xref: /dpdk/doc/guides/cryptodevs/scheduler.rst (revision 6491dbbecebb1e4f07fc970ef90b34119d8be2e3)
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_pmd_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
19slaves, 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 slaves.
22
23The librte_pmd_crypto_scheduler library exports a C API which provides an API
24for attaching/detaching slaves, 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
35Installation
36------------
37
38To build DPDK with CRYTPO_SCHEDULER_PMD the user is required to set
39CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_PMD_CRYPTO_SCHEDULER=y in config/common_base, and
40recompile DPDK
41
42
43Initialization
44--------------
45
46To use the PMD in an application, user must:
47
48* Call rte_vdev_init("crypto_scheduler") within the application.
49
50* Use --vdev="crypto_scheduler" in the EAL options, which will call
51  rte_vdev_init() internally.
52
53
54The following parameters (all optional) can be provided in the previous
55two calls:
56
57* socket_id: Specify the socket where the memory for the device is going
58  to be allocated (by default, socket_id will be the socket where the core
59  that is creating the PMD is running on).
60
61* max_nb_sessions: Specify the maximum number of sessions that can be
62  created. This value may be overwritten internally if there are too
63  many devices are attached.
64
65* slave: If a cryptodev has been initialized with specific name, it can be
66  attached to the scheduler using this parameter, simply filling the name
67  here. Multiple cryptodevs can be attached initially by presenting this
68  parameter multiple times.
69
70* mode: Specify the scheduling mode of the PMD. The supported scheduling
71  mode parameter values are specified in the "Cryptodev Scheduler Modes
72  Overview" section.
73
74* ordering: Specify the status of the crypto operations ordering feature.
75  The value of this parameter can be "enable" or "disable". This feature
76  is disabled by default.
77
78Example:
79
80.. code-block:: console
81
82    ... --vdev "crypto_aesni_mb0,name=aesni_mb_1" --vdev "crypto_aesni_mb1,name=aesni_mb_2" --vdev "crypto_scheduler,slave=aesni_mb_1,slave=aesni_mb_2" ...
83
84.. note::
85
86    * The scheduler cryptodev cannot be started unless the scheduling mode
87      is set and at least one slave is attached. Also, to configure the
88      scheduler in the run-time, like attach/detach slave(s), change
89      scheduling mode, or enable/disable crypto op ordering, one should stop
90      the scheduler first, otherwise an error will be returned.
91
92    * The crypto op reordering feature requires using the userdata field of
93      every mbuf to be processed to store temporary data. By the end of
94      processing, the field is set to pointing to NULL, any previously
95      stored value of this field will be lost.
96
97
98Cryptodev Scheduler Modes Overview
99----------------------------------
100
101Currently the Crypto Scheduler PMD library supports following modes of
102operation:
103
104*   **CDEV_SCHED_MODE_ROUNDROBIN:**
105
106   *Initialization mode parameter*: **round-robin**
107
108   Round-robin mode, which distributes the enqueued burst of crypto ops
109   among its slaves in a round-robin manner. This mode may help to fill
110   the throughput gap between the physical core and the existing cryptodevs
111   to increase the overall performance.
112
113*   **CDEV_SCHED_MODE_PKT_SIZE_DISTR:**
114
115   *Initialization mode parameter*: **packet-size-distr**
116
117   Packet-size based distribution mode, which works with 2 slaves, the primary
118   slave and the secondary slave, and distributes the enqueued crypto
119   operations to them based on their data lengths. A crypto operation will be
120   distributed to the primary slave if its data length is equal to or bigger
121   than the designated threshold, otherwise it will be handled by the secondary
122   slave.
123
124   A typical usecase in this mode is with the QAT cryptodev as the primary and
125   a software cryptodev as the secondary slave. This may help applications to
126   process additional crypto workload than what the QAT cryptodev can handle on
127   its own, by making use of the available CPU cycles to deal with smaller
128   crypto workloads.
129
130   The threshold is set to 128 bytes by default. It can be updated by calling
131   function **rte_cryptodev_scheduler_option_set**. The parameter of
132   **option_type** must be **CDEV_SCHED_OPTION_THRESHOLD** and **option** should
133   point to a rte_cryptodev_scheduler_threshold_option structure filled with
134   appropriate threshold value. Please NOTE this threshold has be a power-of-2
135   unsigned integer.
136
137*   **CDEV_SCHED_MODE_FAILOVER:**
138
139   *Initialization mode parameter*: **fail-over**
140
141   Fail-over mode, which works with 2 slaves, the primary slave and the
142   secondary slave. In this mode, the scheduler will enqueue the incoming
143   crypto operation burst to the primary slave. When one or more crypto
144   operations fail to be enqueued, then they will be enqueued to the secondary
145   slave.
146
147*   **CDEV_SCHED_MODE_MULTICORE:**
148
149   *Initialization mode parameter*: **multi-core**
150
151   Multi-core mode, which distributes the workload with several (up to eight)
152   worker cores. The enqueued bursts are distributed among the worker cores in a
153   round-robin manner. If scheduler cannot enqueue entire burst to the same worker,
154   it will enqueue the remaining operations to the next available worker.
155   For pure small packet size (64 bytes) traffic however the multi-core mode is not
156   an optimal solution, as it doesn't give significant per-core performance improvement.
157   For mixed traffic (IMIX) the optimal number of worker cores is around 2-3.
158   For large packets (1.5 Kbytes) scheduler shows linear scaling in performance
159   up to eight cores.
160   Each worker uses its own slave cryptodev. Only software cryptodevs
161   are supported. Only the same type of cryptodevs should be used concurrently.
162
163   The multi-core mode uses one extra parameter:
164
165   * corelist: Semicolon-separated list of logical cores to be used as workers.
166     The number of worker cores should be equal to the number of slave cryptodevs.
167     These cores should be present in EAL core list parameter and
168     should not be used by the application or any other process.
169
170   Example:
171    ... --vdev "crypto_aesni_mb1,name=aesni_mb_1" --vdev "crypto_aesni_mb_pmd2,name=aesni_mb_2" \
172    --vdev "crypto_scheduler,slave=aesni_mb_1,slave=aesni_mb_2,mode=multi-core,corelist=23;24" ...
173