Adapter Type for Virtual Machines in ESX 4

[vmguy1]

Hello,

Our templates (Windows 2K3 and Windows 2K8) have a VMXNET3 adapter type.

However, some virtual machines have a E1000 adapter type which will be changed to VMXNET3.

My question is : do you think it's relevant to change the adapter type from Flexible to VMXNET3 ?

At this time, we don't plan to use network advanced features like jumbo trames.

Regards

[geddam]

The VMXNET 3 adapter offers all the features available in VMXNET 2, and adds several new features like multiqueue support (also known as Receive Side Scaling in Windows), IPv6 offloads, and MSI/MSI-X interrupt delivery.

The Flexible network adapter identifies itself as a Vlance adapter when a virtual machine boots, but initializes itself and functions as either a Vlance or a VMXNET adapter, depending on which driver initializes it.

Refer KB: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1001805

Answer to your question: Not actually needed. If you dont want to use additional features mentioned above.

Thanks,,

Ramesh. Geddam,

VCP 3&4, MCTS(Hyper-V), SNIA SCP.

Please award points, if helpful

http://communities.vmware.com/people/geddam?view=documents

http://communities.vmware.com/blogs/rameshgeddam

[sflanders]

While the features of the VMXNET3 driver may not be needed, the question

was whether a VM should be changed from the Flexible network adapter to

the VMXNET3 driver. After running performance benchmarks against the

E1000 and VMXNET3 drivers, I see little difference between the two

besides potential CPU overhead (the VMXNET3 driver appears to use less

CPU than the E1000 driver) and the need for VMware Tools to be installed

to use the VMXNET3 driver. However, I have seen significant throughput

issues when using the Flexible network adapter. For example, when

testing a Vyatta software firewall (version 5, not the latest), which

defaulty uses the Flexible network adapter, I was only able to get

~200Mbps, however with the VMXNET3 I was able to get well over 800Mbps.

My advise would be to not use the Flexible network adapter and instead

to use either the E1000 or VMXNET3.