As you may know, Hyper-V 3 includes a lot of new networking capabilities. Here, I’m going to discuss a few of the new features you’ll find in virtual machine configurations in Hyper-V 3.
When you open up the properties of a virtual machine, there are multiple sub-property pages you can choose. They are both shown below:
The Hardware Acceleration properties page
The Advanced Features properties page
Virtual Machine Queue (VMQ)
VMQ is a feature which, when enabled, creates a dedicated queue on a host’s physical network adapter for each virtual network adapter that has requested a queue. VMQ can reduce processing overhead in packet routing and make the networking process more efficient. VMQ is most useful for virtual machines that have a heavy network workload. Since they should be considered a scarce resource, you shouldn’t enable VMQ for every virtual machine.
IPsec Task Offload
When a network adapter supports the feature, IPsec task offload can reduce some of the processor performance hit associated with IPsec encryption algorithms. This can improve overall server scalability.
Single-Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV)
SR-IOV allows the system to partition PCIe-based hardware resources into virtual interfaces. In short, a single PCIe device can be made to appear as multiple devices. I’ll provide more information about SR-IOV in a future post.
DHCP Guard
Allows administrators to protect Hyper-V virtual machines from rogue DHCP servers.
Router Guard
Allows administrators to protect Hyper-V virtual machines from rogue router advertisements.
Monitor Port
Enhance troubleshooting by monitoring the network traffic than enters and exits a virtual machine.