Help Center/ Elastic Cloud Server/ User Guide (ME-Abu Dhabi Region)/ Elastic Network Interface/ Enabling NIC Multi-Queue
Updated on 2024-07-24 GMT+08:00
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Enabling NIC Multi-Queue

Scenarios

Single-core CPU performance cannot meet the requirement of processing NIC interruptions incurred with the increase of network I/O bandwidth. NIC multi-queue enables multiple CPUs to process ECS NIC interruptions, thereby improving packets per second (PPS) and I/O performance.

The ECS described in this section is assumed to comply with the requirements on specifications and virtualization type.

Support of NIC Multi-Queue

NIC multi-queue can be enabled on an ECS only when the ECS specifications, virtualization type, and image OS meet the requirements described in this section.

  • For details about the ECS specifications that support NIC multi-queue, see x86 ECS Specifications and Types.

    If the number of NIC queues is greater than 1, NIC multi-queue is supported.

  • The virtualization type must be KVM.
  • The Linux public images listed in Table 2 support NIC multi-queue.
    • The PV driver of a Windows ECS dynamically adjusts the number of NIC queues based on the number of vCPUs of the ECS, and you do not need to set the number of Windows NIC multi-queues.
    • Public images that contain Windows Server 2008 are no longer available. However, you can still use private images that contain Windows Server 2008.
    • It is a good practice to upgrade the kernel version of the Linux ECS to 2.6.35 or later. Otherwise, NIC multi-queue is not supported.

      Run the uname -r command to obtain the kernel version. If the kernel version is earlier than 2.6.35, contact customer service to upgrade the kernel.

Table 1 Support of NIC multi-queue for Windows ECSs

Image

Support of NIC Multi-Queue

NIC Multi-Queue Enabled by Default

Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard/Enterprise/DataCenter 64bit

Yes

Yes

Windows Server 2008 Enterprise SP2 64bit

Yes

Yes

Windows Server 2008 Web R2 64-bit

Yes

Yes

Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise 64bit_WithGPUdriver

Yes

Yes

Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard 64bit_WithGPUdriver

Yes

Yes

Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard/DataCenter 64 bit

Yes

Yes

Windows Server 2016 Standard/DataCenter 64 bit

Yes

Yes

Windows Server 2019 DataCenter 64 bit

Yes

Yes
Table 2 Support of NIC multi-queue for Linux ECSs

Image

Support of NIC Multi-Queue

NIC Multi-Queue Enabled by Default

Ubuntu 14.04/16.04/18.04/20.04 server 64bit

Yes

Yes

OpenSUSE 42.2/15.* 64bit

Yes

Yes

SUSE Enterprise 12 SP1/SP2 64bit

Yes

Yes

CentOS 6.8/6.9/7.*/8.* 64bit

Yes

Yes

Debian 8.0.0/8.8.0/8.9.0/9.0.0/10.0.0/10.2.0 64bit

Yes

Yes

Fedora 24/25/30 64bit

Yes

Yes

EulerOS 2.2/2.3/2.5 64bit

Yes

Yes

Importing the External Image File to the IMS Console

For details, see "Registering an Image File as a Private Image" in Image Management Service User Guide. After the image file is imported, view the value of NIC Multi-Queue on the page providing details about the image.

Setting NIC Multi-Queue for the Image

Windows OSs have not commercially supported NIC multi-queue. If you enable NIC multi-queue in a Windows image, starting an ECS created using such an image may be slow.

Use one of the following methods to set the NIC multi-queue attribute:

Method 1:
  1. Log in to the management console.
  2. Under Computing, click Image Management Service.
  3. Click the Private Images tab, locate the row containing the target image, click Modify in the Operation column.
  4. Set the NIC multi-queue attribute of the image.
Method 2:
  1. Log in to the management console.
  2. Under Computing, click Image Management Service.
  3. Click the Private Images tab. In the image list, click the name of the target image to switch to the page providing details about the image.
  4. Click Modify in the upper right corner. In the displayed Modify Image dialog box, set the NIC multi-queue attribute.

Method 3: Add hw_vif_multiqueue_enabled to an image through the API.

  1. For instructions about how to obtain the token, see Calling APIs > Authentication in Image Management Service API Reference.
  2. For instructions about how to call an API to update image information, see "Updating Image Information (Native OpenStack API)" in Image Management Service API Reference.
  3. Add X-Auth-Token to the request header.

    The value of X-Auth-Token is the token obtained in step 1.

  4. Add Content-Type to the request header.

    The value of Content-Type is application/openstack-images-v2.1-json-patch.

    The request URI is in the following format:

    PATCH /v2/images/{image_id}

    The request body is as follows: 
    [       
         { 
          "op":"add",
          "path":"/hw_vif_multiqueue_enabled", 
          "value": "true" 
         } 
 ]

    Figure 1 shows an example request body for modifying the NIC multi-queue attribute.

    Figure 1 Example request body

Creating an ECS Using a Private Image

Create an ECS using a registered private image. For details, see Creating an ECS. Note the following when setting the parameters:
  • Region: Select the region where the private image is located.
  • Image: Select Private image and then the desired image from the drop-down list.

Viewing the Number of Queues of the NIC

NIC multi-queue has been enabled.
  1. Log in to the ECS.
  2. Run the following command to obtain the number of queues supported by the NIC and the number of queues with NIC multi-queue enabled:

    ethtool -l NIC

Example:

[root@localhost ~]# ethtool -l eth0  #View the number of queues used by NIC eth0.
Channel parameters for eth0:
Pre-set maximums:
RX:               0
TX:               0
Other:                  0
Combined: 4  #Indicates that a maximum of four queues can be enabled for the NIC.
Current hardware settings:
RX:               0
TX:               0
Other:                  0
Combined: 1 #Indicates that four queues have been enabled.