: Enable Multi-Queue Support for NICs on ESXi
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Enable Multi-Queue Support for NICs on ESXi

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Enable Multi-Queue Support for NICs on ESXi

Learn how to enable multi-queue support for NICs on ESXi.
Multi-queue allows network performance to scale with the number of vCPUs and allows for parallel packet processing by creating multiple TX and RX queues. Modify the .vmx file or access Advanced Settings to enable multi-queue.
The pNIC setting is also applicable for NSX-T since ESXi is the hypervisor for NSX-T deployments.
  1. Enable multi-queue.
    1. Open the .vmx file.
    2. Add the following parameter:
      ethernetX.pnicFeatures = “4”
  2. Enable receive-side scaling (RSS).
    1. Log in to the CLI on the ESXi host.
    2. Execute the following command:
      $ vmkload_mod -u ixgbe 
      $ vmkload_mod ixgbe RSS=”4,4,4,4,4,4” 
  3. For the best performance, allocate additional CPU threads per ethernet/vSwitch device. This is limited by the amount of spare CPU resources available on the ESXi host.
    1. Open the .vmx file.
    2. Add the following parameter:
      ethernetX.ctxPerDev = “1”