-.. BSD LICENSE
+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
Copyright(c) 2015-2017 Netronome Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
All rights reserved.
- Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
- modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
- are met:
-
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- notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
- * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
- notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in
- the documentation and/or other materials provided with the
- distribution.
- * Neither the name of Intel Corporation nor the names of its
- contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived
- from this software without specific prior written permission.
-
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-
NFP poll mode driver library
============================
Netronome's sixth generation of flow processors pack 216 programmable
cores and over 100 hardware accelerators that uniquely combine packet,
flow, security and content processing in a single device that scales
-up to 400 Gbps.
+up to 400-Gb/s.
This document explains how to use DPDK with the Netronome Poll Mode
Driver (PMD) supporting Netronome's Network Flow Processor 6xxx
(NFP-6xxx) and Netronome's Flow Processor 4xxx (NFP-4xxx).
NFP is a SRIOV capable device and the PMD driver supports the physical
-function (PF) and virtual functions (VFs).
+function (PF) and the virtual functions (VFs).
Dependencies
------------
Before using the Netronome's DPDK PMD some NFP configuration,
which is not related to DPDK, is required. The system requires
installation of **Netronome's BSP (Board Support Package)** along
-with some specific NFP firmware application. Netronome's NSP ABI
+with a specific NFP firmware application. Netronome's NSP ABI
version should be 0.20 or higher.
If you have a NFP device you should already have the code and
-documentation for doing all this configuration. Contact
+documentation for this configuration. Contact
**support@netronome.com** to obtain the latest available firmware.
-The NFP Linux netdev kernel driver for VFs is part of vanilla kernel
-since kernel version 4.5, and support for the PF since kernel version
-4.11. Support for older kernels can be obtained on Github at
-**https://github.com/Netronome/nfp-drv-kmods** along with build
+The NFP Linux netdev kernel driver for VFs has been a part of the
+vanilla kernel since kernel version 4.5, and support for the PF
+since kernel version 4.11. Support for older kernels can be obtained
+on Github at
+**https://github.com/Netronome/nfp-drv-kmods** along with the build
instructions.
NFP PMD needs to be used along with UIO ``igb_uio`` or VFIO (``vfio-pci``)
Netronome's PMD code is provided in the **drivers/net/nfp** directory.
Although NFP PMD has Netronome´s BSP dependencies, it is possible to
-compile it along with other DPDK PMDs even if no BSP was installed before.
+compile it along with other DPDK PMDs even if no BSP was installed previously.
Of course, a DPDK app will require such a BSP installed for using the
NFP PMD, along with a specific NFP firmware application.
-Default PMD configuration is at **common_linuxapp configuration** file:
-
-- **CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_NFP_PMD=y**
-
-Once DPDK is built all the DPDK apps and examples include support for
+Once the DPDK is built all the DPDK apps and examples include support for
the NFP PMD.
Using the PF
------------
-NFP PMD has support for using the NFP PF as another DPDK port, but it does not
+NFP PMD supports using the NFP PF as another DPDK port, but it does not
have any functionality for controlling VFs. In fact, it is not possible to use
the PMD with the VFs if the PF is being used by DPDK, that is, with the NFP PF
-bound to ``igb_uio`` or ``vfio-pci`` kernel drivers. Future DPDK version will
+bound to ``igb_uio`` or ``vfio-pci`` kernel drivers. Future DPDK versions will
have a PMD able to work with the PF and VFs at the same time and with the PF
implementing VF management along with other PF-only functionalities/offloads.
The PMD PF has extra work to do which will delay the DPDK app initialization
-like checking if a firmware is already available in the device, uploading the
-firmware if necessary, and configure the Link state properly when starting or
-stopping a PF port. Note that firmware upload is not always necessary which is
-the main delay for NFP PF PMD initialization.
+like uploading the firmware and configure the Link state properly when starting or
+stopping a PF port. Since DPDK 18.05 the firmware upload happens when
+a PF is initialized, which was not always true with older DPDK versions.
Depending on the Netronome product installed in the system, firmware files
should be available under ``/lib/firmware/netronome``. DPDK PMD supporting the
-PF requires a specific link, ``/lib/firmware/netronome/nic_dpdk_default.nffw``,
-which should be created automatically with Netronome's Agilio products
-installation.
+PF looks for a firmware file in this order:
+
+ 1) First try to find a firmware image specific for this device using the
+ NFP serial number:
+
+ serial-00-15-4d-12-20-65-10-ff.nffw
+
+ 2) Then try the PCI name:
+
+ pci-0000:04:00.0.nffw
+
+ 3) Finally try the card type and media:
+
+ nic_AMDA0099-0001_2x25.nffw
+
+Netronome's software packages install firmware files under ``/lib/firmware/netronome``
+to support all the Netronome's SmartNICs and different firmware applications.
+This is usually done using file names based on SmartNIC type and media and with a
+directory per firmware application. Options 1 and 2 for firmware filenames allow
+more than one SmartNIC, same type of SmartNIC or different ones, and to upload a
+different firmware to each SmartNIC.
+
+ .. Note::
+ Currently the NFP PMD supports using the PF with Agilio Basic Firmware. See
+ https://help.netronome.com/support/solutions for more information on the
+ various firmwares supported by the Netronome Agilio CX smartNIC.
PF multiport support
--------------------
-Some NFP cards support several physical ports with just one single PCI device.
-DPDK core is designed with the 1:1 relationship between PCI devices and DPDK
-ports, so NFP PMD PF support requires handling the multiport case specifically.
-During NFP PF initialization, the PMD will extract the information about the
-number of PF ports from the firmware and will create as many DPDK ports as
-needed.
+The NFP PMD can work with up to 8 ports on the same PF device. The number of
+available ports is firmware and hardware dependent, and the driver looks for a
+firmware symbol during initialization to know how many can be used.
+
+DPDK apps work with ports, and a port is usually a PF or a VF PCI device.
+However, with the NFP PF multiport there is just one PF PCI device. Supporting
+this particular configuration requires the PMD to create ports in a special way,
+although once they are created, DPDK apps should be able to use them as normal
+PCI ports.
+
+NFP ports belonging to same PF can be seen inside PMD initialization with a
+suffix added to the PCI ID: wwww:xx:yy.z_port_n. For example, a PF with PCI ID
+0000:03:00.0 and four ports is seen by the PMD code as:
+
+ .. code-block:: console
+
+ 0000:03:00.0_port_0
+ 0000:03:00.0_port_1
+ 0000:03:00.0_port_2
+ 0000:03:00.0_port_3
+
+ .. Note::
+
+ There are some limitations with multiport support: RX interrupts and
+ device hot-plugging are not supported.
+
+PF multiprocess support
+-----------------------
+
+Due to how the driver needs to access the NFP through a CPP interface, which implies
+to use specific registers inside the chip, the number of secondary processes with PF
+ports is limited to only one.
-Because the unusual relationship between a single PCI device and several DPDK
-ports, there are some limitations when using more than one PF DPDK ports: there
-is no support for RX interrupts and it is not possible either to use those PF
-ports with the device hotplug functionality.
+This limitation will be solved in future versions but having basic multiprocess support
+is important for allowing development and debugging through the PF using a secondary
+process which will create a CPP bridge for user space tools accessing the NFP.
System configuration
get the drivers from the above Github repository and follow the instructions
for building and installing it.
- Virtual Functions need to be enabled before they can be used with the PMD.
+ VFs need to be enabled before they can be used with the PMD.
Before enabling the VFs it is useful to obtain information about the
current NFP PCI device detected by the system:
git.droids-corp.org / dpdk.git / blobdiff