Maximum traffic for a vmxnet3

[TheVMinator]

Assuming there are no bottlenecks elsewhere, what is the maximum ingress network traffic that a single vmxnet3 adapter on a VM can receive from the network?  Is it 10GBps (GigaBYTES per second) or 10 Gbps (GigaBITS per second)

Thanks!

[MKguy · Accepted solution]

In theory and in the physical world, the maximum data rate would be 10 Gigabit/s, since vmxnet3 emulates a 10GBASE-T physical link.

This bitrate is governed by physical signaling limitations on the wire of said standard, however these don't apply in a purely virtual setup (2 VMs on the same host and same vSwitch and port group).

Guests on the same host and vSwitch/port group are able to exceed well beyond 10Gbps. I know one would think that e.g. the e1000, which presents a 1Gbps link to the guest, is limited to 1Gbps maximum; or vmxnet3 is limited to a maximum of 10Gbps. But that is not the case. They can easily exceed their "virtual link speed". Test it with a network throughput tool like iperf an see for yourself.

That's because real physically imposed signaling limitations do not apply in a virtualized environment between two VMs on the same host/port group. Guest OSes don't artificially limit traffic to match the agreed line speed unless it is physically required.

To give you an example, I'm able to achieve 25+Gbps between 2 Linux VMs with a single vmxnet3 vNIC on the same host/network

For reference, I'm able to get 25+Gbps with the iperf network throughput testing tool between two Linux VMs with a single vmxnet3 vNIC on the same host/port group. (Yes, 25Gbps. Even if a vmxnet3 emulates a 10Gbit/s link, throughput is not artificially capped without the physical signaling limitation).

Once you get to external communication outside of a host then you are capped by your physical ESXi host's links limitations.

[TheVMinator]

Thanks!