How to Enable Virtual Functions (VF) in Intel® QuickAssist Technology (Intel® QAT)

• Slow virtual device creation for QAT endpoint.
• Using QAT-1.7, creating virtual devices for QAT endpoints using the command echo 16 > /sys/bus/pci/drivers/c6xx/0000:19:00.0/sriov_numvfs takes more than 10 seconds.

To properly enable the Virtual Functions (VFs) in Intel® QAT, the driver must be configured for virtualization before building it. Follow these steps to configure the driver and enable the VFs:

1. Configure the Intel® QAT driver for virtualization by running the command # ./configure --enable-icp-sriov=host
2. Install the Intel® QAT driver by running the command # make -j install
3. Enable the VFs by running the command # service qat_service_vfs start
4. Show the VFs status by running the command # service qat_service status

Refer to the Getting Started Guide of your respective Intel® QAT hardware version for more details about enabling the Virtual Functions.