#VCP Data Processing Units or also called smart nics is a phyisical device inside an ESXi host. Formerly known as project Monterey. The DPU has ESXi directly running on it, allowing it to offload some services on the DPU, reducing CPU cycles on the Hosts. The ESXi running on the DPU is running on ARM only, it's sole purpose is offloading network and security services. It can run vSAN services, NSX Securiuty services and host management for example. ![[_media/vSphere - Data Processing Units(DPU|vSphere - Data Processing Units(DPU|[DPU)2024-07-27.png]]2024-07-27.png]]2024-07-27.png) There is an ESXi instance running on the x86 CPU oif the Server and one inside the DPU. These two ESXi instances can be managed both. The DPU is connected with an internal network with the ESXi host. Allows for isolation of Security services like NSX, this will only run on the DPU isolated from the x86 ESXi system. This will not require another license to run. ## Requirements/limitation - Currently only NSX component is supported with DPUs - Only 1 DPU per ESXi host - If 1 ESXi Host in a cluster has a DPU, all of the other hosts must have DPUs aswell - DPUs must be from the same vendor and need to be the same model, generation can differ - supported vendors currently: NVIDIA, AMD on DELL or HPE Servers - DPUs must be preinstalled ## vSphere Distributed Services Engine is the part of vSphere that offloads service operations from an ESXi host to the configured DPU or smart NIC. ### Requirements - vCenter 8 or later - ESXi 8 or later ## 🔗Resources