In this section:

 

This section describes SBC SWe hardware and software requirements and recommendations.

To install and configure SBC SWe, 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 SBC SWe stability and performance. If the recommended settings are not used, SBC SWe system may not behave as expected.

SBC SWe for KVM Hypervisor – Server Hardware Requirements

The following table lists the server hardware requirements.

KVM Hypervisor Server Hardware Requirements

 
Configuration Requirement
Processor

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

Note

Westmere (or newer) processors are recommended for better SRTP performance. These processors have the AES-NI instruction set for performing cryptographic operations in hardware.


 RAMMinimum 24 GB
Hard DiskMinimum 500 GB
Network Interface Cards (NICs)
Minimum 4 NICs.
Note

Make sure NIC has multi-queue support which enhances network performance by allowing RX and TX queues to scale with the number of CPUs on multi-processor systems.


Ports

Number of ports allowed:

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

Warning

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

BIOS Setting Recommendations

Sonus recommends the following BIOS settings for optimum performance:

Recommended BIOS Settings for Optimum Performance

BIOS ParameterRecommended
Setting		Details
Intel VT-x (Virtualization Technology)EnabledFor hardware virtualization
Intel Hyper-ThreadingEnabled 
Intel Turbo BoostEnabled 
CPU power managementMaximum 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's website.

BIOS Setting Recommendations for HP DL380p Gen8 Server

BIOS ParameterRecommended
Setting		Default Value
HP Power ProfileMaximum 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


SBC SWe for KVM Hypervisor – Software Requirements

Following are KVM hypervisor and SBC SWe software requirements:

KVM Requirements

SoftwareVersionTested or Qualified Version
KVM Module 3.10.0 or above3.10.0
QEMU Emulator  1.5.31.5.3
libvirtd (libvirt)1.1.11.1.1
virt-manager0.10.00.10.0

Downloading the SBC SWe Software Package

For more information, see Downloading SBC SWe Installation Files from Salesforce Portal.

Note

Processors and VM configuration (CPUs, RAMs, Virtual Hard Disk, NICs, and bridge Settings) must be identical for SBC SWe HA pair.

Note

BIOS settings and recommendations must not be changed once it is applied on the server.

KVM Configuration Recommendations 

KVM Configuration Recommendations


 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. 

KVM Direct-IO mode is only supported for PKT ports for vCPUs >=4.

 vRAM

Reserve the memory based on call capacity and configuration requirements. Refer to benchmarking data 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).

 

Note: Hard disk size cannot be changed after the SBC SWe software is installed.

vNICs

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

  • Use only Virt-IO driver.
  • Associate each vNIC to separate bridges.



Note
  • Processors, KVM hypervisor version and VM configuration (vCPUs, vRAMs, Virtual Hard Disk, vNICs, and vSwitch Settings) must be identical for SBC SWe HA pair.
  • BIOS and KVM hypervisor settings and recommendations must not be changed once it is applied on the server.