Technological details behind VMware IP over InfiniBand (IPoIB) driver

[markokobal]

Hi,

I'm interested in technological details behind VMware IP over InfiniBand (IPoIB) driver. There is very little information available publicly (http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=205826..., http://www.mellanox.com/related-docs/prod_software/Mellanox_IB_OFED_Driver_for_VMware_vSphere_User_M...

Specifically I would like to know weather the implementation of VMware IP over InfiniBand (IPoIB) driver is the same as implementation for Linux based Hypervisors and utilizes eIPoIB "shim layer", see here: https://www.openfabrics.org/index.php/ofa-documents/presentations/doc_download/510-ethernet-tunnelin...? Or maybe some other technology, technique, etc. is used to support paravirtualization of IPoIB inteface on VMware? I undestand that implemetation details are probaly "secret" or protected by copyright laws, but at least "yes" or "no" with some additional information would be good enough.

Thanks!

[mlxali]

IPoIB on VMware uses the same wire protocol as in native Linux/Windows (RFC 4391/4392). Thus, VMware ESX machine can communicate over IPoIB with unmodified native Linux/Windows machines.

The implantation of course is different, as it had to be adjusted to use the shim layer described in the openfabrics pdf you mentioned.