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Panel

In this section:

Table of Contents
maxLevel4


 


This section describes

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hardware and software requirements and recommendations.

To install and configure the 

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, make sure the Virtual Machine (VM) host meets the following recommended hardware, server platform and software requirements. 

warning
Warning
title
Warning

The recommended hardware and software settings are intended to ensure optimum 

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stability and performance. If the recommended settings are not used, the
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system may not behave as expected.

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MultiExcerptName

SBC SWe for VMware – Server Hardware Requirements


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MultiExcerptNameSBC SWe for VMware – Server Hardware Requirements

The following table lists the server hardware requirements:

Caption
0Table
1Server Hardware Requirements

 



 ConfigurationRequirement
Processor

Intel Xeon processors (Nehalem micro-architecture or above) with 6 cores and above (processors should support hyper threading).

NoteSonus
Info
titleNote

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.


Info
note
titleNote

The supported CPU Family

Number

number is 6 and CPU Model

Number

number must be newer than 26. Refer to the Intel Architecture and Processor Identification document for more information.


Info
titleNote

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.


 RAMMinimum 24 GB
Hard DiskMinimum 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

future

SWe optimizations).

Info
note
titleNote

Make sure

NIC has

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.

NoteOnly Intel I350 Ethernet adapter is


Info
titleNote
  • The Intel I350, x540, x550, and 82599 Ethernet adapters are supported for configuring as
VMDirectPath
  • SR-IOV and DirectPath I/O pass-through
device.
  • devices. SR-IOV is supported only with 10 Gbps interfaces (x540/82599).
  • The VMware Enterprise Plus license is required for SR-IOV.


Info
titleNote

 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:

  • 1 Management port
  • 1 HA port
  • 2 Media ports



Warning
titleWarning

The 

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software only runs on platforms using Intel processors. Platforms using AMD processors are not supported.

 



BIOS Setting Recommendations

Sonus Ribbon recommends the following BIOS settings for optimum performance:

Caption
0Table
1Recommended BIOS Settings for Optimum Performance


BIOS ParameterRecommended
Setting
Details
Intel VT-x (Virtualization Technology)EnabledFor hardware virtualization
Intel VT-d (Directed I/O)EnabledIf available
Intel Hyper-ThreadingEnabled
 

Intel Turbo BoostEnabled
 

CPU power managementMaximum Performance
 


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For example, the BIOS settings are shown below are recommended for HP DL 380p DL380p Gen8 servers. For BIOS settings of other servers, refer to the respective vendor's website.

 

Caption
0Table
1BIOS Setting Recommendations for HP DL380p Gen8 Server


BIOS ParameterRecommended
Setting
Default Value
HP Power Profile Maximum PerformanceBalanced Power and Performance
Thermal ConfigurationMaximum CoolingOptimal Cooling
HW PrefetchersDisabledEnabled
Adjacent Sector PrefetcherDisabledEnabled
Processor Power and Utilization MonitoringDisabledEnabled
Memory Pre-Failure NotificationDisabledEnabled
Memory Refresh Rate1x Refresh2x Refresh
Data Direct I/OEnabledDisabled
SR-IOVEnabledDisabled
Intel® VT-dEnabledDisabled



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MultiExcerptNameSBC SWe for VMware – Software Requirements

SBC SWe for VMware – Software Requirements

The following are the

VMware ESXi and 

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 software requirements

 requirements for VMware ESXi environments:

VMware ESXi Requirements

Caption
0Table
1VMWare ESXi Requirements


SoftwareVersionTested and Qualified VersionFor More Information
vSphere ESXi
5
6.
1
0 or above
  • VMware 6.0 tested with VM version 11
  • VMware 6.5 tested with VM version 13
  • Customized ESXi images for various server platforms are available on VMware and
Hardware
  • hardware platform vendor sites.
    It ensures
      • These ensure that all the required drivers for network and storage controllers are available to run ESXi server.
      • Most of the customized ESXi images
    comes
    (under Download images)
    vSphere Client5.1 or above
     

    VMware Knowledge Base
    vCenter Server5.1 or above
     
    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

    The VMware Standard License will be sufficient for SWe SBC unless the PKT interfaces for SBC SWe needs to be configured in Direct IO Pass-through mode. In that case, the Enterprise Plus version of VMware ESXi software is required.

     



    Info
    titleNote

    The VMware Enterprise Plus license is required for SR-IOV.


    Third-Party References:


    Downloading the SBC SWe Software Package

    For more information, refer to Downloading the SBC SWe Installation Files from SalesForce PortalSoftware Package.

    Sonus

    Recommendations for Optimum Performance

    Following are recommended VMware ESXi and
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    virtual machine (VM) configurations. 

    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

    Following The following are recommended 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.
    • Disconnect Under BIOS settings, disconnect or disable any physical hardware devices (Floppy floppy devices, Network network interfaces, Storage storage controllers, Optical 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 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.

    Anchor
    ESXi_Param
    ESXi_Param
    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

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    :.

    Div
    classpdf6pttextpdf8pttext


    Caption
    0Table
    1ESXi Advanced Settings


     


    ESXi Parameter

    ESXi 5.1 SettingsESXi 5.5 SettingsESXi 6.0 SettingsESXi 6.5 Settings

    Recommended

    Default

    Recommended

    Default

    Recommended

    Default

    RecommendedDefault

    Cpu.CoschedCrossCall

    0

    1

    0

    1

    0

    1

    01

    Cpu.CreditAgePeriod

    500

    3000

    100010001000100010003000

    DataMover.HardwareAcceleratedInit

    0

    1

    0

    1

    0

    1

    01

    DataMover.HardwareAcceleratedMove

    0

    1

    0

    1

    0

    1

    01

    Disk.SchedNumReqOutstanding

    256

    32

    (error)(error)(error)

    n/an/an/an/an/an/a
    (error)

    Irq.BestVcpuRouting

    1

    0

    1

    0

    1

    0

    10

    Mem.BalancePeriod

    0

    15

    0

    15

    (error)

    n/a

    n/a

    n/an/a
    (error)

    Mem.SamplePeriod

    0

    60

    0

    60

    (error)

    n/a

    n/a

    n/an/a
    (error)

    Mem.ShareScanGHz

    0

    4

    0

    4

    0

    4

    04

    Mem.VMOverheadGrowthLimit

    0

    4294967295

    0

    4294967295

    0

    4294967295

    04294967295

    Misc.TimerMaxHardPeriod

    2000

    100000

    2000

    100000

    2000

    100000

    2000500000

    Misc.TimerMinHardPeriod

    100

    100

    (error)(error)(error)

    n/an/an/an/an/an/a
    (error)

    Net.AllowPT

    1

    0

    1

    0

    1

    0

    11

    Net.MaxNetifRxQueueLen

    500

    100

    500

    100

    500

    100

    500n/a

    Net.MaxNetifTxQueueLen

    1000

    500

    1000

    500

    1000

    500

    10002000

    Net.NetTxCompletionWorldlet

    0

    1

    01
    (error)
    n/an/an/an/a
    (error)

    Net.NetTxWordlet

    0

    2

    12121n/a

    Numa.LTermFairnessInterval

    0

    5

    0

    5

    0

    5

    05

    Numa.MonMigEnable

    0

    1

    0

    1

    0

    1

    01

    Numa.PageMigEnable

    0

    1

    0

    1

    0

    1

    01

    Numa.PreferHT

    1

    0

    1

    0

    1

    0

    10

    Numa.RebalancePeriod

    60000

    2000

    60000

    2000

    60000

    2000

    600002000

    Numa.SwapInterval

    1

    3

    1

    3

    1

    3

    13

    Numa.SwapLoadEnable

    0

    1

    0

    1

    0

    1

     
    0
     
    1




    Caption
    0Figure
    1ESXi 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:

    Caption
    0Figure
    1VM Options Window

    Image Added

     


    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

    Configuration Recommendations

    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. 

    Caption
    0Figure
    1Configuration Parameters Window

    Image Added

     


    Additional VM configuration recommendations appear in the following table.

    Caption
    0Table
    1VM Configuration Recommendations

     



     SettingsRecommended Configuration
    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, but the number should be even (4, 6, 8, etc.) to avoid impacting performance.

    Keep the Resource Allocation setting marked as 'unlimited.'

    with CPU freq. set to "physical processor CPU speed multiplied by number of vCPUs assigned to VM".
    Note

    3 vCPUs configuration is supported only from SBC 4.2.4 release.

    Note

    VMDirectPath mode is only supported for PKT ports for vCPUs >=4.

    WarningIn Direct I/O, if you want to notified with link detection failure using LinkMonitor, use a server with more than 4 vCPUs

    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)

      • Use Thick provisioning (eager zero)
      • Hard disk size cannot be changed once SBC SWe software is installed
    vNICs

    Set the number of virtual NICs as 4 (1-MGMT, 1-HA, 1-PKT0 and 1-PKT1).

    • Use only the VMXNET3 driver.
    • Always use the automatic MAC address assignment option while creating vNICs.
    • Associate each vNIC
    to
    • with separate vSwitches.
    • Use the ESXi NIC teaming feature to achieve redundancy at the physical NIC level.
    vSwitch settings
    • Use four different vSwitches for
    each
    • the four vNICs on the
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      VM. This ensures various traffic
    to be
    • is physically separated on the SBC.
      • Assign 1 physical NIC port (1 Gbps) to each vSwitch if physical NIC redundancy is not needed, otherwise assign 2 physical NIC ports (in active-standby mode using NIC team feature) to each vSwitch.

        Info
        title
    note
      • Note

        The same physical NIC port cannot be associated with different vSwitches.


    • Use four different virtual networking labels, each with different VLANs or subnets.
    • Always run active and standby
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      VMs on different physical servers.
    • Disable VM logging.


    note
    Info
    titleNote

    Make sure the Processors, ESXi version and VM configuration (vCPUs, vRAMsvRAM, Virtual Hard Disk, vNICs, and vSwitch Settings) must be are identical for an SBC SWe HA pair.


    Infonote
    titleNote

    Make sure that the BIOS and ESXi settings and recommendations must are not be changed once it is they are applied on the server.

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