Intel SR-IOV Driver for Intel® Quick Assist Technology (QAT)

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Intel® QuickAssist Technology (Intel® QAT) | Enhancing Data Center Performance and Efficiency

Intel® QuickAssist Technology (Intel® QAT) is a PCIe-based hardware accelerator designed to deliver cryptographic and compression acceleration. Integrated into the 4th and 5th Generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processors (including Emerald Rapids), Intel® QAT is optimized to enhance performance and efficiency across data center operations. This software supports single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) for Intel® QAT on VMware ESXi, enabling the creation of Virtual Functions (VFs) from a single Physical Function (PF). These VFs facilitate hardware acceleration for multiple guest Virtual Machines (VMs).

Important Notes:

• This is not a standard ESXi IO kernel driver. Instead, it is used in conjunction with VMDirectPath I/O for direct device access.
• VMware certifies the Intel® QAT driver by verifying basic platform and device compatibility with VMDirectPath I/O.
• This includes ensuring that the PF driver enables VFs correctly and that VFs are exposed to the guest operating systems of VMs.
• The VMDirectPath I/O certification for the SR-IOV test suite focuses solely on basic functionality and does not validate the end-to-end performance or operation of the device.

Intel is responsible for supporting end users with complete interoperability and functionality of the overall solution, ensuring end-to-end effectiveness.

Environment

ESXi 7.0 U3i or higher

Resolution

• Intel® QuickAssist Technology Driver for VMware ESXi is available on Intel Download Center as outlined in the URL below -
  • Intel® QuickAssist Technology Driver for VMware ESXi* - Hardware Version 2.0

Customer Support

To submit an Intel® Premier Support (IPS) ticket, please go to the URL - https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/secure/my-intel/dashboard.html

Additional Information

Enable SR-IOV on a Host Physical Adapter