Q: How can I check if my Hyper-V server and network cards support SR-IOV?

A: Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) lets you share a single PCI device among multiple virtual machines.(VMs). However, the hardware required is fairly rare. Both the motherboard and networking adapters must support SR-IOV.

To check the server for SR-IOV support, use the Get-VMHost PowerShell cmdlet in the list view, and at the bottom you should see the SR-IOV support information. For example, when I entered

 PS C:\> Get-VMHost | fl

It returned the following output:

VirtualHardDiskPath : C:\Users\Public\Documents\Hyper-V\Virtual Hard Disks
VirtualMachinePath : C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V
FullyQualifiedDomainName : savilltech.net
Name : SAVDALHV01
MacAddressMinimum : 00155D013900
MacAddressMaximum : 00155D0139FF
MaximumStorageMigrations : 2
MaximumVirtualMachineMigrations : 2
VirtualMachineMigrationEnabled : True
VirtualMachineMigrationAuthenticationType : Kerberos
UseAnyNetworkForMigration : False
FibreChannelWwnn : C003FF0000FFFF00
FibreChannelWwpnMaximum : C003FFDB0EFEFFFF
FibreChannelWwpnMinimum : C003FFDB0EFE0000
LogicalProcessorCount : 16
MemoryCapacity : 51475369984
ResourceMeteringSaveInterval : 01:00:00
NumaSpanningEnabled : True
HostNumaStatus : {SAVDALHV01, SAVDALHV01}
NumaStatus :
InternalNetworkAdapters : {}
ExternalNetworkAdapters : {Intel(R) Gigabit ET Dual Port Server Adapter #2 -
Virtual Switch_External}
IovSupport : False
IovSupportReasons : {The chipset on the system does not do interrupt
remapping, without which SR-IOV cannot be
supported., The chipset on the system does not do
DMA remapping, without which SR-IOV cannot be
supported., This system has a security
vulnerability in the system I/O remapping hardware.
As a precaution, the ability to use SR-IOV has been
disabled. You should contact your system
manufacturer for an updated BIOS which enables Root
Port Alternate Error Delivery mechanism. If all
Virtual Machines intended to use SR-IOV run trusted
workloads, SR-IOV may be enabled by adding a
registry key of type DWORD with value 1 named
IOVEnableOverride under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Virtualization and changing state
of the trusted virtual machines. If the system
exhibits reduced performance or instability after
SR-IOV devices are assigned to Virtual Machines,
consider disabling the use of SR-IOV.}
ComputerName : SAVDALHV01

To check support for SR-IOV network hardware, use the Get-NetAdapterSriov PowerShell cmdlet, which I entered in the example below and which resulted in the output below that. This lists only the SR-IOV-compatible network adapters. If you want to see all adapters use Get-NetAdapter.

PS C:\Users\administrator.SAVILLTECH> Get-NetAdapterSriov 


Name : VM NIC 
InterfaceDescription : Intel(R) Gigabit ET Dual Port Server Adapter #2 
Enabled : True 
SriovSupport : NoIoMmuSupport 
SwitchName : DefaultSwitchName 
NumVFs : 6 

Name : Mgmt NIC 
InterfaceDescription : Intel(R) Gigabit ET Dual Port Server Adapter 
Enabled : True 
SriovSupport : NoIoMmuSupport 
SwitchName : DefaultSwitchName 
NumVFs : 6

To use SR-IOV, both the system and network adapter must support SR-IOV. To learn more about SR-IOV, see my FAQ "What is SR-IOV?" and "Are VMDq and SR-IOV performing the same function?"

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