* NexXen NetSlice creates up to 1,024 individual, virtualized NIC drivers
Linux Server virtualization allows multiple server images to run on top of a single server box, using tools such as VMWare or the open-source Xen virtualization stack. Using a single system’s CPU, memory and other physical resources has proven to be a useful way to manage lots of machines more cost-effectively than running individual Linux servers on their own hardware.
Linux Server virtualization allows multiple server images to run on top of a single server box, using tools such as VMWare or the open-source Xen virtualization stack. Using a single system’s CPU, memory and other physical resources has proven to be a useful way to manage lots of machines more cost-effectively than running individual Linux servers on their own hardware.
But when it comes to network hardware and I/O, sharing among Linux instances sometimes gets messy. In the past, users who experienced network I/O bottlenecks on virtualized Linux servers may have just thrown more NICs into the box. NetXen says there is a better way.
While NetXen has already been shipping some some pretty high-powered adapters for Linux servers, its dual-port 10G and quad-port Gigabit cards have been available since April. Now the company has made a firmware upgrade available for the NICs aimed specifically at servers running multiple virtual machines.
NetXen says its new NetSlice technology can create up to 1,024 individual, virtualized NIC drivers for as many virtual machines running on a single physical machine. The way Linux virtual machines run today, the hypervisor manages the translation of virtual server software to physical system resources. When dozens of Linux virtual machines are accessing the device driver resources for a single NIC, bottlenecks can occur as the hypervisor must translate back and forth between virtual machines and the physical hardware.
The NetSlice technology basically offloads this portion of the hypervisor’s job to hardware on the NIC; this is similar to TCP/IP, SSL or other protocol or I/O processing offload features commonly found on network adapters and other cards. Instead of packing every available PCI-X or PCI-express slot with more and more NIC cards, consolidating network hardware onto a single or two 10G pipes could save money and allow virtual Linux machines to use CPU resources more efficiently.
