Enable enhanced networking with the Intel 82599 VF interface on Windows instances - Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
RequirementsTest whether enhanced networking is enabledEnable enhanced networking on Windows
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Enable enhanced networking with the Intel 82599 VF interface on Windows instances

Amazon EC2 provides enhanced networking capabilities through the Intel 82599 VF interface, which uses the Intel ixgbevf driver.

Requirements

To prepare for enhanced networking using the Intel 82599 VF interface, set up your instance as follows:

  • Select from the following supported instance types: C3, C4, D2, I2, M4 (excluding m4.16xlarge), and R3.

  • Launch the instance from a 64-bit HVM AMI. You can't enable enhanced networking on Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2003. Enhanced networking is already enabled for Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2016 and later AMIs. Windows Server 2012 R2 includes Intel driver 1.0.15.3 and we recommend that you upgrade that driver to the latest version using the Pnputil.exe utility.

  • Ensure that the instance has internet connectivity.

  • Use Amazon CloudShell from the Amazon Web Services Management Console, or install and configure the Amazon CLI or the Amazon Tools for Windows PowerShell on any computer you choose, preferably your local desktop or laptop. For more information, see Access Amazon EC2 or the Amazon CloudShell User Guide. Enhanced networking cannot be managed from the Amazon EC2 console.

  • If you have important data on the instance that you want to preserve, you should back that data up now by creating an AMI from your instance. Updating kernels and kernel modules, as well as enabling the sriovNetSupport attribute, might render incompatible instances or operating systems unreachable. If you have a recent backup, your data will still be retained if this happens.

Test whether enhanced networking is enabled

Enhanced networking with the Intel 82599 VF interface is enabled if the driver is installed on your instance and the sriovNetSupport attribute is set.

Driver

To verify that the driver is installed, connect to your instance and open Device Manager. You should see "Intel(R) 82599 Virtual Function" listed under Network adapters.

Instance attribute (sriovNetSupport)

To check whether an instance has the enhanced networking sriovNetSupport attribute set, use one of the following commands:

Amazon CLI

describe-instance-attribute (Amazon CLI/Amazon CloudShell)

aws ec2 describe-instance-attribute --instance-id instance_id --attribute sriovNetSupport
PowerShell

Get-EC2InstanceAttribute (Amazon Tools for Windows PowerShell)

Get-EC2InstanceAttribute -InstanceId instance-id -Attribute sriovNetSupport

If the attribute isn't set, SriovNetSupport is empty. If the attribute is set, the value is simple, as shown in the following example output.

"SriovNetSupport": {
	"Value": "simple"
},
Image attribute (sriovNetSupport)

To check whether an AMI already has the enhanced networking sriovNetSupport attribute set, use one of the following commands:

Amazon CLI

describe-images (Amazon CLI/Amazon CloudShell)

aws ec2 describe-images --image-id ami_id --query "Images[].SriovNetSupport"
PowerShell

Get-EC2Image (Amazon Tools for Windows PowerShell)

(Get-EC2Image -ImageId ami-id).SriovNetSupport

If the attribute isn't set, SriovNetSupport is empty. If the attribute is set, the value is simple.

Enable enhanced networking on Windows

If you launched your instance and it does not have enhanced networking enabled already, you must download and install the required network adapter driver on your instance, and then set the sriovNetSupport instance attribute to activate enhanced networking. You can only enable this attribute on supported instance types. For more information, see Enhanced networking support.

Warning

There is no way to disable the enhanced networking attribute after you've enabled it.

To enable enhanced networking

  1. Connect to your instance and log in as the local administrator.

  2. [Windows Server 2016 and later] Run the following EC2 Launch PowerShell script to configure the instance after the driver is installed.

    PS C:\> C:\ProgramData\Amazon\EC2-Windows\Launch\Scripts\InitializeInstance.ps1 -Schedule
    Important

    The administrator password will reset when you enable the initialize instance EC2 Launch script. You can modify the configuration file to disable the administrator password reset by specifying it in the settings for the initialization tasks. For steps on how to disable password reset, see Configure initialization tasks.

  3. From the instance, download the Intel network adapter driver for your operating system:

    • Windows Server 2022

      Visit the download page and download Wired_driver_version_x64.zip.

    • Windows Server 2019 including for Server version 1809 and later*

      Visit the download page and download Wired_driver_version_x64.zip.

    • Windows Server 2016 including for Server version 1803 and earlier*

      Visit the download page and download Wired_driver_version_x64.zip.

    • Windows Server 2012 R2

      Visit the download page and download Wired_driver_version_x64.zip.

    • Windows Server 2012

      Visit the download page and download Wired_driver_version_x64.zip.

    • Windows Server 2008 R2

      Visit the download page and download PROWinx64Legacy.exe.

    *Server versions 1803 and earlier as well as 1809 and later are not specifically addressed on the Intel Drivers and Software pages.

  4. Install the Intel network adapter driver for your operating system.

    • Windows Server 2008 R2

      1. In the Downloads folder, locate the PROWinx64Legacy.exe file and rename it to PROWinx64Legacy.zip.

      2. Extract the contents of the PROWinx64Legacy.zip file.

      3. Open the command line, navigate to the extracted folder, and run the following command to use the pnputil utility to add and install the INF file in the driver store.

        C:\> pnputil -a PROXGB\Winx64\NDIS62\vxn62x64.inf

    • Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2012 R2, and Windows Server 2012

      1. In the Downloads folder, extract the contents of the Wired_driver_version_x64.zip file.

      2. In the extracted folder, locate the Wired_driver_version_x64.exe file and rename it to Wired_driver_version_x64.zip.

      3. Extract the contents of the Wired_driver_version_x64.zip file.

      4. Open the command line, navigate to the extracted folder, and run one of the following commands to use the pnputil utility to add and install the INF file in the driver store.

        • Windows Server 2019

          C:\> pnputil -i -a PROXGB\Winx64\NDIS68\vxn68x64.inf

        • Windows Server 2016

          C:\> pnputil -i -a PROXGB\Winx64\NDIS65\vxn65x64.inf

        • Windows Server 2012 R2

          C:\> pnputil -i -a PROXGB\Winx64\NDIS64\vxn64x64.inf

        • Windows Server 2012

          C:\> pnputil -i -a PROXGB\Winx64\NDIS63\vxn63x64.inf

  5. From your local computer, stop the instance using the Amazon EC2 console or one of the following commands: stop-instances (Amazon CLI), Stop-EC2Instance (Amazon Tools for Windows PowerShell). If your instance is managed by Amazon OpsWorks, you should stop the instance in the Amazon OpsWorks console so that the instance state remains in sync.

  6. From your local computer, enable the enhanced networking attribute using one of the following commands:

    Amazon CLI

    modify-instance-attribute (Amazon CLI/Amazon CloudShell)

    aws ec2 modify-instance-attribute --instance-id instance_id --sriov-net-support simple
    PowerShell

    Edit-EC2InstanceAttribute (Amazon Tools for Windows PowerShell)

    Edit-EC2InstanceAttribute -InstanceId instance_id -SriovNetSupport "simple"

  7. (Optional) Create an AMI from the instance, as described in Create a custom Windows AMI. The AMI inherits the enhanced networking attribute from the instance. Therefore, you can use this AMI to launch another instance with enhanced networking enabled by default.

  8. From your local computer, start the instance using the Amazon EC2 console or one of the following commands: start-instances (Amazon CLI), Start-EC2Instance (Amazon Tools for Windows PowerShell). If your instance is managed by Amazon OpsWorks, you should start the instance in the Amazon OpsWorks console so that the instance state remains in sync.