Configuring NPAR

The two chips Controller 0 and Controller 1 on the MZ522 each have two physical 10GE ports, which are identified as Port 0 and Port 1.

After NPAR is enabled, Port 0 generates four PFs: PF 0, PF 2, PF 4, and PF 6, and Port 1 generates four PFs: PF 1, PF 3, PF 5, and PF 7.

Enable or disable NPAR for ports 0 and 1 at the same time.

The PFs on each 10GE port can be configured as NIC channels (Ethernet logical channels) or NIC and FCoE/iSCSI channels (Ethernet logical channels and FCoE/iSCSI channels). FCoE and iSCSI are both storage functions. Among the PFs of a 10GE physical port, at most two PFs can be used for storage functions, and only one PF can be used for FCoE. If NPAR is enabled, a 10GE physical port only supports the following PF combinations:

1. NIC, NIC, NIC, NIC
2. NIC+FCoE, NIC, NIC, NIC
3. NIC+iSCSI, NIC, NIC, NIC
4. NIC+FCoE, NIC+iSCSI, NIC, NIC
5. NIC+iSCSI, NIC+iSCSI, NIC, NIC

You are advised to use combination 1, 2, or 3, not combination 4 or 5, because if two PFs of a port are used for the storage function (with the offload feature used), the two PFs affect each other's performance, and the NIC and networking configurations are complex.

• Any PF in NIC+FCoE mode must be the first PF of the 10GE port (Port 0 or PF 1 of Port 1). Specifically, the NIC+FCoE PF in the preceding combinations 2 and 4 must be PF 0 of Port 0 or PF 1 of Port 1.
• If the NIC+iSCSI mode is used and the NIC+FCoE mode is not, configure at least one NIC+iSCSI PF as the first PF of a 10GE port (PF 0 of Port 0 or PF 1 of Port 1). Specifically, the NIC+iSCSI PF of combination 3 must be PF 0 of Port 0 or PF 1 of Port 1, and at least one NIC+iSCSI PF in the combination 5 must be PF 0 of Port 0 or PF 1 of Port 1.

Table 4-1, Table 4-2, and Table 4-3 list the PFs and channel types.

To configure NPAR, perform the following steps:

1. Power on the compute node. When the message shown in Figure 1 appears, press Ctrl+S to enter the NIC BIOS.
   Figure 4-1 Entering the NIC BIOS
   

2. Select a device on the Device List screen.
   Figure 4-2 Selecting a device
   

3. On the Main Menu screen, select Device Hardware Configuration and press Enter. The Device Hardware Configuration screen is displayed.
   Figure 4-3 Selecting Device Hardware Configuration
   

4. Set Multi-Function Mode to NPAR to enable NPAR.
   Figure 4-4 Enabling NPAR
   

5. Press Esc. On the displayed Exit Configuration screen, select Exit and Save Configurations and press Enter.
   Figure 4-5 Saving configurations
   

6. Manually restart the server for the configurations to take effect.
   Figure 4-6 Prompt for restart
   

7. On the Device List screen, select a device and press Enter. The Main Menu screen is displayed.
   Figure 4-7 Selecting a device
   

8. Select NIC Partition Configuration and press Enter.
   Figure 4-8 Selecting NIC Partition Configuration
   

9. Select a PF and press Enter. On the displayed PF configuration screen, set the working mode (FCoE, iSCSI, or Ethernet) and specify the channel bandwidth. Configure the other PFs in the same way.

   In Figure 4-9, all the PFs (PF#0, PF#2, PF#4, and PF#6) are in Ethernet mode (NIC mode). Figure10 PF configuration screen shows the PF detail configuration screen.

   Figure 4-9 Selecting a PF
   
   Figure 4-10 PF configuration screen
   

10. Set the PF working mode.

    The PF working modes include FCoE, iSCSI, and Ethernet. In Ethernet mode, a PF is configured as NIC channels to transmit Ethernet service data. In FCoE mode, all PFs are configured as NIC and FCoE channels to transmit Ethernet and FCoE data at the same time. In iSCSI node, a PF is configured as NIC and iSCSI channels to transmit Ethernet and iSCSI data at the same time.

    To enable the FCoE mode, set FCoE Offload Protocol to Enabled, as shown in Figure 4-11. To enable the iSCSI mode, set iSCSI Offload Protocol to Enabled.

    Figure 4-11 PF in FCoE mode
    

    Each PF can be set to only one mode at a time.

    After setting the PF working mode, return to the NIC Partition Configuration screen and check the result, as shown in Figure 4-12.

    Figure 4-12 PF set to the FCoE mode
    

11. Specify the bandwidth weight and maximum bandwidth of each PF.

    Select Bandwidth Weight and Maximum Bandwidth respectively.

    Set the values and press Enter.

    Figure 4-13 shows the bandwidth weight setting screen. Figure 4-14 shows the maximum bandwidth setting screen. Figure 4-15 shows the setting result.

    Figure 4-13 Setting the bandwidth weight
    
    Figure 4-14 Setting the maximum bandwidth
    
    Figure 4-15 Bandwidth settings
    

12. After setting Bandwidth Weight and Maximum Bandwidth for all PFs, press Esc. On the displayed Exit Configuration screen, select Exit and Save Configurations and press Enter.
    Figure 4-16 Saving configurations
    

13. Manually restart the server for the configurations to take effect.
    Figure 4-17 Prompt for restart
    

    Bandwidth Weight indicates the weight of the minimum committed bandwidth and the sum of Bandwidth Weight for the four PFs must be 100%. Otherwise, a message is displayed indicating bandwidth configuration errors. Maximum Bandwidth indicates that maximum shared bandwidth. The parameter can be set to 100% for each PF, indicating that the PF can use the bandwidth of other idle PFs.