NDIS_NIC_SWITCH_CAPABILITIES structure (ntddndis.h)

The NDIS_NIC_SWITCH_CAPABILITIES structure specifies the capabilities of a NIC switch on the network adapter.

Syntax

typedef struct _NDIS_NIC_SWITCH_CAPABILITIES {
  NDIS_OBJECT_HEADER Header;
  ULONG              Flags;
  ULONG              NdisReserved1;
  ULONG              NumTotalMacAddresses;
  ULONG              NumMacAddressesPerPort;
  ULONG              NumVlansPerPort;
  ULONG              NdisReserved2;
  ULONG              NdisReserved3;
  ULONG              NicSwitchCapabilities;
  ULONG              MaxNumSwitches;
  ULONG              MaxNumVPorts;
  ULONG              NdisReserved4;
  ULONG              MaxNumVFs;
  ULONG              MaxNumQueuePairs;
  ULONG              NdisReserved5;
  ULONG              NdisReserved6;
  ULONG              NdisReserved7;
  ULONG              MaxNumQueuePairsPerNonDefaultVPort;
  ULONG              NdisReserved8;
  ULONG              NdisReserved9;
  ULONG              NdisReserved10;
  ULONG              NdisReserved11;
  ULONG              NdisReserved12;
  ULONG              MaxNumMacAddresses;
  ULONG              NdisReserved13;
  ULONG              NdisReserved14;
  ULONG              NdisReserved15;
  ULONG              NdisReserved16;
  ULONG              NdisReserved17;
  ULONG              MaxNumRssCapableNonDefaultPFVPorts;
  ULONG              NumberOfIndirectionTableEntriesForDefaultVPort;
  ULONG              NumberOfIndirectionTableEntriesPerNonDefaultPFVPort;
  ULONG              MaxNumQueuePairsForDefaultVPort;
} NDIS_NIC_SWITCH_CAPABILITIES, *PNDIS_NIC_SWITCH_CAPABILITIES;

Members

Header

The type, revision, and size of the NDIS_NIC_SWITCH_CAPABILITIES structure. This member is formatted as an NDIS_OBJECT_HEADER structure.

The miniport driver must set the Type member of Header to NDIS_OBJECT_TYPE_DEFAULT. To specify the version of the NDIS_NIC_SWITCH_CAPABILITIES structure, the driver must set the Revision member of Header to one of the following values:

NDIS_NIC_SWITCH_CAPABILITIES_REVISION_3

Added the RSS interface members for NDIS 6.60.

Note  Revision 3 of this structure is supported only on Windows Server 2016 and later versions of Windows Server.

 

Set the Size member to NDIS_SIZEOF_NIC_SWITCH_CAPABILITIES_REVISION_3.

NDIS_NIC_SWITCH_CAPABILITIES_REVISION_2

Added the single root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) interface members for NDIS 6.30.

Note  Revision 2 of this structure is supported only on Windows Server 2012 and later versions of Windows Server.

 

Set the Size member to NDIS_SIZEOF_NIC_SWITCH_CAPABILITIES_REVISION_2.

NDIS_NIC_SWITCH_CAPABILITIES_REVISION_1

Original version for NDIS 6.20.

Set the Size member to NDIS_SIZEOF_NIC_SWITCH_CAPABILITIES_REVISION_1.

Flags

A ULONG value that contains a bitwise OR of flags. This member is reserved for NDIS.

NdisReserved1

Reserved for NDIS.

NumTotalMacAddresses

A ULONG value that contains the total number of media access control (MAC) addresses that the network adapter supports.

Note  Drivers must set this member to zero for revision 2 and later revisions of this structure.

 

NumMacAddressesPerPort

A ULONG value that contains the number of MAC addresses that are supported for each port.

Note  Drivers must set this member to zero for revision 2 and later revisions of this structure.

 

NumVlansPerPort

A ULONG value that contains the number of VLANs that are supported for each port.

Note  Drivers must set this member to zero for revision 2 and later revisions of this structure.

 

NdisReserved2

Reserved for NDIS.

NdisReserved3

Reserved for NDIS.

NicSwitchCapabilities

A ULONG value that contains a bitwise OR of the following flags that specify the capabilities of the NIC switch:

NDIS_NIC_SWITCH_CAPS_RSS_ON_PF_VPORTS_SUPPORTED

Note This flag is supported in Windows Server 2016 and later. It was introduced in NDIS 6.60.

Specifies that the NIC supports VMMQ for PF VPorts.

NDIS_NIC_SWITCH_CAPS_RSS_PER_PF_VPORT_INDIRECTION_TABLE_SUPPORTED

Note This flag is supported in Windows Server 2016 and later. It was introduced in NDIS 6.60.

If set to 1, specifies that the NIC is able to maintain per-PF VPort indirection tables.

NDIS_NIC_SWITCH_CAPS_RSS_PER_PF_VPORT_HASH_FUNCTION_SUPPORTED

Note This flag is supported in Windows Server 2016 and later. It was introduced in NDIS 6.60.

If set to 1, specifies that the NIC supports setting a different hash function per PF VPort. If this flag is set, NDIS_NIC_SWITCH_CAPS_RSS_PER_PF_VPORT_HASH_KEY_SUPPORTED must be set as well.

NDIS_NIC_SWITCH_CAPS_RSS_PER_PF_VPORT_HASH_TYPE_SUPPORTED

Note This flag is supported in Windows Server 2016 and later. It was introduced in NDIS 6.60.

If set to 1, specifies that the NIC supports setting different hash types per PF VPort.

NDIS_NIC_SWITCH_CAPS_RSS_PER_PF_VPORT_HASH_KEY_SUPPORTED

Note This flag is supported in Windows Server 2016 and later. It was introduced in NDIS 6.60.

If set to 1, specifies that the NIC supports setting a different hash secret key per PF VPort. This flag must be set if NDIS_NIC_SWITCH_CAPS_RSS_PER_PF_VPORT_HASH_FUNCTION_SUPPORTED is set.

NDIS_NIC_SWITCH_CAPS_RSS_PER_PF_VPORT_INDIRECTION_TABLE_SIZE_RESTRICTED

Note This flag is supported in Windows Server 2016 and later. It was introduced in NDIS 6.60.

If set to 1, specifies that the NIC has a limitation on indirection table size for PF VPorts. This flag forces the issuer of an RSS OID to use a per-PF VPort indirection table size equal to the number of VPort queues rounded up to the next power of two. This only applies to PF VPorts and does not apply to VF VPorts. This flag can be combined with the NDIS_NIC_SWITCH_CAPS_ASYMMETRIC_QUEUE_PAIRS_FOR_NONDEFAULT_VPORT_SUPPORTED flag (different PF VPorts can have different numbers of queues). This flag prevents VMMQ users from performing fine-grained queue steering.

NDIS_NIC_SWITCH_CAPS_NIC_SWITCH_WITHOUT_IOV_SUPPORTED

Note This flag is supported in Windows Server 2016 and later.

This flag, introduced with NDIS 6.60, specifies that a NIC switch can be created without the use of SR-IOV. This flag allows for separating a NIC switch from the *SRIOV keyword, meaning that a NIC switch can be created via OID_NIC_SWITCH_CREATE_SWITCH even if *SRIOV = 0.

For more information about reporting NIC switch capabilities for NDIS 6.60 and later miniport drivers, see Determining NIC Switch Capabilities.

NDIS_NIC_SWITCH_CAPS_VLAN_SUPPORTED

This flag specifies that the NIC switch supports hardware packet filtering based on the virtual local area network (VLAN) identifier (ID).

Note  This flag should be set only if the NIC switch supports VLAN ID filtering on individual SR-IOV virtual ports (VPorts).

 

NDIS_NIC_SWITCH_CAPS_PER_VPORT_INTERRUPT_MODERATION_SUPPORTED

This flag specifies that the NIC switch can support interrupt moderation configuration on individual VPorts.

NDIS_NIC_SWITCH_CAPS_ASYMMETRIC_QUEUE_PAIRS_FOR_NONDEFAULT_VPORT_SUPPORTED

This flag specifies that the NIC switch can configure a different number of queue pairs for each nondefault VPort. This means that each nondefault VPort can be configured asymmetrically to have a different number of queue pairs.

If this flag is not set, all nondefault VPorts must be configured symmetrically to have the same number of queue pairs.

Regardless of whether this flag is set, the NIC switch must support the ability to set the number of queue pairs on the default VPort. These may differ from the number of queue-pairs that are set on the nondefault VPorts.

Note  A queue pair consists of a transmit queue and receive queue. Queue pairs associated with the default VPort are configured at the time of switch creation through an OID method request of OID_NIC_SWITCH_CREATE_SWITCH. One or more queue pairs are configured on a nondefault VPort through an OID method request of OID_NIC_SWITCH_CREATE_VPORT.

 

For more information, see Symmetric and Asymmetric Assignment of Queue Pairs.

NDIS_NIC_SWITCH_CAPS_VF_RSS_SUPPORTED

This flag specifies that queue pairs from nondefault VPorts that are attached to a PCI Express (PCIe) Virtual Function (VF) can be used for receive side scaling (RSS). The VF miniport driver runs in the guest operating system of a Hyper-V child partition.

If this flag is set, the miniport driver supports RSS on a VF and can use one or more of the queue pairs from the nondefault VPort for RSS.

Note  Starting with Windows Server 2012, only one nondefault VPort can be attached to a VF.

 

NDIS_NIC_SWITCH_CAPS_SINGLE_VPORT_POOL

This flag specifies that the nondefault VPorts can be created in a non-reserved manner from the VPort pool on the network adapter. This allows available nondefault VPorts to be created and assigned on an as-needed basis to the PF and allocated VFs. If the network adapter supports the virtual machine queue (VMQ) interface, nondefault VPorts that are assigned to the PF can also be used for VM receive queues.

Note  The default VPort is always reserved for assignment to the PF.

 

If this flag is set, available nondefault VPorts are created and assigned to the PF and allocated VFs. However, this mechanism does not reserve nondefault VPorts for VF creation and assignment. As a result, situations may occur where a VF may not be assigned a VPort if the pool has been exhausted of available VPorts.

Note  If a VF cannot be assigned a VPort, packet traffic over the VF occurs over the SR-IOV synthetic data path. For more information about this data path, see SR-IOV Data Paths.

 

If this flag is not set, the creation and assignment of nondefault VPorts is reserved for VF assignment. Additional nondefault VPorts can be created and assigned to the PF.

For more information about VMQ, see Virtual Machine Queue (VMQ).

For more information about VPorts, see Managing Virtual Ports.

MaxNumSwitches

A ULONG value that specifies the maximum number of switches that can be created on the network adapter's PCI Express (PCIe) Physical Function (PF).

Note  Starting with Windows Server 2012, Windows only supports the default NIC switch on the network adapter. Therefore, this member must always be set to one.

 

MaxNumVPorts

A ULONG value that specifies the maximum number of VPorts that can be created on a network adapter. This includes the default VPort that is always attached to the PF.

Note  The NIC switch must support at least (MaxNumVFs + 1) VPorts.

 

NdisReserved4

Reserved for NDIS.

MaxNumVFs

A ULONG value that specifies the maximum number of VFs that can be created on the NIC switch.

Note  Depending on the available hardware resources on the network adapter, the miniport driver can set the MaxNumVFs member to a value that is less than its *NumVFs keyword. For more information about this keyword, see Standardized INF Keywords for SR-IOV.

 

MaxNumQueuePairs

A ULONG value that specifies the maximum number of queue pairs that can be assigned to all VPorts. This includes the default VPort that is attached to the PF.

Note  This value must be greater than or equal to the value of MaxNumVPorts.

 

NdisReserved5

Reserved for NDIS.

NdisReserved6

Reserved for NDIS.

NdisReserved7

Reserved for NDIS.

MaxNumQueuePairsPerNonDefaultVPort

A ULONG value that specifies the maximum number of queue pairs that can be assigned to a nondefault VPort.

This value is specified in powers of 2, and provides for asymmetric configuration and assignment of queue pairs to VPorts. For more information, see Symmetric and Asymmetric Assignment of Queue Pairs.

NdisReserved8

Reserved for NDIS.

NdisReserved9

Reserved for NDIS.

NdisReserved10

Reserved for NDIS.

NdisReserved11

Reserved for NDIS.

NdisReserved12

Reserved for NDIS.

MaxNumMacAddresses

A ULONG value that specifies the maximum number of unicast MAC address filters that are available on the NIC switch.

Note  This value must be greater than or equal to the value of MaxNumVPorts. This enables each VPort (including the default VPort) to be configured to have at least one unicast MAC address filter.

 

NdisReserved13

Reserved for NDIS.

NdisReserved14

Reserved for NDIS.

NdisReserved15

Reserved for NDIS.

NdisReserved16

Reserved for NDIS.

NdisReserved17

Reserved for NDIS.

MaxNumRssCapableNonDefaultPFVPorts

A ULONG value that specifies the maximum number of RSS-capable non-default PFVPorts.

NumberOfIndirectionTableEntriesForDefaultVPort

A ULONG value that specifies the number of indirection table entries for the default VPort.

NumberOfIndirectionTableEntriesPerNonDefaultPFVPort

A ULONG value that specifies the number of indirection table entries for each non-default PFVPort.

MaxNumQueuePairsForDefaultVPort

A ULONG value that specifies the maximum number of queue pairs that can be assigned to the default VPort.

This value is specified in powers of 2, and provides for asymmetric configuration and assignment of queue pairs to VPorts. For more information, see Symmetric and Asymmetric Assignment of Queue Pairs.

Remarks

The NDIS_NIC_SWITCH_CAPABILITIES structure is used in the members of the following structures:

• The HardwareNicSwitchCapabilities and CurrentNicSwitchCapabilities members of the NDIS_MINIPORT_ADAPTER_HARDWARE_ASSIST_ATTRIBUTES structure.
• The NicSwitchCapabilities member of the NDIS_FILTER_ATTACH_PARAMETERS and NDIS_BIND_PARAMETERS structures.

OID query requests of OID_NIC_SWITCH_CURRENT_CAPABILITIES and OID_NIC_SWITCH_HARDWARE_CAPABILITIES return an NDIS_NIC_SWITCH_CAPABILITIES structure.

Requirements

Requirement	Value
Minimum supported client	Supported in NDIS 6.20 and later.
Header	ntddndis.h (include Ndis.h)

See also

NDIS_BIND_PARAMETERS

NDIS_FILTER_ATTACH_PARAMETERS

NDIS_MINIPORT_ADAPTER_HARDWARE_ASSIST_ATTRIBUTES

NDIS_OBJECT_HEADER

OID_NIC_SWITCH_CREATE_VPORT

OID_NIC_SWITCH_CURRENT_CAPABILITIES

OID_NIC_SWITCH_HARDWARE_CAPABILITIES