ADC

Configure a Citrix ADC VPX instance to use PCI passthrough network interface

Overview

After you have installed and configured a Citrix ADC VPX instance on VMware ESX Server, you can use the vSphere Web Client to configure the virtual appliance to use PCI passthrough network interfaces.

The PCI passthrough feature allows a guest virtual machine to directly access physical PCI and PCIe devices connected to a host.

Prerequisites

  • The firmware version of the Intel XL710 NIC on the host is 5.04.
  • A PCI passthrough device connected to and configured on the host
  • Supported NICs:
    • Intel X710 10G NIC
    • Intel XL710 Dual Port 40G NIC
    • Intel XL710 Single Port 40G NIC

Configure passthrough devices on a host

Before configuring a passthrough PCI device on a virtual machine, you must configure it on the host machine. Follow these steps to configure passthrough devices on a host.

  1. Select the host from the Navigator panel of the vSphere Web Client.
  2. Click Manage > Settings > PCI Devices. All available passthrough devices are displayed.
  3. Right-click the device that you want to configure and click Edit.
  4. The Edit PCI Device Availability window appears.
  5. Select the devices to be used for passthrough and click OK.

    Configure PCI passthrough

  6. Restart the host machine.

Configure passthrough devices on a Citrix ADC VPX instance

Follow these steps to configure a passthrough PCI device on a Citrix ADC VPX instance.

  1. Power off the virtual machine.
  2. Right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings.
  3. On the Virtual Hardware tab, select PCI Device from the New Device drop-down menu, and click Add.

    Configure PCI pass through

  4. Expand New PCI device and select the passthrough device to connect to the virtual machine from the drop-down list and click OK.

    Note

    VMXNET3 network interface and PCI Passthrough Network Interface cannot coexist.

PCI passthrough

  1. Power on the guest virtual machine.

You have completed the steps to configuring Citrix ADC VPX to use PCI passthrough network interfaces.

Configure a Citrix ADC VPX instance to use PCI passthrough network interface