.\"	$OpenBSD: vic.4,v 1.8 2006/11/02 07:20:36 fkr Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 2006 Reyk Floeter <reyk@openbsd.org>
.\"
.\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software for any
.\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
.\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
.\"
.\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
.\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
.\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
.\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
.\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
.\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
.\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
.\"
.Dd December 20, 2005
.Dt VIC 4
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm vic
.Nd VMware vmxnet Virtual Interface Controller device
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Cd vic* at pci?
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
driver provides support for the virtual NIC available in virtual
machines by VMware.
It appears as a simple Ethernet device but is actually a virtual network
interface to the underlying host operating system.
.Pp
This driver supports the
.Ic vmxnet
driver protocol, as an alternative to the emulated
.Xr pcn 4
interface also available in the VMware environment.
The
.Nm vic
driver is optimized for the virtual machine, it can provide advanced
capabilities depending on the underlying host operating system and
the physical network interface controller of the host.
.Pp
Unlike the capabilities of physical network interface controllers,
these capabilities may change after reboot.
The list of available capabilities is printed by the kernel on
startup, which could be:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width VLANSW -offset indent -compact
.It SG
Transmit scatter-gather lists are supported (required).
.It CSUM4
IPv4 TCP/UDP checksum offload is supported (ignored).
.It CSUM
IPv4/IPv6/TCP/UDP checksum offload is supported (ignored).
.It HDMA
Can map high DMA memory.
.It TOE
TCP offload engine available (ignored).
.It TSO
TCP segmentation offload supported (ignored).
.It TSOHW
Software-based TSO supported (ignored).
.It VPROM
Virtual PROM available, used for the MAC address.
.It VLANTx
VLAN tagging available (ignored).
.It VLANRx
VLAN untagging available (ignored).
.It VLANSW
Software-based VLAN tagging on the host (ignored).
.El
.Pp
The
.Nm
driver supports the following media types:
.Bl -tag -width autoselect
.It autoselect
Enable autoselection of the media type and options.
The driver always uses the fastest available speed and the media
options provided by the underlying host of the virtual machine.
.El
.Pp
For more information on configuring this device, see
.Xr ifconfig 8 .
.Sh HARDWARE
The
.Nm
driver supports VMware Virtual NICs provided by the following
known products:
.Pp
.Bl -bullet -compact -offset indent
.It
VMware ESX Server
.It
VMware GSX Server 2.5 and newer
.It
VMware Server
.El
.Pp
For VMware to add a virtual NIC to a virtual machine, add these 
lines to the vmx configuration file:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
ethernet0.present = "TRUE"
ethernet0.virtualDev = "vmxnet"
.Ed
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr arp 4 ,
.Xr ifmedia 4 ,
.Xr intro 4 ,
.Xr netintro 4 ,
.Xr pci 4 ,
.Xr pcn 4 ,
.Xr hostname.if 5 ,
.Xr ifconfig 8
.Sh AUTHORS
.An -nosplit
The
.Nm
driver was written by
.An Reyk Floeter Aq reyk@openbsd.org .