recommended BIOS Settings for Optimum Performance |
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BIOS Parameter | Recommended
Setting | Details |
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Intel VT-x (Virtualization Technology) | ??? | For hardware virtualization | Intel VT-d (Directed I/O) | ??? | If available | Intel Hyper-Threading | ??? | | Intel Turbo Boost | ??? | | CPU power management | ??? | |
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For example, the BIOS settings are shown below for HP DL 380p Gen8 servers. For BIOS settings of other servers, refer to the respective vendor website.
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0 | Table |
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1 | BIOS Setting Recommendations for HP DL380p Gen8 Server |
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BIOS Parameter | Recommended
Setting | Default Value |
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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 |
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Software Requirements - VMware ESXi
The following are the VMware ESXi and
software requirements:VMware ESXi Requirements
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0 | Table |
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1 | VMWare ESXi Requirements |
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Software | Version | Tested and Qualified Version | For More Information |
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vSphere ESXi | 5.1 or above | - VMware 6.0 tested with VM version 11
| Minimum ESXi hosting requirements are posted by VMware.
VMware ESXi
Customized ESXi images for various server platforms are available on VMware and Hardware platform vendor sites.
- It ensures that all the required drivers for network and storage controllers are available to run ESXi server.
- Most of the customized ESXi images comes with customized management software to manage server running ESXi software.
- Customized ESXi images for HP ProLiant and IBM servers are available at:
vSphere Client | 5.1 or above | | VMware Knowledge Base |
vCenter Server | 5.1 or above | vCenter Server | Warning |
Virtual network interfaces will not come up using VMware ESXi 5.5 Update 3. For more information,
refer to 5.0.x Release Notes. Note |
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The VMware Standard License will be sufficient for unless the PKT interfaces for needs to be configured in Direct IO Pass-through mode. In that case, the Enterprise Plus version of VMware ESXi software is required.
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Third-Party References:please visit the VMware Knowledge Base
Refer to VMware Compatibility Guide (external site) for a list of VMware supported Intel processors.
Refer to ESXi hardware requirements to ensure the VMware supported Intel processors meet ESXi hardware requirements.
Sonus Recommendations for
Optimum PerformanceFollowing are recommended VMware ESXi and
virtual machine (VM) configurations. General ESXi Recommendations
Following are recommended VMware ESXi configurations:SBC SWe Lite
General Recommendations
- 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 with 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.
Disconnect or disable any physical hardware devices (Floppy devices, Network interfaces, Storage controllers, Optical drives, USB controllers, etc.) under BIOS settings that you will not be using to free up interrupt/CPU resources.
Use virtual hardware version 8 and above while creating new VMs (available starting ESXi 5.x). This provides additional capabilities to VMs such as supporting VM with up to 1 TB RAM, up to 32 vCPUs etc.
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ESXi_Param | ESXi_Param | ESXi Host Configuration ParametersUse VMware vSphere client to configure the following ESXi host configuration parameters on the Advanced Settings page (see figure below) before installing the :
Div |
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ESXi Advanced Settings | ESXi Parameter
| ESXi 5.1 Settings | ESXi 5.5 Settings | ESXi 6.0 Settings |
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Recommended
| Default
| Recommended
| Default
| Recommended
| Default
|
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Cpu.CoschedCrossCall
| 0
| 1
| 0
| 1
| 0
| 1
| Cpu.CreditAgePeriod
| 500
| 3000
| 1000 | 1000 | 1000 | 1000 | DataMover.HardwareAcceleratedInit
| 0
| 1
| 0
| 1
| 0
| 1
| DataMover.HardwareAcceleratedMove
| 0
| 1
| 0
| 1
| 0
| 1
| Disk.SchedNumReqOutstanding
| 256
| 32
| | | | | Irq.BestVcpuRouting
| 1
| 0
| 1
| 0
| 1
| 0
| Mem.BalancePeriod
| 0
| 15
| 0
| 15
|
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| Mem.SamplePeriod
| 0
| 60
| 0
| 60
|
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| Mem.ShareScanGHz
| 0
| 4
| 0
| 4
| 0
| 4
| Mem.VMOverheadGrowthLimit
| 0
| 4294967295
| 0
| 4294967295
| 0
| 4294967295
| Misc.TimerMaxHardPeriod
| 2000
| 100000
| 2000
| 100000
| 2000
| 100000
| Misc.TimerMinHardPeriod
| 100 | 100
| | | | | Net.AllowPT
| 1
| 0
| 1
| 0
| 1
| 0
| Net.MaxNetifRxQueueLen
| 500
| 100
| 500
| 100
| 500
| 100
| Net.MaxNetifTxQueueLen
| 1000
| 500
| 1000
| 500
| 1000
| 500
| Net.NetTxCompletionWorldlet
| 0
| 1
| 0 | 1 | | | Net.NetTxWordlet
| 0
| 2
| 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | Numa.LTermFairnessInterval
| 0
| 5
| 0
| 5
| 0
| 5
| Numa.MonMigEnable
| 0
| 1
| 0
| 1
| 0
| 1
| Numa.PageMigEnable
| 0
| 1
| 0
| 1
| 0
| 1
| Numa.PreferHT
| 1
| 0
| 1
| 0
| 1
| 0
| Numa.RebalancePeriod
| 60000
| 2000
| 60000
| 2000
| 60000
| 2000
| Numa.SwapInterval
| 1
| 3
| 1
| 3
| 1
| 3
| Numa.SwapLoadEnable
| 0
| 1
| 0
| 1
| 0
| 1
|
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Caption |
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Image Removed |
VM Configuration Recommendations
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0 | Table |
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1 | VM Configuration Recommendations |
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Settings | Recommended Configuration |
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vCPU | Minimum 4 vCPUs required. But In case where there are only four physical cores available, you must configure the VM with only 3 vCPUs. Any number of vCPUs may be configured depending upon the call capacity requirements.
Keep Resource Allocation setting marked as 'unlimited' with CPU freq. set to "physical processor CPU speed multiplied by number of vCPUs assigned to VM".
Note |
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VMDirectPath mode is only supported for PKT ports for vCPUs >=4.
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vRAM | Keep 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.
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Virtual Hard Disk | Set Hard Disk (virtual) size as 100 GB or more (based on requirements of retaining CDRs, logs, etc. for number of days)
Use Thick provisioning (eager zero)Hard disk size cannot be changed once SBC SWe software is installed
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vNICs | Set number of virtual NICs as 4 (1-MGMT, 1-HA, 1-PKT0 and 1-PKT1).
Use only VMXNET3 driverAlways use automatic MAC address assignment option while creating vNICs.
Associate each vNIC to separate vSwitches
Use ESXi NIC teaming feature to achieve redundancy at physical NIC level.
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vSwitch settings | Use four different vSwitches for each vNICs onVM. This ensures various traffic to be physically separated on SBC.Use four different virtual networking labels, each with different VLANs or subnets.Always run active and standby VMs on different physical serversDisable VM logging
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Note |
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Make sure the Processors, ESXi version and VM configuration (vCPUs, vRAMs, Virtual Hard Disk, vNICs, and vSwitch Settings) must be identical for an HA pair. |
Note |
Make sure that the BIOS and ESXi settings and recommendations must not be changed once VM Configuration Recommendations |
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Setting | Minimum |
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vCPU | 1 | RAM | 512 MB | vNIC | 5 | Virtual Hard Disk | 5 GB |
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- The SBC SWeLite VM does not currently support allocation of more than one vCPU.
- With minimum RAM allocation, the maximum SIP endpoint registrars is 1000, and the maximum number of concurrent calls is 100.
- The estimated ESXi overhead memory for each SBC SWe Lite Virtual Machine is 30MB.
- Minimal networking configuration requires the Management Network Interface and at least one Media Interface to be assigned.
- Each SBC SWeLite VM will use approximately 5GB of Virtual Hard Drive space. Drive size is pre-determined by the imported image
it is applied on the server