Installation and configuration of Cisco VM-FEX

In this recipe, we will learn how to install and configure Cisco VM-FEX.

Getting ready

Cisco Virtual Machine Fabric Extender (VM-FEX) collapses the virtual switching infrastructure and physical switching infrastructure into a single and easy to manage environment. Assume that you have prepared two VMware ESXi 5.5 with Cisco VIC and running Enterprise Plus License. These VMware ESXi hosts are managed by VMware Center 5.5. Cisco VM-FEX has two different modes: Emulated mode and PCIe Pass-Through or VMDirectPath mode. The emulated mode is the one in which the hypervisor emulates a physical NIC to replicate the hardware, which is virtualized for the guest virtual machine. PCIe Pass-Through or VMDirectPath mode is that VMware VMDirectPath technology to implement PCIe Pass-Through across the hypervisor layer and reduces the associated I/O overhead. The details are shown in the following diagram:

VM-FEX Emulated mode and VM FEX PCIe Pass-Through or VMDirectPath...