This section describes
hardware and software requirements and recommendations.
To install and configure the
, make sure the Virtual Machine (VM) host meets the following recommended hardware, server platform and software requirements.
Warning |
---|
|
The recommended hardware and software settings are intended to ensure optimum stability and performance. If the recommended settings are not used, the system may not behave as expected. |
SBC SWe for VMware – Server Hardware Requirements
Multiexcerpt |
---|
MultiExcerptName | SBC SWe for VMware – Server Hardware Requirements |
---|
|
Warning |
---|
| The software only runs on platforms using Intel processors. Platforms using AMD processors are not supported. |
The following table lists the server hardware requirements: Caption |
---|
0 | Table |
---|
1 | Server Hardware Requirements |
---|
|
|
Configuration | Requirement |
---|
Processor | Intel Xeon processors (Nehalem micro-architecture or above) with 6 cores and above (processors should support hyper threading). |
|
Sonus 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 |
---|
| The supported CPU Family |
|
|
Number number is 6 and CPU Model |
|
|
Number
Info |
---|
| ESXi 6.5 and later releases |
|
|
requires require approximately 2 physical cores to be set aside for hypervisor functionality. |
|
|
Number The number of VMs which can be hosted on a server |
|
|
needs to must be planned for accordingly. |
| RAM | Minimum 24 GB | Hard Disk | Minimum 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 SWe optimizations).
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. |
|
|
Intel I350, x540, and 82599 Ethernet adapters - following NICs are supported for configuring as SR-IOV and DirectPath I/O pass-through devices.
|
|
|
The - SR-IOV is supported only with
|
|
|
10Gbps - 10 Gbps interfaces (x540/82599
|
|
|
). Intel I350, x540, x550, x710 and 82599, Mellanox Connect - 4x, and Mellanox Connect - 5x. - The VMware Enterprise Plus license is required for SR-IOV.
|
|
|
Info |
---|
|
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 |
---|
|
The software only runs on platforms using Intel processors. Platforms using AMD processors are not supported. |
BIOS Setting Recommendations
Sonus recommends the following BIOS settings for optimum performance:
Caption |
---|
0 | Table |
---|
1 | Recommended BIOS Settings for Optimum Performance |
---|
|
BIOS Parameter | Recommended Setting | Details |
---|
Intel VT-x (Virtualization Technology) | Enabled | For hardware virtualization | Intel VT-d (Directed I/O) | Enabled | If available | Intel Hyper-Threading | Enabled | | Intel Turbo Boost | Enabled | | CPU power management | Maximum Performance | |
|
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.
Caption |
---|
0 | Table |
---|
1 | BIOS Setting Recommendations for HP DL380p Gen8 Server |
---|
|
BIOS Parameter | Recommended Setting | Default Value |
---|
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 |
|
Multiexcerpt |
MultiExcerptName
SBC SWe for VMware – Software Requirements
Multiexcerpt |
---|
MultiExcerptName | SBC SWe for VMware – Software Requirements |
---|
|
Warning |
---|
| 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 |
VMware ESXi and software requirements requirements for VMware ESXi environments: VMware ESXi Requirements Caption |
---|
0 | Table |
---|
1 | VMWare ESXi Requirements |
---|
|
Software | Version* | Tested and Qualified Version | For More Information |
---|
vSphere ESXi |
|
|
51 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 - come with customized management software to manage the server running the ESXi software.
- Customized ESXi images for HP ProLiant and IBM servers are available at:
|
|
|
(under Download images) | vSphere Client | 5.1 or above |
|
|
| | 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 requiredEnterprise 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 Software Package.
Following are recommended VMware ESXi and
virtual machine (VM) configurations. General ESXi Recommendations
Following are recommended 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.
- Under BIOS settings, disconnect or disable any physical hardware devices (floppy devices, network interfaces, storage controllers, optical drives, USB controllers, etc.) that you will not be using to free up CPU resources.
Use virtual hardware version 8 and above 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 ParametersUse VMware vSphere client to configure the following ESXi host configuration parameters on the Advanced Settings page (see figure below) before installing the
. Div |
---|
|
Caption |
---|
0 | Table |
---|
1 | ESXi Advanced Settings |
---|
| ESXi Parameter | ESXi 5.1 Settings | ESXi 5.5 Settings | ESXi 6.0 Settings | ESXi 6.5 Settings |
---|
Recommended | Default | Recommended | Default | Recommended | Default | Recommended | Default |
---|
Cpu.CoschedCrossCall | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Cpu.CreditAgePeriod | 500 | 3000 | 1000 | 1000 | 1000 | 1000 | 1000 | 3000 | DataMover.HardwareAcceleratedInit | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | DataMover.HardwareAcceleratedMove | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Disk.SchedNumReqOutstanding | 256 | 32 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | Irq.BestVcpuRouting | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Mem.BalancePeriod | 0 | 15 | 0 | 15 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | Mem.SamplePeriod | 0 | 60 | 0 | 60 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | Mem.ShareScanGHz | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4 | Mem.VMOverheadGrowthLimit | 0 | 4294967295 | 0 | 4294967295 | 0 | 4294967295 | 0 | 4294967295 | Misc.TimerMaxHardPeriod | 2000 | 100000 | 2000 | 100000 | 2000 | 100000 | 2000 | 500000 | Misc.TimerMinHardPeriod | 100 | 100 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | Net.AllowPT | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | Net.MaxNetifRxQueueLen | 500 | 100 | 500 | 100 | 500 | 100 | 500 | n/a | Net.MaxNetifTxQueueLen | 1000 | 500 | 1000 | 500 | 1000 | 500 | 1000 | 2000 | Net.NetTxCompletionWorldlet | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | Net.NetTxWordlet | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | n/a | Numa.LTermFairnessInterval | 0 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 5 | Numa.MonMigEnable | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Numa.PageMigEnable | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Numa.PreferHT | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Numa.RebalancePeriod | 60000 | 2000 | 60000 | 2000 | 60000 | 2000 | 60000 | 2000 | Numa.SwapInterval | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | Numa.SwapLoadEnable | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
|
|
Caption |
---|
|
Image Removed |
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 |
---|
0 | Figure |
---|
1 | VM Options Window |
---|
|
Image Removed |
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 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 |
---|
0 | Figure |
---|
1 | Configuration Parameters Window |
---|
|
Image Removed |
Additional VM configuration recommendations appear in the following table. Caption |
---|
0 | Table |
---|
1 | VM Configuration Recommendations |
---|
|
|
Settings | Recommended Configuration |
---|
vCPU | Minimum 4 vCPUs required. 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.' 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 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 number of virtual NICs as 4 (1-MGMT, 1-HA, 1-PKT0 and 1-PKT1). - Use only VMXNET3 driver
Always 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.
|
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 servers
- Disable VM logging
|
Info |
---|
|
Make sure the Processors, ESXi version and VM configuration (vCPUs, vRAMs, Virtual Hard Disk, vNICs, and vSwitch Settings) must be identical for SBC SWe HA pair. |
Info |
---|
|
Make sure that the BIOS and ESXi settings and recommendations must not be changed once it is applied on the server. |
- processor meets the ESXi hardware requirements.