The ibmvnic driver with SR-IOV is now supported by SLES 12 and SLES 15 on IBM POWER9 processor-based systems

SUSE has worked with IBM to enable support for the ibmvnic driver with PowerVM on POWER9 systems.

The ibmvnic driver enables PowerVM Single Root I/O Virtualizations (SR-IOV) for improved network capabilities including reduced systems processor utilization, decreased network latency, and enforcement of network Quality of Service.

Supported SLES Levels:

• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 Service Pack 3 (SLES 12 SP3)
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 Service Pack 4 (SLES 12 SP4)
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15

Supported Hardware:

• All IBM POWER9 processor-based systems using PowerVM virtualization

IBM and SUSE strongly recommend customers apply the latest maintenance updates to SLES, PowerVM, and the latest firmware level for the POWER9 hardware before using ibmvnic.

Customers should not attempt installation of SLES 12 SP3 over an ibmvnic network.

Please NOTE: ibmvnic is not supported on POWER8 systems. Ibmvnic is a technology preview on POWER8 based systems.

Full details are in the SUSE TID at https://www.suse.com/support/kb/doc/?id=7023703