Configuring Fabric and vRouter Communication through KNET-vNICs


Note: This feature is available only on Dell and whitebox platforms that do not have rear-facing NICs.


From NetVisor OS 6.0.1 release onwards, NetVisor provides support for using KNET-vNIC as the OVS uplink from the CPU to OVS. The KNET exposes a standard network interface that is connected as an uplink port to OVS for forwarding fabric, cluster, or vRouter packets. This  implementation avoids copying of traffic between OVS and nvOSd and ensures direct transmission of fabric, cluster, and vRouter NIC packets between OVS and the CPU. Therefore, communication through KNET-vNICs results in improved CPU datapath performance.


To support cluster, fabric, and vRouter traffic using KNET-vNIC, you must enable KNET on Whitebox platforms that do not have rear-facing NICs by using the system-settings-modify command.


To enable or disable KNET, use the command:


CLI (network-admin@switch1) > system-settings-modify optimize-datapath disable|cluster-only|all


optimize-datapath disable|cluster-only|all

Specify the datapath optimization for cluster, fabric, and vRouter communication:

  • disable: disables datapath optimization.
  • cluster-only: enables datapath optimization for cluster-only, where cluster traffic is redirected to cluster 4094 vNIC.
  • all: enables datapath optimization for fabric and data traffic.


The default value is all.


To view the existing configuration on a local switch, use the system-settings-show command:



CLI (network-admin@switch1) > system-settings-show format optimize-datapath

optimize-datapath: all


To view the settings on all the switches in the fabric, use the system-settings-show command prefixed with switch *  as below:


CLI (network-admin@switch1) > switch * system-settings-show format optimize-datapath

optimize-datapath: all

optimize-datapath: all

optimize-datapath: all  

optimize-datapath: all

optimize-datapath: all

optimize-datapath: all

optimize-datapath: all


Note: Arista recommends rebooting the switch by using the  switch-reboot command after running the system-settings-modify optimize-datapath command. 

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