xref: /dpdk/doc/guides/cryptodevs/scheduler.rst (revision 9c30a6f3c9a456e8111a2b1e5f6c2c02a62025b6)
1..  SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
2    Copyright(c) 2017 Intel Corporation.
3
4Cryptodev Scheduler Poll Mode Driver Library
5============================================
6
7Scheduler PMD is a software crypto PMD, which has the capabilities of
8attaching hardware and/or software cryptodevs, and distributes ingress
9crypto ops among them in a certain manner.
10
11.. figure:: img/scheduler-overview.*
12
13   Cryptodev Scheduler Overview
14
15
16The Cryptodev Scheduler PMD library (**librte_crypto_scheduler**) acts as
17a software crypto PMD and shares the same API provided by librte_cryptodev.
18The PMD supports attaching multiple crypto PMDs, software or hardware, as
19workers, and distributes the crypto workload to them with certain behavior.
20The behaviors are categorizes as different "modes". Basically, a scheduling
21mode defines certain actions for scheduling crypto ops to its workers.
22
23The librte_crypto_scheduler library exports a C API which provides an API
24for attaching/detaching workers, set/get scheduling modes, and enable/disable
25crypto ops reordering.
26
27Limitations
28-----------
29
30* Sessionless crypto operation is not supported
31* OOP crypto operation is not supported when the crypto op reordering feature
32  is enabled.
33
34
35Initialization
36--------------
37
38To use the PMD in an application, user must:
39
40* Call rte_vdev_init("crypto_scheduler") within the application.
41
42* Use --vdev="crypto_scheduler" in the EAL options, which will call
43  rte_vdev_init() internally.
44
45
46The following parameters (all optional) can be provided in the previous
47two calls:
48
49* socket_id: Specify the socket where the memory for the device is going
50  to be allocated (by default, socket_id will be the socket where the core
51  that is creating the PMD is running on).
52
53* max_nb_sessions: Specify the maximum number of sessions that can be
54  created. This value may be overwritten internally if there are too
55  many devices are attached.
56
57* worker: If a cryptodev has been initialized with specific name, it can be
58  attached to the scheduler using this parameter, simply filling the name
59  here. Multiple cryptodevs can be attached initially by presenting this
60  parameter multiple times.
61
62* mode: Specify the scheduling mode of the PMD. The supported scheduling
63  mode parameter values are specified in the "Cryptodev Scheduler Modes
64  Overview" section.
65
66* mode_param: Specify the mode-specific parameter. Some scheduling modes
67  may be initialized with specific parameters other than the default ones,
68  such as the **threshold** packet size of **packet-size-distr** mode. This
69  parameter fulfills the purpose.
70
71* ordering: Specify the status of the crypto operations ordering feature.
72  The value of this parameter can be "enable" or "disable". This feature
73  is disabled by default.
74
75Example:
76
77.. code-block:: console
78
79    ... --vdev "crypto_aesni_mb0,name=aesni_mb_1" --vdev "crypto_aesni_mb1,name=aesni_mb_2" --vdev "crypto_scheduler,worker=aesni_mb_1,worker=aesni_mb_2" ...
80
81.. note::
82
83    * The scheduler cryptodev cannot be started unless the scheduling mode
84      is set and at least one worker is attached. Also, to configure the
85      scheduler in the run-time, like attach/detach worker(s), change
86      scheduling mode, or enable/disable crypto op ordering, one should stop
87      the scheduler first, otherwise an error will be returned.
88
89    * The crypto op reordering feature requires using the userdata field of
90      every mbuf to be processed to store temporary data. By the end of
91      processing, the field is set to pointing to NULL, any previously
92      stored value of this field will be lost.
93
94
95Cryptodev Scheduler Modes Overview
96----------------------------------
97
98Currently the Crypto Scheduler PMD library supports following modes of
99operation:
100
101*   **CDEV_SCHED_MODE_ROUNDROBIN:**
102
103   *Initialization mode parameter*: **round-robin**
104
105   Round-robin mode, which distributes the enqueued burst of crypto ops
106   among its workers in a round-robin manner. This mode may help to fill
107   the throughput gap between the physical core and the existing cryptodevs
108   to increase the overall performance.
109
110*   **CDEV_SCHED_MODE_PKT_SIZE_DISTR:**
111
112   *Initialization mode parameter*: **packet-size-distr**
113
114   Packet-size based distribution mode, which works with 2 workers, the primary
115   worker and the secondary worker, and distributes the enqueued crypto
116   operations to them based on their data lengths. A crypto operation will be
117   distributed to the primary worker if its data length is equal to or bigger
118   than the designated threshold, otherwise it will be handled by the secondary
119   worker.
120
121   A typical use case in this mode is with the QAT cryptodev as the primary and
122   a software cryptodev as the secondary worker. This may help applications to
123   process additional crypto workload than what the QAT cryptodev can handle on
124   its own, by making use of the available CPU cycles to deal with smaller
125   crypto workloads.
126
127   The threshold is set to 128 bytes by default. It can be updated by calling
128   function **rte_cryptodev_scheduler_option_set**. The parameter of
129   **option_type** must be **CDEV_SCHED_OPTION_THRESHOLD** and **option** should
130   point to a rte_cryptodev_scheduler_threshold_option structure filled with
131   appropriate threshold value. Please NOTE this threshold has be a power-of-2
132   unsigned integer. It is possible to use **mode_param** initialization
133   parameter to achieve the same purpose. For example:
134
135   ... --vdev "crypto_scheduler,mode=packet-size-distr,mode_param=threshold:512" ...
136
137   The above parameter will overwrite the threshold value to 512.
138
139*   **CDEV_SCHED_MODE_FAILOVER:**
140
141   *Initialization mode parameter*: **fail-over**
142
143   Fail-over mode, which works with 2 workers, the primary worker and the
144   secondary worker. In this mode, the scheduler will enqueue the incoming
145   crypto operation burst to the primary worker. When one or more crypto
146   operations fail to be enqueued, then they will be enqueued to the secondary
147   worker.
148
149*   **CDEV_SCHED_MODE_MULTICORE:**
150
151   *Initialization mode parameter*: **multi-core**
152
153   Multi-core mode, which distributes the workload with several (up to eight)
154   worker cores. The enqueued bursts are distributed among the worker cores in a
155   round-robin manner. If scheduler cannot enqueue entire burst to the same worker,
156   it will enqueue the remaining operations to the next available worker.
157   For pure small packet size (64 bytes) traffic however the multi-core mode is not
158   an optimal solution, as it doesn't give significant per-core performance improvement.
159   For mixed traffic (IMIX) the optimal number of worker cores is around 2-3.
160   For large packets (1.5 kbytes) scheduler shows linear scaling in performance
161   up to eight cores.
162   Each worker uses its own cryptodev. Only software cryptodevs
163   are supported. Only the same type of cryptodevs should be used concurrently.
164
165   The multi-core mode uses one extra parameter:
166
167   * corelist: Semicolon-separated list of logical cores to be used as workers.
168     The number of worker cores should be equal to the number of worker cryptodevs.
169     These cores should be present in EAL core list parameter and
170     should not be used by the application or any other process.
171
172   Example:
173    ... --vdev "crypto_aesni_mb1,name=aesni_mb_1" --vdev "crypto_aesni_mb_pmd2,name=aesni_mb_2" \
174    --vdev "crypto_scheduler,worker=aesni_mb_1,worker=aesni_mb_2,mode=multi-core,corelist=23;24" ...
175