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SlickBag Hot Shot
SlickBag
254 posts since
Jul 25, 2005
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May 27, 2009 10:46 AM

Which NIC for Windows 2008?  E1000 or VMXNET 3?

In ESXi 4, Windows 2008 VMs seem to want to default to the E1000 model NIC when creating a new one. However, after reading the KB on this (http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1001805), is seems the new VMXNET 3 is supported for Windows 2008 (and Windows 2003 for that matter).

 

So which is the best to use? It seems the VMXNET it the best choice because it has all the latest bells and whistles - but sometimes that is a bad thing too. The KB really does not say WHAT to use, but rather what options are available...unless I overlooked it.

 

Any advice?

SB

krishnaprasad Hot Shot
krishnaprasad
245 posts since
Oct 30, 2006
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1. May 27, 2009 10:55 AM in response to: SlickBag
Re: Which NIC for Windows 2008?  E1000 or VMXNET 3?

 

Hello,

 

 

It's always better to use the default one for VMs. in this case e1000. VMXNET can be used if you need to have the below features available in the VM.

 

 

 

 

 

VMXNET Generation 3 — VMXNET3 is the third generation paravirtualized NIC

from VMware. VMXNET3 includes these new features not found in Enhanced

VMXNET:

 

 

  • MSI/MSI-X support (subject to guest operating system kernel support)

  • Receive Side Scaling (supported in Windows 2008 when explicitly enabled 
         through the device's Advanced configuration tab)

  • IPv6 checksum and TCP Segmentation Offloading (TSO) over IPv6

  • VLAN off-loading

  • Large TX/RX ring sizes (configured from within the virtual machine)

 

So my understanding is always go for the default one if you are not looking for specific features listed as above which are supported by vmxnet

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks,

 

 

Krishnaprasad

 

 

aharden Enthusiast
aharden
21 posts since
Sep 30, 2003
Currently Being Moderated
2. May 27, 2009 10:56 AM in response to: SlickBag
Re: Which NIC for Windows 2008?  E1000 or VMXNET 3?

 

The E1000 is probably configured by the wizard as a conservative measure, since the Windows Server 2008 install media contains a driver for it.  The driver for VMXNET3 is most likely not included with WS2008 and needs to be installed via VMware Tools.

 

 

RenaudL Hot Shot VMware Employees
RenaudL
173 posts since
Sep 13, 2007
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3. May 27, 2009 11:03 AM in response to: SlickBag
Re: Which NIC for Windows 2008?  E1000 or VMXNET 3?

Disclaimer: I directly worked on Vmxnet3, so I'm probably biased.

 

I would recommend using Vmxnet3. More than just having the latest bells and whistles, its overhead is also smaller than e1000 (and therefore its performance is better) and is future-proof as new virtualization enhancements will continuously be implemented on top of it. The device has been intensively tested for months and the drivers we provide are of the highest quality.

 

I understand the reluctance to use a whole new device, but you won't be disappointed if you give it a try.

SlickBag Hot Shot
SlickBag
254 posts since
Jul 25, 2005
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4. May 27, 2009 11:10 AM in response to: RenaudL
Re: Which NIC for Windows 2008?  E1000 or VMXNET 3?

 

Thanks everyone.  That is the information I was looking for.

 

 

SB

 

 

krishnaprasad Hot Shot
krishnaprasad
245 posts since
Oct 30, 2006
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5. May 27, 2009 11:22 AM in response to: RenaudL
Re: Which NIC for Windows 2008?  E1000 or VMXNET 3?

Thanks RenaudL. you gave us confidence to go for vmxnet3. thanks for the info

Rumple Master
Rumple
1,706 posts since
Jan 6, 2005
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6. May 27, 2009 7:34 PM in response to: krishnaprasad
Re: Which NIC for Windows 2008?  E1000 or VMXNET 3?

 

If you use a typical install it picks the E1000 driver.  After installing the vmware tools,  I've been shutting down the VM, removing the E1000 nic, adding the VMXNET3 nic and then using the show hidden devices command to remove the hidden vnic that stays in the operating system prior to configuring the IP on the new nic.

 

 

Cleans up the O/S and avoids the error about the ip being assigned to a nic thats not present in the system.

 

 

 

 

 

LucasAlbers Expert
LucasAlbers
563 posts since
Mar 29, 2005
Currently Being Moderated
7. May 28, 2009 9:38 AM in response to: Rumple
Re: Which NIC for Windows 2008?  E1000 or VMXNET 3?

 

We have a win 2008 trend av server running as a vm.  Microsoft operations manager was showing a large number of interrupts.

 

 

Switching the system from the flexible network adapter to the vmxnet adapter, and enabling hardware mmu, drastically reduced the level of interrupts generated, so we no longer receive the operations manager nag emails.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ritmo2k Expert
Ritmo2k
380 posts since
Jan 9, 2007
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8. May 28, 2009 10:41 PM in response to: RenaudL
Re: Which NIC for Windows 2008?  E1000 or VMXNET 3?

Hate to say it Renaud, the vmxnet3 driver in Windows Server 2008x64 has issues.

I have tried many vm's and it forces the guest to think they only have local access although connectivity exists.

 

Something is wrong and I don't know what...

 

If you would like to get the bottom of this with me, I would take the time to perform whatever diags you need.

 

Thanks!

Rumple Master
Rumple
1,706 posts since
Jan 6, 2005
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9. May 28, 2009 11:41 PM in response to: Ritmo2k
Re: Which NIC for Windows 2008?  E1000 or VMXNET 3?

I haven't had this problem with my Windows 2008 32 bit servers with the new driver.

 

Of course I wish I could say the same about my Windows 7 based laptop :o)  POS always thinks it has no network connectivity until I ping the internet

LucasAlbers Expert
LucasAlbers
563 posts since
Mar 29, 2005
Currently Being Moderated
10. May 29, 2009 8:12 AM in response to: Rumple
Re: Which NIC for Windows 2008?  E1000 or VMXNET 3?

 

i have only used vmxnet enhanced on windows 2003|2008 systems, I hae not used vmxnet 3, yet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RenaudL Hot Shot VMware Employees
RenaudL
173 posts since
Sep 13, 2007
Currently Being Moderated
11. May 29, 2009 8:42 AM in response to: Ritmo2k
Re: Which NIC for Windows 2008?  E1000 or VMXNET 3?

Hmmm, it sounds more like a general configuration issue than an issue with the device itself.

 

Did you check all the settings inside and outside the guests?

Ritmo2k Expert
Ritmo2k
380 posts since
Jan 9, 2007
Currently Being Moderated
12. May 29, 2009 8:44 AM in response to: RenaudL
Re: Which NIC for Windows 2008?  E1000 or VMXNET 3?

Yup, this Host has had W2008x64/86 guests running for over a year. Everything works fine with a E1000 nic, but the vmxnet3 driver causes all sorts of connectivity issues.

Scissor Master User Moderators
Scissor
1,933 posts since
Oct 8, 2007
Currently Being Moderated
13. May 31, 2009 12:20 PM in response to: RenaudL
Re: Which NIC for Windows 2008?  E1000 or VMXNET 3?

I switched some of my Win2008 x64 Guests over to the Vmxnet3 driver.  Network connectivity inside the Guests seems fine.

 

However, I then noticed that if I view the ESX4i Performance tab for any of these Guests and select the "Network" chart, the chart doesn't show any network activity. 

 

If I switch my Guest's network adapter back to e1000 or Vmxnet2, then the Network chart does show traffic.

 

I tried uninstalling/reinstalling VMware Tools, but that didn't seem to make a difference.

 

Can anyone else reproduce this behavior?

mauricev Enthusiast
mauricev
137 posts since
Mar 22, 2007
Currently Being Moderated
14. May 31, 2009 1:03 PM in response to: Scissor
Re: Which NIC for Windows 2008?  E1000 or VMXNET 3?

I was getting poor peformance in OpenSolaris with e1000 and couldn't figure out why. So I surmised it might be because of the VMWare supplied e1000. Because vmxnet3 doesn't yet work in OpenSolaris, I used to regular Solaris to test the e1000 against vmnxet3. As it turned out, Vmxnet3 is about 30% faster!

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