1 .. SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
2 Copyright 2015 6WIND S.A.
3 Copyright 2015 Mellanox Technologies, Ltd
5 .. include:: <isonum.txt>
10 The MLX5 poll mode driver library (**librte_pmd_mlx5**) provides support
11 for **Mellanox ConnectX-4**, **Mellanox ConnectX-4 Lx** , **Mellanox
12 ConnectX-5**, **Mellanox ConnectX-6**, **Mellanox ConnectX-6 Dx** and
13 **Mellanox BlueField** families of 10/25/40/50/100/200 Gb/s adapters
14 as well as their virtual functions (VF) in SR-IOV context.
16 Information and documentation about these adapters can be found on the
17 `Mellanox website <http://www.mellanox.com>`__. Help is also provided by the
18 `Mellanox community <http://community.mellanox.com/welcome>`__.
20 There is also a `section dedicated to this poll mode driver
21 <http://www.mellanox.com/page/products_dyn?product_family=209&mtag=pmd_for_dpdk>`__.
27 Besides its dependency on libibverbs (that implies libmlx5 and associated
28 kernel support), librte_pmd_mlx5 relies heavily on system calls for control
29 operations such as querying/updating the MTU and flow control parameters.
31 For security reasons and robustness, this driver only deals with virtual
32 memory addresses. The way resources allocations are handled by the kernel,
33 combined with hardware specifications that allow to handle virtual memory
34 addresses directly, ensure that DPDK applications cannot access random
35 physical memory (or memory that does not belong to the current process).
37 This capability allows the PMD to coexist with kernel network interfaces
38 which remain functional, although they stop receiving unicast packets as
39 long as they share the same MAC address.
40 This means legacy linux control tools (for example: ethtool, ifconfig and
41 more) can operate on the same network interfaces that owned by the DPDK
44 The PMD can use libibverbs and libmlx5 to access the device firmware
45 or directly the hardware components.
46 There are different levels of objects and bypassing abilities
47 to get the best performances:
49 - Verbs is a complete high-level generic API
50 - Direct Verbs is a device-specific API
51 - DevX allows to access firmware objects
52 - Direct Rules manages flow steering at low-level hardware layer
54 Enabling librte_pmd_mlx5 causes DPDK applications to be linked against
60 - Multi arch support: x86_64, POWER8, ARMv8, i686.
61 - Multiple TX and RX queues.
62 - Support for scattered TX and RX frames.
63 - IPv4, IPv6, TCPv4, TCPv6, UDPv4 and UDPv6 RSS on any number of queues.
64 - RSS using different combinations of fields: L3 only, L4 only or both,
65 and source only, destination only or both.
66 - Several RSS hash keys, one for each flow type.
67 - Default RSS operation with no hash key specification.
68 - Configurable RETA table.
69 - Link flow control (pause frame).
70 - Support for multiple MAC addresses.
74 - RX CRC stripping configuration.
75 - Promiscuous mode on PF and VF.
76 - Multicast promiscuous mode on PF and VF.
77 - Hardware checksum offloads.
78 - Flow director (RTE_FDIR_MODE_PERFECT, RTE_FDIR_MODE_PERFECT_MAC_VLAN and
80 - Flow API, including :ref:`flow_isolated_mode`.
82 - KVM and VMware ESX SR-IOV modes are supported.
83 - RSS hash result is supported.
84 - Hardware TSO for generic IP or UDP tunnel, including VXLAN and GRE.
85 - Hardware checksum Tx offload for generic IP or UDP tunnel, including VXLAN and GRE.
87 - Statistics query including Basic, Extended and per queue.
89 - Tunnel types: VXLAN, L3 VXLAN, VXLAN-GPE, GRE, MPLSoGRE, MPLSoUDP, IP-in-IP, Geneve, GTP.
90 - Tunnel HW offloads: packet type, inner/outer RSS, IP and UDP checksum verification.
91 - NIC HW offloads: encapsulation (vxlan, gre, mplsoudp, mplsogre), NAT, routing, TTL
92 increment/decrement, count, drop, mark. For details please see :ref:`mlx5_offloads_support`.
93 - Flow insertion rate of more then million flows per second, when using Direct Rules.
94 - Support for multiple rte_flow groups.
95 - Per packet no-inline hint flag to disable packet data copying into Tx descriptors.
102 - For secondary process:
104 - Forked secondary process not supported.
105 - External memory unregistered in EAL memseg list cannot be used for DMA
106 unless such memory has been registered by ``mlx5_mr_update_ext_mp()`` in
107 primary process and remapped to the same virtual address in secondary
108 process. If the external memory is registered by primary process but has
109 different virtual address in secondary process, unexpected error may happen.
111 - When using Verbs flow engine (``dv_flow_en`` = 0), flow pattern without any
112 specific VLAN will match for VLAN packets as well:
114 When VLAN spec is not specified in the pattern, the matching rule will be created with VLAN as a wild card.
115 Meaning, the flow rule::
117 flow create 0 ingress pattern eth / vlan vid is 3 / ipv4 / end ...
119 Will only match vlan packets with vid=3. and the flow rule::
121 flow create 0 ingress pattern eth / ipv4 / end ...
123 Will match any ipv4 packet (VLAN included).
125 - When using DV flow engine (``dv_flow_en`` = 1), flow pattern without VLAN item
126 will match untagged packets only.
129 flow create 0 ingress pattern eth / ipv4 / end ...
131 Will match untagged packets only.
134 flow create 0 ingress pattern eth / vlan / ipv4 / end ...
136 Will match tagged packets only, with any VLAN ID value.
139 flow create 0 ingress pattern eth / vlan vid is 3 / ipv4 / end ...
141 Will only match tagged packets with VLAN ID 3.
143 - VLAN pop offload command:
145 - Flow rules having a VLAN pop offload command as one of their actions and
146 are lacking a match on VLAN as one of their items are not supported.
147 - The command is not supported on egress traffic.
149 - VLAN push offload is not supported on ingress traffic.
151 - VLAN set PCP offload is not supported on existing headers.
153 - A multi segment packet must have not more segments than reported by dev_infos_get()
154 in tx_desc_lim.nb_seg_max field. This value depends on maximal supported Tx descriptor
155 size and ``txq_inline_min`` settings and may be from 2 (worst case forced by maximal
156 inline settings) to 58.
158 - Flows with a VXLAN Network Identifier equal (or ends to be equal)
159 to 0 are not supported.
161 - L3 VXLAN and VXLAN-GPE tunnels cannot be supported together with MPLSoGRE and MPLSoUDP.
163 - Match on Geneve header supports the following fields only:
169 Currently, the only supported options length value is 0.
171 - VF: flow rules created on VF devices can only match traffic targeted at the
172 configured MAC addresses (see ``rte_eth_dev_mac_addr_add()``).
174 - Match on GTP tunnel header item supports the following fields only:
176 - v_pt_rsv_flags: E flag, S flag, PN flag
180 - No Tx metadata go to the E-Switch steering domain for the Flow group 0.
181 The flows within group 0 and set metadata action are rejected by hardware.
185 MAC addresses not already present in the bridge table of the associated
186 kernel network device will be added and cleaned up by the PMD when closing
187 the device. In case of ungraceful program termination, some entries may
188 remain present and should be removed manually by other means.
190 - When Multi-Packet Rx queue is configured (``mprq_en``), a Rx packet can be
191 externally attached to a user-provided mbuf with having EXT_ATTACHED_MBUF in
192 ol_flags. As the mempool for the external buffer is managed by PMD, all the
193 Rx mbufs must be freed before the device is closed. Otherwise, the mempool of
194 the external buffers will be freed by PMD and the application which still
195 holds the external buffers may be corrupted.
197 - If Multi-Packet Rx queue is configured (``mprq_en``) and Rx CQE compression is
198 enabled (``rxq_cqe_comp_en``) at the same time, RSS hash result is not fully
199 supported. Some Rx packets may not have PKT_RX_RSS_HASH.
201 - IPv6 Multicast messages are not supported on VM, while promiscuous mode
202 and allmulticast mode are both set to off.
203 To receive IPv6 Multicast messages on VM, explicitly set the relevant
204 MAC address using rte_eth_dev_mac_addr_add() API.
206 - To support a mixed traffic pattern (some buffers from local host memory, some
207 buffers from other devices) with high bandwidth, a mbuf flag is used.
209 An application hints the PMD whether or not it should try to inline the
210 given mbuf data buffer. PMD should do the best effort to act upon this request.
212 The hint flag ``RTE_PMD_MLX5_FINE_GRANULARITY_INLINE`` is dynamic,
213 registered by application with rte_mbuf_dynflag_register(). This flag is
214 purely driver-specific and declared in PMD specific header ``rte_pmd_mlx5.h``,
215 which is intended to be used by the application.
217 To query the supported specific flags in runtime,
218 the function ``rte_pmd_mlx5_get_dyn_flag_names`` returns the array of
219 currently (over present hardware and configuration) supported specific flags.
220 The "not inline hint" feature operating flow is the following one:
223 - probe the devices, ports are created
224 - query the port capabilities
225 - if port supporting the feature is found
226 - register dynamic flag ``RTE_PMD_MLX5_FINE_GRANULARITY_INLINE``
227 - application starts the ports
228 - on ``dev_start()`` PMD checks whether the feature flag is registered and
229 enables the feature support in datapath
230 - application might set the registered flag bit in ``ol_flags`` field
231 of mbuf being sent and PMD will handle ones appropriately.
233 - The amount of descriptors in Tx queue may be limited by data inline settings.
234 Inline data require the more descriptor building blocks and overall block
235 amount may exceed the hardware supported limits. The application should
236 reduce the requested Tx size or adjust data inline settings with
237 ``txq_inline_max`` and ``txq_inline_mpw`` devargs keys.
239 - To provide the packet send scheduling on mbuf timestamps the ``tx_pp``
240 parameter should be specified, RTE_MBUF_DYNFIELD_TIMESTAMP_NAME and
241 RTE_MBUF_DYNFLAG_TIMESTAMP_NAME should be registered by application.
242 When PMD sees the RTE_MBUF_DYNFLAG_TIMESTAMP_NAME set on the packet
243 being sent it tries to synchronize the time of packet appearing on
244 the wire with the specified packet timestamp. It the specified one
245 is in the past it should be ignored, if one is in the distant future
246 it should be capped with some reasonable value (in range of seconds).
247 These specific cases ("too late" and "distant future") can be optionally
248 reported via device xstats to assist applications to detect the
249 time-related problems.
251 The timestamp upper "too-distant-future" limit
252 at the moment of invoking the Tx burst routine
253 can be estimated as ``tx_pp`` option (in nanoseconds) multiplied by 2^23.
254 Please note, for the testpmd txonly mode,
255 the limit is deduced from the expression::
257 (n_tx_descriptors / burst_size + 1) * inter_burst_gap
259 There is no any packet reordering according timestamps is supposed,
260 neither within packet burst, nor between packets, it is an entirely
261 application responsibility to generate packets and its timestamps
262 in desired order. The timestamps can be put only in the first packet
263 in the burst providing the entire burst scheduling.
265 - E-Switch decapsulation Flow:
267 - can be applied to PF port only.
268 - must specify VF port action (packet redirection from PF to VF).
269 - optionally may specify tunnel inner source and destination MAC addresses.
271 - E-Switch encapsulation Flow:
273 - can be applied to VF ports only.
274 - must specify PF port action (packet redirection from VF to PF).
278 - The input buffer, used as outer header, is not validated.
282 - The decapsulation is always done up to the outermost tunnel detected by the HW.
283 - The input buffer, providing the removal size, is not validated.
284 - The buffer size must match the length of the headers to be removed.
286 - ICMP(code/type/identifier/sequence number) / ICMP6(code/type) matching, IP-in-IP and MPLS flow matching are all
287 mutually exclusive features which cannot be supported together
288 (see :ref:`mlx5_firmware_config`).
292 - Requires DevX and DV flow to be enabled.
293 - KEEP_CRC offload cannot be supported with LRO.
294 - The first mbuf length, without head-room, must be big enough to include the
296 - Rx queue with LRO offload enabled, receiving a non-LRO packet, can forward
297 it with size limited to max LRO size, not to max RX packet length.
298 - LRO can be used with outer header of TCP packets of the standard format:
299 eth (with or without vlan) / ipv4 or ipv6 / tcp / payload
301 Other TCP packets (e.g. with MPLS label) received on Rx queue with LRO enabled, will be received with bad checksum.
305 - ``DEV_RX_OFFLOAD_KEEP_CRC`` cannot be supported with decapsulation
306 for some NICs (such as ConnectX-6 Dx and BlueField 2).
307 The capability bit ``scatter_fcs_w_decap_disable`` shows NIC support.
311 - Supports ``RTE_FLOW_ACTION_TYPE_SAMPLE`` action only within NIC Rx and E-Switch steering domain.
312 - The E-Switch Sample flow must have the eswitch_manager VPORT destination (PF or ECPF) and no additional actions.
313 - For ConnectX-5, the ``RTE_FLOW_ACTION_TYPE_SAMPLE`` is typically used as first action in the E-Switch egress flow if with header modify or encapsulation actions.
318 MLX5 supports various methods to report statistics:
320 Port statistics can be queried using ``rte_eth_stats_get()``. The received and sent statistics are through SW only and counts the number of packets received or sent successfully by the PMD. The imissed counter is the amount of packets that could not be delivered to SW because a queue was full. Packets not received due to congestion in the bus or on the NIC can be queried via the rx_discards_phy xstats counter.
322 Extended statistics can be queried using ``rte_eth_xstats_get()``. The extended statistics expose a wider set of counters counted by the device. The extended port statistics counts the number of packets received or sent successfully by the port. As Mellanox NICs are using the :ref:`Bifurcated Linux Driver <linux_gsg_linux_drivers>` those counters counts also packet received or sent by the Linux kernel. The counters with ``_phy`` suffix counts the total events on the physical port, therefore not valid for VF.
324 Finally per-flow statistics can by queried using ``rte_flow_query`` when attaching a count action for specific flow. The flow counter counts the number of packets received successfully by the port and match the specific flow.
332 The ibverbs libraries can be linked with this PMD in a number of ways,
333 configured by the ``ibverbs_link`` build option:
335 - ``shared`` (default): the PMD depends on some .so files.
337 - ``dlopen``: Split the dependencies glue in a separate library
338 loaded when needed by dlopen.
339 It make dependencies on libibverbs and libmlx4 optional,
340 and has no performance impact.
342 - ``static``: Embed static flavor of the dependencies libibverbs and libmlx4
343 in the PMD shared library or the executable static binary.
345 Environment variables
346 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
350 A list of directories in which to search for the rdma-core "glue" plug-in,
351 separated by colons or semi-colons.
353 - ``MLX5_SHUT_UP_BF``
355 Configures HW Tx doorbell register as IO-mapped.
357 By default, the HW Tx doorbell is configured as a write-combining register.
358 The register would be flushed to HW usually when the write-combining buffer
359 becomes full, but it depends on CPU design.
361 Except for vectorized Tx burst routines, a write memory barrier is enforced
362 after updating the register so that the update can be immediately visible to
365 When vectorized Tx burst is called, the barrier is set only if the burst size
366 is not aligned to MLX5_VPMD_TX_MAX_BURST. However, setting this environmental
367 variable will bring better latency even though the maximum throughput can
370 Run-time configuration
371 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
373 - librte_pmd_mlx5 brings kernel network interfaces up during initialization
374 because it is affected by their state. Forcing them down prevents packets
377 - **ethtool** operations on related kernel interfaces also affect the PMD.
382 In order to run as a non-root user,
383 some capabilities must be granted to the application::
385 setcap cap_sys_admin,cap_net_admin,cap_net_raw,cap_ipc_lock+ep <dpdk-app>
387 Below are the reasons of the need for each capability:
390 When using physical addresses (PA mode), with Linux >= 4.0,
391 for access to ``/proc/self/pagemap``.
394 For device configuration.
397 For raw ethernet queue allocation through kernel driver.
400 For DMA memory pinning.
405 - ``rxq_cqe_comp_en`` parameter [int]
407 A nonzero value enables the compression of CQE on RX side. This feature
408 allows to save PCI bandwidth and improve performance. Enabled by default.
412 - x86_64 with ConnectX-4, ConnectX-4 Lx, ConnectX-5, ConnectX-6, ConnectX-6 Dx
414 - POWER9 and ARMv8 with ConnectX-4 Lx, ConnectX-5, ConnectX-6, ConnectX-6 Dx
417 - ``rxq_cqe_pad_en`` parameter [int]
419 A nonzero value enables 128B padding of CQE on RX side. The size of CQE
420 is aligned with the size of a cacheline of the core. If cacheline size is
421 128B, the CQE size is configured to be 128B even though the device writes
422 only 64B data on the cacheline. This is to avoid unnecessary cache
423 invalidation by device's two consecutive writes on to one cacheline.
424 However in some architecture, it is more beneficial to update entire
425 cacheline with padding the rest 64B rather than striding because
426 read-modify-write could drop performance a lot. On the other hand,
427 writing extra data will consume more PCIe bandwidth and could also drop
428 the maximum throughput. It is recommended to empirically set this
429 parameter. Disabled by default.
433 - CPU having 128B cacheline with ConnectX-5 and BlueField.
435 - ``rxq_pkt_pad_en`` parameter [int]
437 A nonzero value enables padding Rx packet to the size of cacheline on PCI
438 transaction. This feature would waste PCI bandwidth but could improve
439 performance by avoiding partial cacheline write which may cause costly
440 read-modify-copy in memory transaction on some architectures. Disabled by
445 - x86_64 with ConnectX-4, ConnectX-4 Lx, ConnectX-5, ConnectX-6, ConnectX-6 Dx
447 - POWER8 and ARMv8 with ConnectX-4 Lx, ConnectX-5, ConnectX-6, ConnectX-6 Dx
450 - ``mprq_en`` parameter [int]
452 A nonzero value enables configuring Multi-Packet Rx queues. Rx queue is
453 configured as Multi-Packet RQ if the total number of Rx queues is
454 ``rxqs_min_mprq`` or more. Disabled by default.
456 Multi-Packet Rx Queue (MPRQ a.k.a Striding RQ) can further save PCIe bandwidth
457 by posting a single large buffer for multiple packets. Instead of posting a
458 buffers per a packet, one large buffer is posted in order to receive multiple
459 packets on the buffer. A MPRQ buffer consists of multiple fixed-size strides
460 and each stride receives one packet. MPRQ can improve throughput for
461 small-packet traffic.
463 When MPRQ is enabled, max_rx_pkt_len can be larger than the size of
464 user-provided mbuf even if DEV_RX_OFFLOAD_SCATTER isn't enabled. PMD will
465 configure large stride size enough to accommodate max_rx_pkt_len as long as
466 device allows. Note that this can waste system memory compared to enabling Rx
467 scatter and multi-segment packet.
469 - ``mprq_log_stride_num`` parameter [int]
471 Log 2 of the number of strides for Multi-Packet Rx queue. Configuring more
472 strides can reduce PCIe traffic further. If configured value is not in the
473 range of device capability, the default value will be set with a warning
474 message. The default value is 4 which is 16 strides per a buffer, valid only
475 if ``mprq_en`` is set.
477 The size of Rx queue should be bigger than the number of strides.
479 - ``mprq_log_stride_size`` parameter [int]
481 Log 2 of the size of a stride for Multi-Packet Rx queue. Configuring a smaller
482 stride size can save some memory and reduce probability of a depletion of all
483 available strides due to unreleased packets by an application. If configured
484 value is not in the range of device capability, the default value will be set
485 with a warning message. The default value is 11 which is 2048 bytes per a
486 stride, valid only if ``mprq_en`` is set. With ``mprq_log_stride_size`` set
487 it is possible for a packet to span across multiple strides. This mode allows
488 support of jumbo frames (9K) with MPRQ. The memcopy of some packets (or part
489 of a packet if Rx scatter is configured) may be required in case there is no
490 space left for a head room at the end of a stride which incurs some
493 - ``mprq_max_memcpy_len`` parameter [int]
495 The maximum length of packet to memcpy in case of Multi-Packet Rx queue. Rx
496 packet is mem-copied to a user-provided mbuf if the size of Rx packet is less
497 than or equal to this parameter. Otherwise, PMD will attach the Rx packet to
498 the mbuf by external buffer attachment - ``rte_pktmbuf_attach_extbuf()``.
499 A mempool for external buffers will be allocated and managed by PMD. If Rx
500 packet is externally attached, ol_flags field of the mbuf will have
501 EXT_ATTACHED_MBUF and this flag must be preserved. ``RTE_MBUF_HAS_EXTBUF()``
502 checks the flag. The default value is 128, valid only if ``mprq_en`` is set.
504 - ``rxqs_min_mprq`` parameter [int]
506 Configure Rx queues as Multi-Packet RQ if the total number of Rx queues is
507 greater or equal to this value. The default value is 12, valid only if
510 - ``txq_inline`` parameter [int]
512 Amount of data to be inlined during TX operations. This parameter is
513 deprecated and converted to the new parameter ``txq_inline_max`` providing
514 partial compatibility.
516 - ``txqs_min_inline`` parameter [int]
518 Enable inline data send only when the number of TX queues is greater or equal
521 This option should be used in combination with ``txq_inline_max`` and
522 ``txq_inline_mpw`` below and does not affect ``txq_inline_min`` settings above.
524 If this option is not specified the default value 16 is used for BlueField
525 and 8 for other platforms
527 The data inlining consumes the CPU cycles, so this option is intended to
528 auto enable inline data if we have enough Tx queues, which means we have
529 enough CPU cores and PCI bandwidth is getting more critical and CPU
530 is not supposed to be bottleneck anymore.
532 The copying data into WQE improves latency and can improve PPS performance
533 when PCI back pressure is detected and may be useful for scenarios involving
534 heavy traffic on many queues.
536 Because additional software logic is necessary to handle this mode, this
537 option should be used with care, as it may lower performance when back
538 pressure is not expected.
540 If inline data are enabled it may affect the maximal size of Tx queue in
541 descriptors because the inline data increase the descriptor size and
542 queue size limits supported by hardware may be exceeded.
544 - ``txq_inline_min`` parameter [int]
546 Minimal amount of data to be inlined into WQE during Tx operations. NICs
547 may require this minimal data amount to operate correctly. The exact value
548 may depend on NIC operation mode, requested offloads, etc. It is strongly
549 recommended to omit this parameter and use the default values. Anyway,
550 applications using this parameter should take into consideration that
551 specifying an inconsistent value may prevent the NIC from sending packets.
553 If ``txq_inline_min`` key is present the specified value (may be aligned
554 by the driver in order not to exceed the limits and provide better descriptor
555 space utilization) will be used by the driver and it is guaranteed that
556 requested amount of data bytes are inlined into the WQE beside other inline
557 settings. This key also may update ``txq_inline_max`` value (default
558 or specified explicitly in devargs) to reserve the space for inline data.
560 If ``txq_inline_min`` key is not present, the value may be queried by the
561 driver from the NIC via DevX if this feature is available. If there is no DevX
562 enabled/supported the value 18 (supposing L2 header including VLAN) is set
563 for ConnectX-4 and ConnectX-4 Lx, and 0 is set by default for ConnectX-5
564 and newer NICs. If packet is shorter the ``txq_inline_min`` value, the entire
567 For ConnectX-4 NIC, driver does not allow specifying value below 18
568 (minimal L2 header, including VLAN), error will be raised.
570 For ConnectX-4 Lx NIC, it is allowed to specify values below 18, but
571 it is not recommended and may prevent NIC from sending packets over
574 Please, note, this minimal data inlining disengages eMPW feature (Enhanced
575 Multi-Packet Write), because last one does not support partial packet inlining.
576 This is not very critical due to minimal data inlining is mostly required
577 by ConnectX-4 and ConnectX-4 Lx, these NICs do not support eMPW feature.
579 - ``txq_inline_max`` parameter [int]
581 Specifies the maximal packet length to be completely inlined into WQE
582 Ethernet Segment for ordinary SEND method. If packet is larger than specified
583 value, the packet data won't be copied by the driver at all, data buffer
584 is addressed with a pointer. If packet length is less or equal all packet
585 data will be copied into WQE. This may improve PCI bandwidth utilization for
586 short packets significantly but requires the extra CPU cycles.
588 The data inline feature is controlled by number of Tx queues, if number of Tx
589 queues is larger than ``txqs_min_inline`` key parameter, the inline feature
590 is engaged, if there are not enough Tx queues (which means not enough CPU cores
591 and CPU resources are scarce), data inline is not performed by the driver.
592 Assigning ``txqs_min_inline`` with zero always enables the data inline.
594 The default ``txq_inline_max`` value is 290. The specified value may be adjusted
595 by the driver in order not to exceed the limit (930 bytes) and to provide better
596 WQE space filling without gaps, the adjustment is reflected in the debug log.
597 Also, the default value (290) may be decreased in run-time if the large transmit
598 queue size is requested and hardware does not support enough descriptor
599 amount, in this case warning is emitted. If ``txq_inline_max`` key is
600 specified and requested inline settings can not be satisfied then error
603 - ``txq_inline_mpw`` parameter [int]
605 Specifies the maximal packet length to be completely inlined into WQE for
606 Enhanced MPW method. If packet is large the specified value, the packet data
607 won't be copied, and data buffer is addressed with pointer. If packet length
608 is less or equal, all packet data will be copied into WQE. This may improve PCI
609 bandwidth utilization for short packets significantly but requires the extra
612 The data inline feature is controlled by number of TX queues, if number of Tx
613 queues is larger than ``txqs_min_inline`` key parameter, the inline feature
614 is engaged, if there are not enough Tx queues (which means not enough CPU cores
615 and CPU resources are scarce), data inline is not performed by the driver.
616 Assigning ``txqs_min_inline`` with zero always enables the data inline.
618 The default ``txq_inline_mpw`` value is 268. The specified value may be adjusted
619 by the driver in order not to exceed the limit (930 bytes) and to provide better
620 WQE space filling without gaps, the adjustment is reflected in the debug log.
621 Due to multiple packets may be included to the same WQE with Enhanced Multi
622 Packet Write Method and overall WQE size is limited it is not recommended to
623 specify large values for the ``txq_inline_mpw``. Also, the default value (268)
624 may be decreased in run-time if the large transmit queue size is requested
625 and hardware does not support enough descriptor amount, in this case warning
626 is emitted. If ``txq_inline_mpw`` key is specified and requested inline
627 settings can not be satisfied then error will be raised.
629 - ``txqs_max_vec`` parameter [int]
631 Enable vectorized Tx only when the number of TX queues is less than or
632 equal to this value. This parameter is deprecated and ignored, kept
633 for compatibility issue to not prevent driver from probing.
635 - ``txq_mpw_hdr_dseg_en`` parameter [int]
637 A nonzero value enables including two pointers in the first block of TX
638 descriptor. The parameter is deprecated and ignored, kept for compatibility
641 - ``txq_max_inline_len`` parameter [int]
643 Maximum size of packet to be inlined. This limits the size of packet to
644 be inlined. If the size of a packet is larger than configured value, the
645 packet isn't inlined even though there's enough space remained in the
646 descriptor. Instead, the packet is included with pointer. This parameter
647 is deprecated and converted directly to ``txq_inline_mpw`` providing full
648 compatibility. Valid only if eMPW feature is engaged.
650 - ``txq_mpw_en`` parameter [int]
652 A nonzero value enables Enhanced Multi-Packet Write (eMPW) for ConnectX-5,
653 ConnectX-6, ConnectX-6 Dx and BlueField. eMPW allows the TX burst function to pack
654 up multiple packets in a single descriptor session in order to save PCI bandwidth
655 and improve performance at the cost of a slightly higher CPU usage. When
656 ``txq_inline_mpw`` is set along with ``txq_mpw_en``, TX burst function copies
657 entire packet data on to TX descriptor instead of including pointer of packet.
659 The Enhanced Multi-Packet Write feature is enabled by default if NIC supports
660 it, can be disabled by explicit specifying 0 value for ``txq_mpw_en`` option.
661 Also, if minimal data inlining is requested by non-zero ``txq_inline_min``
662 option or reported by the NIC, the eMPW feature is disengaged.
664 - ``tx_db_nc`` parameter [int]
666 The rdma core library can map doorbell register in two ways, depending on the
667 environment variable "MLX5_SHUT_UP_BF":
669 - As regular cached memory (usually with write combining attribute), if the
670 variable is either missing or set to zero.
671 - As non-cached memory, if the variable is present and set to not "0" value.
673 The type of mapping may slightly affect the Tx performance, the optimal choice
674 is strongly relied on the host architecture and should be deduced practically.
676 If ``tx_db_nc`` is set to zero, the doorbell is forced to be mapped to regular
677 memory (with write combining), the PMD will perform the extra write memory barrier
678 after writing to doorbell, it might increase the needed CPU clocks per packet
679 to send, but latency might be improved.
681 If ``tx_db_nc`` is set to one, the doorbell is forced to be mapped to non
682 cached memory, the PMD will not perform the extra write memory barrier
683 after writing to doorbell, on some architectures it might improve the
686 If ``tx_db_nc`` is set to two, the doorbell is forced to be mapped to regular
687 memory, the PMD will use heuristics to decide whether write memory barrier
688 should be performed. For bursts with size multiple of recommended one (64 pkts)
689 it is supposed the next burst is coming and no need to issue the extra memory
690 barrier (it is supposed to be issued in the next coming burst, at least after
691 descriptor writing). It might increase latency (on some hosts till next
692 packets transmit) and should be used with care.
694 If ``tx_db_nc`` is omitted or set to zero, the preset (if any) environment
695 variable "MLX5_SHUT_UP_BF" value is used. If there is no "MLX5_SHUT_UP_BF",
696 the default ``tx_db_nc`` value is zero for ARM64 hosts and one for others.
698 - ``tx_pp`` parameter [int]
700 If a nonzero value is specified the driver creates all necessary internal
701 objects to provide accurate packet send scheduling on mbuf timestamps.
702 The positive value specifies the scheduling granularity in nanoseconds,
703 the packet send will be accurate up to specified digits. The allowed range is
704 from 500 to 1 million of nanoseconds. The negative value specifies the module
705 of granularity and engages the special test mode the check the schedule rate.
706 By default (if the ``tx_pp`` is not specified) send scheduling on timestamps
709 - ``tx_skew`` parameter [int]
711 The parameter adjusts the send packet scheduling on timestamps and represents
712 the average delay between beginning of the transmitting descriptor processing
713 by the hardware and appearance of actual packet data on the wire. The value
714 should be provided in nanoseconds and is valid only if ``tx_pp`` parameter is
715 specified. The default value is zero.
717 - ``tx_vec_en`` parameter [int]
719 A nonzero value enables Tx vector on ConnectX-5, ConnectX-6, ConnectX-6 Dx
720 and BlueField NICs if the number of global Tx queues on the port is less than
721 ``txqs_max_vec``. The parameter is deprecated and ignored.
723 - ``rx_vec_en`` parameter [int]
725 A nonzero value enables Rx vector if the port is not configured in
726 multi-segment otherwise this parameter is ignored.
730 - ``vf_nl_en`` parameter [int]
732 A nonzero value enables Netlink requests from the VF to add/remove MAC
733 addresses or/and enable/disable promiscuous/all multicast on the Netdevice.
734 Otherwise the relevant configuration must be run with Linux iproute2 tools.
735 This is a prerequisite to receive this kind of traffic.
737 Enabled by default, valid only on VF devices ignored otherwise.
739 - ``l3_vxlan_en`` parameter [int]
741 A nonzero value allows L3 VXLAN and VXLAN-GPE flow creation. To enable
742 L3 VXLAN or VXLAN-GPE, users has to configure firmware and enable this
743 parameter. This is a prerequisite to receive this kind of traffic.
747 - ``dv_xmeta_en`` parameter [int]
749 A nonzero value enables extensive flow metadata support if device is
750 capable and driver supports it. This can enable extensive support of
751 ``MARK`` and ``META`` item of ``rte_flow``. The newly introduced
752 ``SET_TAG`` and ``SET_META`` actions do not depend on ``dv_xmeta_en``.
754 There are some possible configurations, depending on parameter value:
756 - 0, this is default value, defines the legacy mode, the ``MARK`` and
757 ``META`` related actions and items operate only within NIC Tx and
758 NIC Rx steering domains, no ``MARK`` and ``META`` information crosses
759 the domain boundaries. The ``MARK`` item is 24 bits wide, the ``META``
760 item is 32 bits wide and match supported on egress only.
762 - 1, this engages extensive metadata mode, the ``MARK`` and ``META``
763 related actions and items operate within all supported steering domains,
764 including FDB, ``MARK`` and ``META`` information may cross the domain
765 boundaries. The ``MARK`` item is 24 bits wide, the ``META`` item width
766 depends on kernel and firmware configurations and might be 0, 16 or
767 32 bits. Within NIC Tx domain ``META`` data width is 32 bits for
768 compatibility, the actual width of data transferred to the FDB domain
769 depends on kernel configuration and may be vary. The actual supported
770 width can be retrieved in runtime by series of rte_flow_validate()
773 - 2, this engages extensive metadata mode, the ``MARK`` and ``META``
774 related actions and items operate within all supported steering domains,
775 including FDB, ``MARK`` and ``META`` information may cross the domain
776 boundaries. The ``META`` item is 32 bits wide, the ``MARK`` item width
777 depends on kernel and firmware configurations and might be 0, 16 or
778 24 bits. The actual supported width can be retrieved in runtime by
779 series of rte_flow_validate() trials.
781 +------+-----------+-----------+-------------+-------------+
782 | Mode | ``MARK`` | ``META`` | ``META`` Tx | FDB/Through |
783 +======+===========+===========+=============+=============+
784 | 0 | 24 bits | 32 bits | 32 bits | no |
785 +------+-----------+-----------+-------------+-------------+
786 | 1 | 24 bits | vary 0-32 | 32 bits | yes |
787 +------+-----------+-----------+-------------+-------------+
788 | 2 | vary 0-32 | 32 bits | 32 bits | yes |
789 +------+-----------+-----------+-------------+-------------+
791 If there is no E-Switch configuration the ``dv_xmeta_en`` parameter is
792 ignored and the device is configured to operate in legacy mode (0).
794 Disabled by default (set to 0).
796 The Direct Verbs/Rules (engaged with ``dv_flow_en`` = 1) supports all
797 of the extensive metadata features. The legacy Verbs supports FLAG and
798 MARK metadata actions over NIC Rx steering domain only.
800 - ``dv_flow_en`` parameter [int]
802 A nonzero value enables the DV flow steering assuming it is supported
803 by the driver (RDMA Core library version is rdma-core-24.0 or higher).
805 Enabled by default if supported.
807 - ``dv_esw_en`` parameter [int]
809 A nonzero value enables E-Switch using Direct Rules.
811 Enabled by default if supported.
813 - ``lacp_by_user`` parameter [int]
815 A nonzero value enables the control of LACP traffic by the user application.
816 When a bond exists in the driver, by default it should be managed by the
817 kernel and therefore LACP traffic should be steered to the kernel.
818 If this devarg is set to 1 it will allow the user to manage the bond by
819 itself and not steer LACP traffic to the kernel.
821 Disabled by default (set to 0).
823 - ``mr_ext_memseg_en`` parameter [int]
825 A nonzero value enables extending memseg when registering DMA memory. If
826 enabled, the number of entries in MR (Memory Region) lookup table on datapath
827 is minimized and it benefits performance. On the other hand, it worsens memory
828 utilization because registered memory is pinned by kernel driver. Even if a
829 page in the extended chunk is freed, that doesn't become reusable until the
830 entire memory is freed.
834 - ``representor`` parameter [list]
836 This parameter can be used to instantiate DPDK Ethernet devices from
837 existing port (or VF) representors configured on the device.
839 It is a standard parameter whose format is described in
840 :ref:`ethernet_device_standard_device_arguments`.
842 For instance, to probe port representors 0 through 2::
846 - ``max_dump_files_num`` parameter [int]
848 The maximum number of files per PMD entity that may be created for debug information.
849 The files will be created in /var/log directory or in current directory.
851 set to 128 by default.
853 - ``lro_timeout_usec`` parameter [int]
855 The maximum allowed duration of an LRO session, in micro-seconds.
856 PMD will set the nearest value supported by HW, which is not bigger than
857 the input ``lro_timeout_usec`` value.
858 If this parameter is not specified, by default PMD will set
859 the smallest value supported by HW.
861 - ``hp_buf_log_sz`` parameter [int]
863 The total data buffer size of a hairpin queue (logarithmic form), in bytes.
864 PMD will set the data buffer size to 2 ** ``hp_buf_log_sz``, both for RX & TX.
865 The capacity of the value is specified by the firmware and the initialization
866 will get a failure if it is out of scope.
867 The range of the value is from 11 to 19 right now, and the supported frame
868 size of a single packet for hairpin is from 512B to 128KB. It might change if
869 different firmware release is being used. By using a small value, it could
870 reduce memory consumption but not work with a large frame. If the value is
871 too large, the memory consumption will be high and some potential performance
872 degradation will be introduced.
873 By default, the PMD will set this value to 16, which means that 9KB jumbo
874 frames will be supported.
876 - ``reclaim_mem_mode`` parameter [int]
878 Cache some resources in flow destroy will help flow recreation more efficient.
879 While some systems may require the all the resources can be reclaimed after
881 The parameter ``reclaim_mem_mode`` provides the option for user to configure
882 if the resource cache is needed or not.
884 There are three options to choose:
886 - 0. It means the flow resources will be cached as usual. The resources will
887 be cached, helpful with flow insertion rate.
889 - 1. It will only enable the DPDK PMD level resources reclaim.
891 - 2. Both DPDK PMD level and rdma-core low level will be configured as
894 By default, the PMD will set this value to 0.
896 - ``sys_mem_en`` parameter [int]
898 A non-zero value enables the PMD memory management allocating memory
899 from system by default, without explicit rte memory flag.
901 By default, the PMD will set this value to 0.
903 - ``decap_en`` parameter [int]
905 Some devices do not support FCS (frame checksum) scattering for
906 tunnel-decapsulated packets.
907 If set to 0, this option forces the FCS feature and rejects tunnel
908 decapsulation in the flow engine for such devices.
910 By default, the PMD will set this value to 1.
912 .. _mlx5_firmware_config:
914 Firmware configuration
915 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
917 Firmware features can be configured as key/value pairs.
919 The command to set a value is::
921 mlxconfig -d <device> set <key>=<value>
923 The command to query a value is::
925 mlxconfig -d <device> query | grep <key>
927 The device name for the command ``mlxconfig`` can be either the PCI address,
928 or the mst device name found with::
932 Below are some firmware configurations listed.
938 value: 1=Infiniband 2=Ethernet 3=VPI(auto-sense)
944 - maximum number of SR-IOV virtual functions::
948 - enable DevX (required by Direct Rules and other features)::
952 - aggressive CQE zipping::
956 - L3 VXLAN and VXLAN-GPE destination UDP port::
959 IP_OVER_VXLAN_PORT=<udp dport>
961 - enable VXLAN-GPE tunnel flow matching::
963 FLEX_PARSER_PROFILE_ENABLE=0
965 FLEX_PARSER_PROFILE_ENABLE=2
967 - enable IP-in-IP tunnel flow matching::
969 FLEX_PARSER_PROFILE_ENABLE=0
971 - enable MPLS flow matching::
973 FLEX_PARSER_PROFILE_ENABLE=1
975 - enable ICMP(code/type/identifier/sequence number) / ICMP6(code/type) fields matching::
977 FLEX_PARSER_PROFILE_ENABLE=2
979 - enable Geneve flow matching::
981 FLEX_PARSER_PROFILE_ENABLE=0
983 FLEX_PARSER_PROFILE_ENABLE=1
985 - enable GTP flow matching::
987 FLEX_PARSER_PROFILE_ENABLE=3
989 - enable eCPRI flow matching::
991 FLEX_PARSER_PROFILE_ENABLE=4
997 This driver relies on external libraries and kernel drivers for resources
998 allocations and initialization. The following dependencies are not part of
999 DPDK and must be installed separately:
1003 User space Verbs framework used by librte_pmd_mlx5. This library provides
1004 a generic interface between the kernel and low-level user space drivers
1007 It allows slow and privileged operations (context initialization, hardware
1008 resources allocations) to be managed by the kernel and fast operations to
1009 never leave user space.
1013 Low-level user space driver library for Mellanox
1014 ConnectX-4/ConnectX-5/ConnectX-6/BlueField devices, it is automatically loaded
1017 This library basically implements send/receive calls to the hardware
1020 - **Kernel modules**
1022 They provide the kernel-side Verbs API and low level device drivers that
1023 manage actual hardware initialization and resources sharing with user
1026 Unlike most other PMDs, these modules must remain loaded and bound to
1029 - mlx5_core: hardware driver managing Mellanox
1030 ConnectX-4/ConnectX-5/ConnectX-6/BlueField devices and related Ethernet kernel
1032 - mlx5_ib: InifiniBand device driver.
1033 - ib_uverbs: user space driver for Verbs (entry point for libibverbs).
1035 - **Firmware update**
1037 Mellanox OFED/EN releases include firmware updates for
1038 ConnectX-4/ConnectX-5/ConnectX-6/BlueField adapters.
1040 Because each release provides new features, these updates must be applied to
1041 match the kernel modules and libraries they come with.
1045 Both libraries are BSD and GPL licensed. Linux kernel modules are GPL
1051 Either RDMA Core library with a recent enough Linux kernel release
1052 (recommended) or Mellanox OFED/EN, which provides compatibility with older
1055 RDMA Core with Linux Kernel
1056 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1058 - Minimal kernel version : v4.14 or the most recent 4.14-rc (see `Linux installation documentation`_)
1059 - Minimal rdma-core version: v15+ commit 0c5f5765213a ("Merge pull request #227 from yishaih/tm")
1060 (see `RDMA Core installation documentation`_)
1061 - When building for i686 use:
1063 - rdma-core version 18.0 or above built with 32bit support.
1064 - Kernel version 4.14.41 or above.
1066 - Starting with rdma-core v21, static libraries can be built::
1069 CFLAGS=-fPIC cmake -DIN_PLACE=1 -DENABLE_STATIC=1 -GNinja ..
1072 .. _`Linux installation documentation`: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux-stable.git/plain/Documentation/admin-guide/README.rst
1073 .. _`RDMA Core installation documentation`: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/linux-rdma/rdma-core/master/README.md
1079 - Mellanox OFED version: **4.5** and above /
1080 Mellanox EN version: **4.5** and above
1083 - ConnectX-4: **12.21.1000** and above.
1084 - ConnectX-4 Lx: **14.21.1000** and above.
1085 - ConnectX-5: **16.21.1000** and above.
1086 - ConnectX-5 Ex: **16.21.1000** and above.
1087 - ConnectX-6: **20.27.0090** and above.
1088 - ConnectX-6 Dx: **22.27.0090** and above.
1089 - BlueField: **18.25.1010** and above.
1091 While these libraries and kernel modules are available on OpenFabrics
1092 Alliance's `website <https://www.openfabrics.org/>`__ and provided by package
1093 managers on most distributions, this PMD requires Ethernet extensions that
1094 may not be supported at the moment (this is a work in progress).
1097 <http://www.mellanox.com/page/products_dyn?product_family=26&mtag=linux>`__ and
1099 <http://www.mellanox.com/page/products_dyn?product_family=27&mtag=linux>`__
1100 include the necessary support and should be used in the meantime. For DPDK,
1101 only libibverbs, libmlx5, mlnx-ofed-kernel packages and firmware updates are
1102 required from that distribution.
1106 Several versions of Mellanox OFED/EN are available. Installing the version
1107 this DPDK release was developed and tested against is strongly
1108 recommended. Please check the `prerequisites`_.
1113 The following Mellanox device families are supported by the same mlx5 driver:
1123 Below are detailed device names:
1125 * Mellanox\ |reg| ConnectX\ |reg|-4 10G MCX4111A-XCAT (1x10G)
1126 * Mellanox\ |reg| ConnectX\ |reg|-4 10G MCX412A-XCAT (2x10G)
1127 * Mellanox\ |reg| ConnectX\ |reg|-4 25G MCX4111A-ACAT (1x25G)
1128 * Mellanox\ |reg| ConnectX\ |reg|-4 25G MCX412A-ACAT (2x25G)
1129 * Mellanox\ |reg| ConnectX\ |reg|-4 40G MCX413A-BCAT (1x40G)
1130 * Mellanox\ |reg| ConnectX\ |reg|-4 40G MCX4131A-BCAT (1x40G)
1131 * Mellanox\ |reg| ConnectX\ |reg|-4 40G MCX415A-BCAT (1x40G)
1132 * Mellanox\ |reg| ConnectX\ |reg|-4 50G MCX413A-GCAT (1x50G)
1133 * Mellanox\ |reg| ConnectX\ |reg|-4 50G MCX4131A-GCAT (1x50G)
1134 * Mellanox\ |reg| ConnectX\ |reg|-4 50G MCX414A-BCAT (2x50G)
1135 * Mellanox\ |reg| ConnectX\ |reg|-4 50G MCX415A-GCAT (1x50G)
1136 * Mellanox\ |reg| ConnectX\ |reg|-4 50G MCX416A-BCAT (2x50G)
1137 * Mellanox\ |reg| ConnectX\ |reg|-4 50G MCX416A-GCAT (2x50G)
1138 * Mellanox\ |reg| ConnectX\ |reg|-4 50G MCX415A-CCAT (1x100G)
1139 * Mellanox\ |reg| ConnectX\ |reg|-4 100G MCX416A-CCAT (2x100G)
1140 * Mellanox\ |reg| ConnectX\ |reg|-4 Lx 10G MCX4111A-XCAT (1x10G)
1141 * Mellanox\ |reg| ConnectX\ |reg|-4 Lx 10G MCX4121A-XCAT (2x10G)
1142 * Mellanox\ |reg| ConnectX\ |reg|-4 Lx 25G MCX4111A-ACAT (1x25G)
1143 * Mellanox\ |reg| ConnectX\ |reg|-4 Lx 25G MCX4121A-ACAT (2x25G)
1144 * Mellanox\ |reg| ConnectX\ |reg|-4 Lx 40G MCX4131A-BCAT (1x40G)
1145 * Mellanox\ |reg| ConnectX\ |reg|-5 100G MCX556A-ECAT (2x100G)
1146 * Mellanox\ |reg| ConnectX\ |reg|-5 Ex EN 100G MCX516A-CDAT (2x100G)
1147 * Mellanox\ |reg| ConnectX\ |reg|-6 200G MCX654106A-HCAT (2x200G)
1148 * Mellanox\ |reg| ConnectX\ |reg|-6 Dx EN 100G MCX623106AN-CDAT (2x100G)
1149 * Mellanox\ |reg| ConnectX\ |reg|-6 Dx EN 200G MCX623105AN-VDAT (1x200G)
1151 Quick Start Guide on OFED/EN
1152 ----------------------------
1154 1. Download latest Mellanox OFED/EN. For more info check the `prerequisites`_.
1157 2. Install the required libraries and kernel modules either by installing
1158 only the required set, or by installing the entire Mellanox OFED/EN::
1160 ./mlnxofedinstall --upstream-libs --dpdk
1162 3. Verify the firmware is the correct one::
1166 4. Verify all ports links are set to Ethernet::
1168 mlxconfig -d <mst device> query | grep LINK_TYPE
1172 Link types may have to be configured to Ethernet::
1174 mlxconfig -d <mst device> set LINK_TYPE_P1/2=1/2/3
1176 * LINK_TYPE_P1=<1|2|3> , 1=Infiniband 2=Ethernet 3=VPI(auto-sense)
1178 For hypervisors, verify SR-IOV is enabled on the NIC::
1180 mlxconfig -d <mst device> query | grep SRIOV_EN
1183 If needed, configure SR-IOV::
1185 mlxconfig -d <mst device> set SRIOV_EN=1 NUM_OF_VFS=16
1186 mlxfwreset -d <mst device> reset
1188 5. Restart the driver::
1190 /etc/init.d/openibd restart
1194 service openibd restart
1196 If link type was changed, firmware must be reset as well::
1198 mlxfwreset -d <mst device> reset
1200 For hypervisors, after reset write the sysfs number of virtual functions
1203 To dynamically instantiate a given number of virtual functions (VFs)::
1205 echo [num_vfs] > /sys/class/infiniband/mlx5_0/device/sriov_numvfs
1207 6. Install DPDK and you are ready to go.
1208 See :doc:`compilation instructions <../linux_gsg/build_dpdk>`.
1210 Enable switchdev mode
1211 ---------------------
1213 Switchdev mode is a mode in E-Switch, that binds between representor and VF.
1214 Representor is a port in DPDK that is connected to a VF in such a way
1215 that assuming there are no offload flows, each packet that is sent from the VF
1216 will be received by the corresponding representor. While each packet that is
1217 sent to a representor will be received by the VF.
1218 This is very useful in case of SRIOV mode, where the first packet that is sent
1219 by the VF will be received by the DPDK application which will decide if this
1220 flow should be offloaded to the E-Switch. After offloading the flow packet
1221 that the VF that are matching the flow will not be received any more by
1222 the DPDK application.
1224 1. Enable SRIOV mode::
1226 mlxconfig -d <mst device> set SRIOV_EN=true
1228 2. Configure the max number of VFs::
1230 mlxconfig -d <mst device> set NUM_OF_VFS=<num of vfs>
1234 mlxfwreset -d <mst device> reset
1236 3. Configure the actual number of VFs::
1238 echo <num of vfs > /sys/class/net/<net device>/device/sriov_numvfs
1240 4. Unbind the device (can be rebind after the switchdev mode)::
1242 echo -n "<device pci address" > /sys/bus/pci/drivers/mlx5_core/unbind
1244 5. Enbale switchdev mode::
1246 echo switchdev > /sys/class/net/<net device>/compat/devlink/mode
1251 1. Configure aggressive CQE Zipping for maximum performance::
1253 mlxconfig -d <mst device> s CQE_COMPRESSION=1
1255 To set it back to the default CQE Zipping mode use::
1257 mlxconfig -d <mst device> s CQE_COMPRESSION=0
1259 2. In case of virtualization:
1261 - Make sure that hypervisor kernel is 3.16 or newer.
1262 - Configure boot with ``iommu=pt``.
1263 - Use 1G huge pages.
1264 - Make sure to allocate a VM on huge pages.
1265 - Make sure to set CPU pinning.
1267 3. Use the CPU near local NUMA node to which the PCIe adapter is connected,
1268 for better performance. For VMs, verify that the right CPU
1269 and NUMA node are pinned according to the above. Run::
1273 to identify the NUMA node to which the PCIe adapter is connected.
1275 4. If more than one adapter is used, and root complex capabilities allow
1276 to put both adapters on the same NUMA node without PCI bandwidth degradation,
1277 it is recommended to locate both adapters on the same NUMA node.
1278 This in order to forward packets from one to the other without
1279 NUMA performance penalty.
1281 5. Disable pause frames::
1283 ethtool -A <netdev> rx off tx off
1285 6. Verify IO non-posted prefetch is disabled by default. This can be checked
1286 via the BIOS configuration. Please contact you server provider for more
1287 information about the settings.
1291 On some machines, depends on the machine integrator, it is beneficial
1292 to set the PCI max read request parameter to 1K. This can be
1293 done in the following way:
1295 To query the read request size use::
1297 setpci -s <NIC PCI address> 68.w
1299 If the output is different than 3XXX, set it by::
1301 setpci -s <NIC PCI address> 68.w=3XXX
1303 The XXX can be different on different systems. Make sure to configure
1304 according to the setpci output.
1306 7. To minimize overhead of searching Memory Regions:
1308 - '--socket-mem' is recommended to pin memory by predictable amount.
1309 - Configure per-lcore cache when creating Mempools for packet buffer.
1310 - Refrain from dynamically allocating/freeing memory in run-time.
1312 .. _mlx5_offloads_support:
1314 Supported hardware offloads
1315 ---------------------------
1317 .. table:: Minimal SW/HW versions for queue offloads
1319 ============== ===== ===== ========= ===== ========== ==========
1320 Offload DPDK Linux rdma-core OFED firmware hardware
1321 ============== ===== ===== ========= ===== ========== ==========
1322 common base 17.11 4.14 16 4.2-1 12.21.1000 ConnectX-4
1323 checksums 17.11 4.14 16 4.2-1 12.21.1000 ConnectX-4
1324 Rx timestamp 17.11 4.14 16 4.2-1 12.21.1000 ConnectX-4
1325 TSO 17.11 4.14 16 4.2-1 12.21.1000 ConnectX-4
1326 LRO 19.08 N/A N/A 4.6-4 16.25.6406 ConnectX-5
1327 ============== ===== ===== ========= ===== ========== ==========
1329 .. table:: Minimal SW/HW versions for rte_flow offloads
1331 +-----------------------+-----------------+-----------------+
1332 | Offload | with E-Switch | with NIC |
1333 +=======================+=================+=================+
1334 | Count | | DPDK 19.05 | | DPDK 19.02 |
1335 | | | OFED 4.6 | | OFED 4.6 |
1336 | | | rdma-core 24 | | rdma-core 23 |
1337 | | | ConnectX-5 | | ConnectX-5 |
1338 +-----------------------+-----------------+-----------------+
1339 | Drop | | DPDK 19.05 | | DPDK 18.11 |
1340 | | | OFED 4.6 | | OFED 4.5 |
1341 | | | rdma-core 24 | | rdma-core 23 |
1342 | | | ConnectX-5 | | ConnectX-4 |
1343 +-----------------------+-----------------+-----------------+
1344 | Queue / RSS | | | | DPDK 18.11 |
1345 | | | N/A | | OFED 4.5 |
1346 | | | | | rdma-core 23 |
1347 | | | | | ConnectX-4 |
1348 +-----------------------+-----------------+-----------------+
1349 | Encapsulation | | DPDK 19.05 | | DPDK 19.02 |
1350 | (VXLAN / NVGRE / RAW) | | OFED 4.7-1 | | OFED 4.6 |
1351 | | | rdma-core 24 | | rdma-core 23 |
1352 | | | ConnectX-5 | | ConnectX-5 |
1353 +-----------------------+-----------------+-----------------+
1354 | Encapsulation | | DPDK 19.11 | | DPDK 19.11 |
1355 | GENEVE | | OFED 4.7-3 | | OFED 4.7-3 |
1356 | | | rdma-core 27 | | rdma-core 27 |
1357 | | | ConnectX-5 | | ConnectX-5 |
1358 +-----------------------+-----------------+-----------------+
1359 | | Header rewrite | | DPDK 19.05 | | DPDK 19.02 |
1360 | | (set_ipv4_src / | | OFED 4.7-1 | | OFED 4.7-1 |
1361 | | set_ipv4_dst / | | rdma-core 24 | | rdma-core 24 |
1362 | | set_ipv6_src / | | ConnectX-5 | | ConnectX-5 |
1363 | | set_ipv6_dst / | | | | |
1364 | | set_tp_src / | | | | |
1365 | | set_tp_dst / | | | | |
1366 | | dec_ttl / | | | | |
1367 | | set_ttl / | | | | |
1368 | | set_mac_src / | | | | |
1369 | | set_mac_dst) | | | | |
1370 +-----------------------+-----------------+-----------------+
1371 | | Header rewrite | | DPDK 20.02 | | DPDK 20.02 |
1372 | | (set_dscp) | | OFED 5.0 | | OFED 5.0 |
1373 | | | | rdma-core 24 | | rdma-core 24 |
1374 | | | | ConnectX-5 | | ConnectX-5 |
1375 +-----------------------+-----------------+-----------------+
1376 | Jump | | DPDK 19.05 | | DPDK 19.02 |
1377 | | | OFED 4.7-1 | | OFED 4.7-1 |
1378 | | | rdma-core 24 | | N/A |
1379 | | | ConnectX-5 | | ConnectX-5 |
1380 +-----------------------+-----------------+-----------------+
1381 | Mark / Flag | | DPDK 19.05 | | DPDK 18.11 |
1382 | | | OFED 4.6 | | OFED 4.5 |
1383 | | | rdma-core 24 | | rdma-core 23 |
1384 | | | ConnectX-5 | | ConnectX-4 |
1385 +-----------------------+-----------------+-----------------+
1386 | Port ID | | DPDK 19.05 | | N/A |
1387 | | | OFED 4.7-1 | | N/A |
1388 | | | rdma-core 24 | | N/A |
1389 | | | ConnectX-5 | | N/A |
1390 +-----------------------+-----------------+-----------------+
1391 | | VLAN | | DPDK 19.11 | | DPDK 19.11 |
1392 | | (of_pop_vlan / | | OFED 4.7-1 | | OFED 4.7-1 |
1393 | | of_push_vlan / | | ConnectX-5 | | ConnectX-5 |
1394 | | of_set_vlan_pcp / | | | | |
1395 | | of_set_vlan_vid) | | | | |
1396 +-----------------------+-----------------+-----------------+
1397 | Hairpin | | | | DPDK 19.11 |
1398 | | | N/A | | OFED 4.7-3 |
1399 | | | | | rdma-core 26 |
1400 | | | | | ConnectX-5 |
1401 +-----------------------+-----------------+-----------------+
1402 | Meta data | | DPDK 19.11 | | DPDK 19.11 |
1403 | | | OFED 4.7-3 | | OFED 4.7-3 |
1404 | | | rdma-core 26 | | rdma-core 26 |
1405 | | | ConnectX-5 | | ConnectX-5 |
1406 +-----------------------+-----------------+-----------------+
1407 | Metering | | DPDK 19.11 | | DPDK 19.11 |
1408 | | | OFED 4.7-3 | | OFED 4.7-3 |
1409 | | | rdma-core 26 | | rdma-core 26 |
1410 | | | ConnectX-5 | | ConnectX-5 |
1411 +-----------------------+-----------------+-----------------+
1412 | Sampling | | DPDK 20.11 | | DPDK 20.11 |
1413 | | | OFED 5.2 | | OFED 5.2 |
1414 | | | rdma-core 32 | | rdma-core 32 |
1415 | | | ConnectX-5 | | ConnectX-5 |
1416 +-----------------------+-----------------+-----------------+
1421 MARK and META items are interrelated with datapath - they might move from/to
1422 the applications in mbuf fields. Hence, zero value for these items has the
1423 special meaning - it means "no metadata are provided", not zero values are
1424 treated by applications and PMD as valid ones.
1426 Moreover in the flow engine domain the value zero is acceptable to match and
1427 set, and we should allow to specify zero values as rte_flow parameters for the
1428 META and MARK items and actions. In the same time zero mask has no meaning and
1429 should be rejected on validation stage.
1434 Flows are not cached in the driver.
1435 When stopping a device port, all the flows created on this port from the
1436 application will be flushed automatically in the background.
1437 After stopping the device port, all flows on this port become invalid and
1438 not represented in the system.
1439 All references to these flows held by the application should be discarded
1440 directly but neither destroyed nor flushed.
1442 The application should re-create the flows as required after the port restart.
1447 Compared to librte_pmd_mlx4 that implements a single RSS configuration per
1448 port, librte_pmd_mlx5 supports per-protocol RSS configuration.
1450 Since ``testpmd`` defaults to IP RSS mode and there is currently no
1451 command-line parameter to enable additional protocols (UDP and TCP as well
1452 as IP), the following commands must be entered from its CLI to get the same
1453 behavior as librte_pmd_mlx4::
1456 > port config all rss all
1462 This section demonstrates how to launch **testpmd** with Mellanox
1463 ConnectX-4/ConnectX-5/ConnectX-6/BlueField devices managed by librte_pmd_mlx5.
1465 #. Load the kernel modules::
1467 modprobe -a ib_uverbs mlx5_core mlx5_ib
1469 Alternatively if MLNX_OFED/MLNX_EN is fully installed, the following script
1472 /etc/init.d/openibd restart
1476 User space I/O kernel modules (uio and igb_uio) are not used and do
1477 not have to be loaded.
1479 #. Make sure Ethernet interfaces are in working order and linked to kernel
1480 verbs. Related sysfs entries should be present::
1482 ls -d /sys/class/net/*/device/infiniband_verbs/uverbs* | cut -d / -f 5
1491 #. Optionally, retrieve their PCI bus addresses for whitelisting::
1494 for intf in eth2 eth3 eth4 eth5;
1496 (cd "/sys/class/net/${intf}/device/" && pwd -P);
1499 sed -n 's,.*/\(.*\),-w \1,p'
1508 #. Request huge pages::
1510 echo 1024 > /sys/kernel/mm/hugepages/hugepages-2048kB/nr_hugepages/nr_hugepages
1512 #. Start testpmd with basic parameters::
1514 testpmd -l 8-15 -n 4 -w 05:00.0 -w 05:00.1 -w 06:00.0 -w 06:00.1 -- --rxq=2 --txq=2 -i
1519 EAL: PCI device 0000:05:00.0 on NUMA socket 0
1520 EAL: probe driver: 15b3:1013 librte_pmd_mlx5
1521 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: PCI information matches, using device "mlx5_0" (VF: false)
1522 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: 1 port(s) detected
1523 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: port 1 MAC address is e4:1d:2d:e7:0c:fe
1524 EAL: PCI device 0000:05:00.1 on NUMA socket 0
1525 EAL: probe driver: 15b3:1013 librte_pmd_mlx5
1526 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: PCI information matches, using device "mlx5_1" (VF: false)
1527 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: 1 port(s) detected
1528 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: port 1 MAC address is e4:1d:2d:e7:0c:ff
1529 EAL: PCI device 0000:06:00.0 on NUMA socket 0
1530 EAL: probe driver: 15b3:1013 librte_pmd_mlx5
1531 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: PCI information matches, using device "mlx5_2" (VF: false)
1532 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: 1 port(s) detected
1533 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: port 1 MAC address is e4:1d:2d:e7:0c:fa
1534 EAL: PCI device 0000:06:00.1 on NUMA socket 0
1535 EAL: probe driver: 15b3:1013 librte_pmd_mlx5
1536 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: PCI information matches, using device "mlx5_3" (VF: false)
1537 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: 1 port(s) detected
1538 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: port 1 MAC address is e4:1d:2d:e7:0c:fb
1539 Interactive-mode selected
1540 Configuring Port 0 (socket 0)
1541 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: 0x8cba80: TX queues number update: 0 -> 2
1542 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: 0x8cba80: RX queues number update: 0 -> 2
1543 Port 0: E4:1D:2D:E7:0C:FE
1544 Configuring Port 1 (socket 0)
1545 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: 0x8ccac8: TX queues number update: 0 -> 2
1546 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: 0x8ccac8: RX queues number update: 0 -> 2
1547 Port 1: E4:1D:2D:E7:0C:FF
1548 Configuring Port 2 (socket 0)
1549 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: 0x8cdb10: TX queues number update: 0 -> 2
1550 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: 0x8cdb10: RX queues number update: 0 -> 2
1551 Port 2: E4:1D:2D:E7:0C:FA
1552 Configuring Port 3 (socket 0)
1553 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: 0x8ceb58: TX queues number update: 0 -> 2
1554 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: 0x8ceb58: RX queues number update: 0 -> 2
1555 Port 3: E4:1D:2D:E7:0C:FB
1556 Checking link statuses...
1557 Port 0 Link Up - speed 40000 Mbps - full-duplex
1558 Port 1 Link Up - speed 40000 Mbps - full-duplex
1559 Port 2 Link Up - speed 10000 Mbps - full-duplex
1560 Port 3 Link Up - speed 10000 Mbps - full-duplex
1567 This section demonstrates how to dump flows. Currently, it's possible to dump
1568 all flows with assistance of external tools.
1570 #. 2 ways to get flow raw file:
1572 - Using testpmd CLI:
1574 .. code-block:: console
1576 testpmd> flow dump <port> <output_file>
1578 - call rte_flow_dev_dump api:
1580 .. code-block:: console
1582 rte_flow_dev_dump(port, file, NULL);
1584 #. Dump human-readable flows from raw file:
1586 Get flow parsing tool from: https://github.com/Mellanox/mlx_steering_dump
1588 .. code-block:: console
1590 mlx_steering_dump.py -f <output_file>