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.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 2006,2013 Reyk Floeter <reyk@openbsd.org>
.\"
.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
.\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
.\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
.\"
.\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
.\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
.\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
.\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
.\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
.\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
.\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
.\"
.\" $OpenBSD: src/share/man/man4/vmx.4,v 1.1 2013/05/31 20:18:44 reyk Exp $
.\"
.\" $FreeBSD$
.\"
.Dd August 4, 2013
.Dt VMX 4
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm vmx
.Nd VMware VMXNET3 Virtual Interface Controller device
.Sh SYNOPSIS
To compile this driver into the kernel,
place the following line in your
kernel configuration file:
.Bd -ragged -offset indent
.Cd "device vmx"
.Ed
.Pp
Alternatively, to load the driver as a
module at boot time, place the following line in
.Xr loader.conf 5 :
.Bd -literal -offset indent
if_vmx_load="YES"
.Ed
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
driver provides support for the VMXNET3 virtual NIC available in virtual
machines by VMware.
It appears as a simple Ethernet device but is actually a virtual network
interface to the underlying host operating system.
.Pp
This driver supports the
.Ic VMXNET3
driver protocol, as an alternative to the emulated
.Xr pcn 4 ,
.Xr em 4
interfaces also available in the VMware environment.
The
.Nm
driver is optimized for the virtual machine, it can provide advanced
capabilities depending on the underlying host operating system and
the physical network interface controller of the host.
The
.Nm
driver supports features like multiqueue support, IPv6
checksum offloading, MSI/MSI-X support and hardware VLAN tagging in
VMware's VLAN Guest Tagging (VGT) mode.
.Pp
The
.Nm
driver supports VMXNET3 VMware virtual NICs provided by the virtual
machine hardware version 7 or newer, as provided by the following
products:
.Pp
.Bl -bullet -compact -offset indent
.It
VMware ESX/ESXi 4.0 and newer
.It
VMware Server 2.0 and newer
.It
VMware Workstation 6.5 and newer
.It
VMware Fusion 2.0 and newer
.El
.Pp
For more information on configuring this device, see
.Xr ifconfig 8 .
.Sh EXAMPLES
The following entry must be added to the VMware configuration file
to provide the
.Nm
device:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
ethernet0.virtualDev = "vmxnet3"
.Ed
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr altq 4 ,
.Xr arp 4 ,
.Xr em 4 ,
.Xr netintro 4 ,
.Xr ng_ether 4 ,
.Xr pcn 4 ,
.Xr vlan 4 ,
.Xr ifconfig 8
.Sh AUTHORS
.An -nosplit
The
.Nm
driver was ported from
.Ox
by
.An Bryan Venteicher Aq bryanv@freebsd.org .
The
.Ox
driver was written by
.An Tsubai Masanari .
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