Dell Emulex Family of Adapters - Manual (Page 847)

Emulex Drivers Version 10.2 for Linux User Manual P010081-01A Rev. A
3. Configuration
Ethernet Driver Configuration
847
NIC Partitioning (NPar) Configuration (Dell Only)
Notes:

NPar support is only available on OCe14000-series adapters running in 10 Gb
mode.

NPar is only supported on Dell 13G or newer systems.

SR-IOV must be disabled on the adapter BIOS when NPar is used. See the
following documentation for information on disabling SR-IOV on the adapter
BIOS:

To configure SR-IOV using the adapter BIOS, see the Boot for NIC, iSCSI,
FCoE, and RoCE Protocols User Manual.

To configure SR-IOV using the OneCommand Manager application, see the
OneCommand Manager Application User Manual or the OneCommand Manager
Command Line Interface User Manual.
NPar mode enables the capability to divide a 10Gb NIC port into multiple PCI
functions, with flexible bandwidth capacity allocation that appear to the operating
system and network as separate NIC ports. A single Ethernet 10Gb port appears as
multiple physical devices showing in PCI Configuration space as multiple functions.
Adapter Configuration
NPar can be configured on the OCe14000 family of adapters by using the BIOS or the
OneCommand Manager application.

To configure NPar using the BIOS, refer to the Boot for NIC, iSCSI, FCoE, and
RoCE Protocols User Manual.

To configure NPar using the OneCommand Manager, refer to the latest
OneCommand Manager
TM
Application User Manual or the OneCommand Manager
Command Line Interface User Manual.
On the host operating system side, NPar provides up to eight PCI functions per device
using standard PCI configuration space. Four PCI functions can be mapped to a
physical port. Each function or partition will be assigned a unique MAC address.
Partitions will be available for virtual function assignment and for application
segmentation via VLAN or IP subnets.
Adapter Requirements

The partitions can be on separate subnets or VLANs

Bandwidth allocation is flexible

No operating system or BIOS changes required

No external switch changes required

Each partition should have standard NIC properties for stateless offload

NIC teaming on the same port should be avoided