How to enable Enhanced DataPath (EDP) Standard mode on an NSX-enabled cluster

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

You want to maximize network performance by enabling EDP Standard on VCF Workload Domains or NSX-enabled vSphere clusters.

Environment

• VMware NSX
• VMware NSX-T Data Center
• VMware ESXi

Resolution

To enable Enhanced Datapath (EDP) Standard mode on an NSX-prepared ESXi cluster, you need to first identify if your server pNICs and the NIC driver are "ENS" or "INTR" capable. To identify this information, run the following command on your ESXi hosts in the target cluster:

[root@esxi] esxcfg-nics -e
Name    Driver      ENS Capable   ENS Driven    INTR Capable  INTR Enabled  MAC Address       Description
vmnic0  ntg3        True          False         True          False         ##:##:##:##:##:## Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5720 Gigabit Ethernet
vmnic1  ntg3        True          False         True          False         ##:##:##:##:##:## Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5720 Gigabit Ethernet
vmnic2  nmlx5_core  True          False         True          False         ##:##:##:##:##:## Mellanox Technologies MT2892 Family [ConnectX-6 Dx]
vmnic3  nmlx5_core  True          False         True          False         ##:##:##:##:##:## Mellanox Technologies MT2892 Family [ConnectX-6 Dx]

To use EDP Standard, each vmnic must reflect ENS Capable = True and INTR Capable = True.

Once you have successfully identified all your NICs as being capable of ENS Standard, you can switch the mode of your NSX-prepared cluster to EDP - Standard mode. To do so, follow this instructions on this page:

Enabling EDP Standard in Active Environments

Additional Information

Note: See Enhanced Datapath Requirements, Restrictions & Limitations for a detailed EDP overview and software version requirements. 

Note: You can also confirm compatibility with EDP Standard by locating the vendor device certification for Enhanced Data Path - Interrupt Mode in Broadcom Compatibility Guide - IO Devices.

Note: Enhanced Datapath (EDP) has two modes:

• EDP Standard (previously known as ENS/EDP Interrupt Mode), is recommended for all VCF installations running ESX 8.0 Update 3e with NSX 4.2.2 (or subsequent releases) to maximize host performance across all enterprise use cases. The EDP Standard performance improvements apply to VMkernel networks, DVPGs, NSX Segments, VPC Virtual Networks,
• EDP Dedicated (previously known as ENS/ EDP Performance Mode, or Poll Mode), is more typical in Telco NFV and network provider environments. This mode requires additional tuning and dimensioning customized for the application network patterns.
• VSS & VDS without NSX & EDP are running Standard mode.