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<table class="head">
<tr>
<td class="head-ltitle">VMX(4)</td>
<td class="head-vol">Device Drivers Manual</td>
<td class="head-rtitle">VMX(4)</td>
</tr>
</table>
<div class="manual-text">
<section class="Sh">
<h1 class="Sh" id="NAME"><a class="permalink" href="#NAME">NAME</a></h1>
<p class="Pp"><code class="Nm">vmx</code> — <span class="Nd">VMware
VMXNET3 Virtual Interface Controller device</span></p>
</section>
<section class="Sh">
<h1 class="Sh" id="SYNOPSIS"><a class="permalink" href="#SYNOPSIS">SYNOPSIS</a></h1>
<p class="Pp">To compile this driver into the kernel, place the following lines
in your kernel configuration file:</p>
<div class="Bd Pp Bd-indent"><code class="Cd">device iflib</code>
<br/>
<code class="Cd">device vmx</code></div>
<p class="Pp">Alternatively, to load the driver as a module at boot time, place
the following line in <a class="Xr">loader.conf(5)</a>:</p>
<div class="Bd Pp Bd-indent Li">
<pre>if_vmx_load="YES"</pre>
</div>
</section>
<section class="Sh">
<h1 class="Sh" id="DESCRIPTION"><a class="permalink" href="#DESCRIPTION">DESCRIPTION</a></h1>
<p class="Pp">The <code class="Nm">vmx</code> driver provides support for the
VMXNET3 virtual NIC available in virtual machines by VMware. It appears as a
simple Ethernet device but is actually a virtual network interface to the
underlying host operating system.</p>
<p class="Pp">This driver supports the <code class="Ic">VMXNET3</code> driver
protocol, as an alternative to the emulated <a class="Xr">le(4)</a>,
<a class="Xr">em(4)</a> interfaces also available in the VMware environment.
The <code class="Nm">vmx</code> driver is optimized for the virtual machine,
it can provide advanced capabilities depending on the underlying host
operating system and the physical network interface controller of the host.
The <code class="Nm">vmx</code> driver supports features like multiqueue
support, IPv6 checksum offloading, MSI/MSI-X support and hardware VLAN
tagging in VMware's VLAN Guest Tagging (VGT) mode.</p>
<p class="Pp">The <code class="Nm">vmx</code> driver supports VMXNET3 VMware
virtual NICs provided by the virtual machine hardware version 7 or newer, as
provided by the following products:</p>
<p class="Pp"></p>
<ul class="Bl-bullet Bd-indent Bl-compact">
<li>VMware ESX/ESXi 4.0 and newer</li>
<li>VMware Server 2.0 and newer</li>
<li>VMware Workstation 6.5 and newer</li>
<li>VMware Fusion 2.0 and newer</li>
</ul>
<p class="Pp">For more information on configuring this device, see
<a class="Xr">ifconfig(8)</a>.</p>
</section>
<section class="Sh">
<h1 class="Sh" id="MULTIPLE_QUEUES"><a class="permalink" href="#MULTIPLE_QUEUES">MULTIPLE
QUEUES</a></h1>
<p class="Pp">The <code class="Nm">vmx</code> driver supports multiple transmit
and receive queues. Multiple queues are only supported by certain VMware
products, such as ESXi. The number of queues allocated depends on the
presence of MSI-X, the number of configured CPUs, and the tunables listed
below. <span class="Ux">FreeBSD</span> does not enable MSI-X support on
VMware by default. The <var class="Va">hw.pci.honor_msi_blacklist</var>
tunable must be disabled to enable MSI-X support.</p>
</section>
<section class="Sh">
<h1 class="Sh" id="LOADER_TUNABLES"><a class="permalink" href="#LOADER_TUNABLES">LOADER
TUNABLES</a></h1>
<p class="Pp">Tunables can be set at the <a class="Xr">loader(8)</a> prompt
before booting the kernel or stored in <a class="Xr">loader.conf(5)</a>.</p>
<dl class="Bl-tag">
<dt id="hw.vmx.txnqueue"><var class="Va">hw.vmx.txnqueue</var></dt>
<dd style="width: auto;"> </dd>
<dt id="hw.vmx."><var class="Va">hw.vmx.</var><var class="Ar">X</var><var class="Va">.txnqueue</var></dt>
<dd>Maximum number of transmit queues allocated by default by the driver. The
default value is 8. The maximum supported by the VMXNET3 virtual NIC is
8.</dd>
<dt id="hw.vmx.rxnqueue"><var class="Va">hw.vmx.rxnqueue</var></dt>
<dd style="width: auto;"> </dd>
<dt id="hw.vmx.~2"><var class="Va">hw.vmx.</var><var class="Ar">X</var><var class="Va">.rxnqueue</var></dt>
<dd>Maximum number of receive queues allocated by default by the driver. The
default value is 8. The maximum supported by the VMXNET3 virtual NIC is
16.</dd>
<dt id="hw.vmx.txndesc"><var class="Va">hw.vmx.txndesc</var></dt>
<dd style="width: auto;"> </dd>
<dt id="hw.vmx.~3"><var class="Va">hw.vmx.</var><var class="Ar">X</var><var class="Va">.txndesc</var></dt>
<dd>
<p class="Pp">Number of transmit descriptors allocated by the driver. The
default value is 512. The value must be a multiple of 32, and the
maximum is 4096.</p>
</dd>
<dt id="hw.vmx.rxndesc"><var class="Va">hw.vmx.rxndesc</var></dt>
<dd style="width: auto;"> </dd>
<dt id="hw.vmx.~4"><var class="Va">hw.vmx.</var><var class="Ar">X</var><var class="Va">.rxndesc</var></dt>
<dd>
<p class="Pp">Number of receive descriptors per ring allocated by the
driver. The default value is 256. The value must be a multiple of 32,
and the maximum is 2048. There are two rings so the actual usage is
doubled.</p>
</dd>
</dl>
</section>
<section class="Sh">
<h1 class="Sh" id="EXAMPLES"><a class="permalink" href="#EXAMPLES">EXAMPLES</a></h1>
<p class="Pp">The following entry must be added to the VMware configuration file
to provide the <code class="Nm">vmx</code> device:</p>
<div class="Bd Pp Bd-indent Li">
<pre>ethernet0.virtualDev = "vmxnet3"</pre>
</div>
</section>
<section class="Sh">
<h1 class="Sh" id="SEE_ALSO"><a class="permalink" href="#SEE_ALSO">SEE
ALSO</a></h1>
<p class="Pp"><a class="Xr">altq(4)</a>, <a class="Xr">arp(4)</a>,
<a class="Xr">em(4)</a>, <a class="Xr">iflib(4)</a>,
<a class="Xr">le(4)</a>, <a class="Xr">netintro(4)</a>,
<a class="Xr">ng_ether(4)</a>, <a class="Xr">vlan(4)</a>,
<a class="Xr">ifconfig(8)</a></p>
</section>
<section class="Sh">
<h1 class="Sh" id="AUTHORS"><a class="permalink" href="#AUTHORS">AUTHORS</a></h1>
<p class="Pp">The <code class="Nm">vmx</code> driver was ported from
<span class="Ux">OpenBSD</span> and significantly rewritten by
<span class="An">Bryan Venteicher</span>
<<a class="Mt" href="mailto:bryanv@freebsd.org">bryanv@freebsd.org</a>>.
The <span class="Ux">OpenBSD</span> driver was written by
<span class="An">Tsubai Masanari</span>.</p>
</section>
</div>
<table class="foot">
<tr>
<td class="foot-date">December 26, 2020</td>
<td class="foot-os">FreeBSD 15.0</td>
</tr>
</table>
|
