Basic high level question re updating drivers in IaaS VM

Question

Microsoft support asked me to update my NIC driver to resolve an issue we have been having.
I'm running a Windows IaaS VM in Azure.
I was under the impression that manually updating drivers via device manager would not be necessary due to virtualisation layer.
Am I mistaken? Are driver updates still required when running IaaS VM's?

Answer 1

Hi,

I don't see why the virtual machine drivers would need to be updated, it is the underlying hardware that requires updating drivers & firmware.
Unless you are running GPU driven VMs, then those will require driver updates for the GPUs.

Best regards,
Leon

Answer 2

Yes - this is also what I thought.
To elaborate slightly - this is the nic for accelerated networking. The Mellanox ConnectX-3 Virtual Function Ethernet Adapter.
I have been asked to update the driver for this. I should not attempt?

Answer 3

Hi,

As Leon mentioned, you can only attempt to Nvidia GPU drivers to leverage GPU capabilities

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/n-series-driver-setup

Along with that, you will be able to update accelerated networking
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-network/create-vm-accelerated-networking-powershell