Enabling intel_iommu Does Not Activate SR-IOV; VFs Must Be Created Manually
A technical guide clarifies that setting intel_iommu=on in GRUB only enables the IOMMU but does not activate SR-IOV on a Linux system. SR-IOV is a PCIe capability of a physical function (PF), and virtual functions (VFs) must be explicitly spawned by writing to the sriov_numvfs sysfs file. The author demonstrated this on a machine using an Intel 82599 10G NIC, where four VFs were created via a simple echo command targeting the PF's sysfs path. Since sysfs settings are not persistent across reboots, a udev rule or systemd unit is needed to restore VF configuration after restart. Common issues such as missing sriov_numvfs, IOMMU group conflicts, and CPU pinning are separate concerns unrelated to the initial SR-IOV setup step.
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