About network interface cards
Each appliance instance requires a primary and auxiliary interface. If you add additional interface pairs to the virtual machine, they are added as in-path acceleration interfaces. Total bandwidth and connection limits still apply, regardless of the number of interfaces.
The in-path limit is four LAN/WAN interface pairs, including bypass cards. If you want to use the bypass feature, you are limited to the number of hardware bypass pairs your model supports. The bypass feature is available on all supported virtualization platforms.
Riverbed NICs are available in two-port and four-port configurations. Third-party NICs without a bypass feature are supported for functionality other than fail-to-wire and fail-to-block, providing the underlying hypervisor supports them.
ESXi hosts with Riverbed NICs
SteelHead-v models VCX30 through VCX110 support two bypass LAN/WAN interface pairs. These configurations have been tested:
• Two SteelHead-v guests, each using one physical pair on a single four-port Riverbed NIC
• Two SteelHead-v guests connecting to separate cards
• One SteelHead-v guest connecting to bypass pairs on different NICs