xref: /dpdk/doc/guides/nics/thunderx.rst (revision b583b9a1bb49e86aa0937d55415713282000c536)
1..  SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
2    Copyright(c) 2016 Cavium, Inc
3
4ThunderX NICVF Poll Mode Driver
5===============================
6
7The ThunderX NICVF PMD (**librte_net_thunderx**) provides poll mode driver
8support for the inbuilt NIC found in the **Cavium ThunderX** SoC family
9as well as their virtual functions (VF) in SR-IOV context.
10
11More information can be found at `Cavium, Inc Official Website
12<http://www.cavium.com/ThunderX_ARM_Processors.html>`_.
13
14Supported ThunderX SoCs
15-----------------------
16- CN88xx
17- CN81xx
18- CN83xx
19
20Features
21--------
22
23Features of the ThunderX PMD are:
24
25- Multiple queues for TX and RX
26- Receive Side Scaling (RSS)
27- Packet type information
28- Checksum offload
29- Promiscuous mode
30- Multicast mode
31- Port hardware statistics
32- Jumbo frames
33- Link state information
34- Setting up link state.
35- Scattered and gather for TX and RX
36- VLAN stripping
37- SR-IOV VF
38- NUMA support
39- Multi queue set support (up to 96 queues (12 queue sets)) per port
40- Skip data bytes
41
42Prerequisites
43-------------
44- Follow the DPDK :ref:`Getting Started Guide for Linux <linux_gsg>` to setup the basic DPDK environment.
45
46
47Driver compilation and testing
48------------------------------
49
50Refer to the document :ref:`compiling and testing a PMD for a NIC <pmd_build_and_test>`
51for details.
52
53Use config/arm/arm64-thunderx-linux-gcc as a meson cross-file when cross-compiling.
54
55Linux
56-----
57
58SR-IOV: Prerequisites and sample Application Notes
59~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
60
61Current ThunderX NIC PF/VF kernel modules maps each physical Ethernet port
62automatically to virtual function (VF) and presented them as PCIe-like SR-IOV device.
63This section provides instructions to configure SR-IOV with Linux OS.
64
65#. Verify PF devices capabilities using ``lspci``:
66
67   .. code-block:: console
68
69      lspci -vvv
70
71   Example output:
72
73   .. code-block:: console
74
75      0002:01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Cavium Networks Device a01e (rev 01)
76      ...
77      Capabilities: [100 v1] Alternative Routing-ID Interpretation (ARI)
78      ...
79      Capabilities: [180 v1] Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV)
80      ...
81      Kernel driver in use: thunder-nic
82      ...
83
84   .. note::
85
86      Unless ``thunder-nic`` driver is in use make sure your kernel config includes ``CONFIG_THUNDER_NIC_PF`` setting.
87
88#. Verify VF devices capabilities and drivers using ``lspci``:
89
90   .. code-block:: console
91
92      lspci -vvv
93
94   Example output:
95
96   .. code-block:: console
97
98      0002:01:00.1 Ethernet controller: Cavium Networks Device 0011 (rev 01)
99      ...
100      Capabilities: [100 v1] Alternative Routing-ID Interpretation (ARI)
101      ...
102      Kernel driver in use: thunder-nicvf
103      ...
104
105      0002:01:00.2 Ethernet controller: Cavium Networks Device 0011 (rev 01)
106      ...
107      Capabilities: [100 v1] Alternative Routing-ID Interpretation (ARI)
108      ...
109      Kernel driver in use: thunder-nicvf
110      ...
111
112   .. note::
113
114      Unless ``thunder-nicvf`` driver is in use make sure your kernel config includes ``CONFIG_THUNDER_NIC_VF`` setting.
115
116#. Pass VF device to VM context (PCIe Passthrough):
117
118   The VF devices may be passed through to the guest VM using qemu or
119   virt-manager or virsh etc.
120
121   Example qemu guest launch command:
122
123   .. code-block:: console
124
125      sudo qemu-system-aarch64 -name vm1 \
126      -machine virt,gic_version=3,accel=kvm,usb=off \
127      -cpu host -m 4096 \
128      -smp 4,sockets=1,cores=8,threads=1 \
129      -nographic -nodefaults \
130      -kernel <kernel image> \
131      -append "root=/dev/vda console=ttyAMA0 rw hugepagesz=512M hugepages=3" \
132      -device vfio-pci,host=0002:01:00.1 \
133      -drive file=<rootfs.ext3>,if=none,id=disk1,format=raw  \
134      -device virtio-blk-device,scsi=off,drive=disk1,id=virtio-disk1,bootindex=1 \
135      -netdev tap,id=net0,ifname=tap0,script=/etc/qemu-ifup_thunder \
136      -device virtio-net-device,netdev=net0 \
137      -serial stdio \
138      -mem-path /dev/hugepages
139
140#. Enable **VFIO-NOIOMMU** mode (optional):
141
142   .. code-block:: console
143
144      echo 1 > /sys/module/vfio/parameters/enable_unsafe_noiommu_mode
145
146   .. note::
147
148      **VFIO-NOIOMMU** is required only when running in VM context and should not be enabled otherwise.
149
150#. Running testpmd:
151
152   Follow instructions available in the document
153   :ref:`compiling and testing a PMD for a NIC <pmd_build_and_test>`
154   to run testpmd.
155
156   Example output:
157
158   .. code-block:: console
159
160      ./<build_dir>/app/dpdk-testpmd -l 0-3 -n 4 -a 0002:01:00.2 \
161        -- -i --no-flush-rx \
162        --port-topology=loop
163
164      ...
165
166      PMD: rte_nicvf_pmd_init(): librte_net_thunderx nicvf version 1.0
167
168      ...
169      EAL:   probe driver: 177d:11 rte_nicvf_pmd
170      EAL:   using IOMMU type 1 (Type 1)
171      EAL:   PCI memory mapped at 0x3ffade50000
172      EAL: Trying to map BAR 4 that contains the MSI-X table.
173           Trying offsets: 0x40000000000:0x0000, 0x10000:0x1f0000
174      EAL:   PCI memory mapped at 0x3ffadc60000
175      PMD: nicvf_eth_dev_init(): nicvf: device (177d:11) 2:1:0:2
176      PMD: nicvf_eth_dev_init(): node=0 vf=1 mode=tns-bypass sqs=false
177           loopback_supported=true
178      PMD: nicvf_eth_dev_init(): Port 0 (177d:11) mac=a6:c6:d9:17:78:01
179      Interactive-mode selected
180      Configuring Port 0 (socket 0)
181      ...
182
183      PMD: nicvf_dev_configure(): Configured ethdev port0 hwcap=0x0
184      Port 0: A6:C6:D9:17:78:01
185      Checking link statuses...
186      Port 0 Link Up - speed 10000 Mbps - full-duplex
187      Done
188      testpmd>
189
190Multiple Queue Set per DPDK port configuration
191~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
192
193There are two types of VFs:
194
195- Primary VF
196- Secondary VF
197
198Each port consists of a primary VF and n secondary VF(s). Each VF provides 8 Tx/Rx queues to a port.
199When a given port is configured to use more than 8 queues, it requires one (or more) secondary VF.
200Each secondary VF adds 8 additional queues to the queue set.
201
202During PMD initialization, the primary VF's are enumerated by checking the
203specific flag (see sqs message in DPDK boot log - sqs indicates secondary queue set).
204They are at the beginning of VF list (the remain ones are secondary VF's).
205
206The primary VFs are used as master queue sets. Secondary VFs provide
207additional queue sets for primary ones. If a port is configured for more then
2088 queues than it will request for additional queues from secondary VFs.
209
210Secondary VFs cannot be shared between primary VFs.
211
212Primary VFs are present on the beginning of the 'Network devices using kernel
213driver' list, secondary VFs are on the remaining on the remaining part of the list.
214
215   .. note::
216
217      The VNIC driver in the multiqueue setup works differently than other drivers like `ixgbe`.
218      We need to bind separately each specific queue set device with the ``usertools/dpdk-devbind.py`` utility.
219
220   .. note::
221
222      Depending on the hardware used, the kernel driver sets a threshold ``vf_id``. VFs that try to attached with an id below or equal to
223      this boundary are considered primary VFs. VFs that try to attach with an id above this boundary are considered secondary VFs.
224
225LBK HW Access
226~~~~~~~~~~~~~
227
228Loopback HW Unit (LBK) receives packets from NIC-RX and sends packets back to NIC-TX.
229The loopback block has N channels and contains data buffering that is shared across
230all channels. Four primary VFs are reserved as loopback ports.
231
232Example device binding
233~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
234
235If a system has three interfaces, a total of 18 VF devices will be created
236on a non-NUMA machine.
237
238   .. note::
239
240      NUMA systems have 12 VFs per port and non-NUMA 6 VFs per port.
241
242   .. code-block:: console
243
244      # usertools/dpdk-devbind.py --status
245
246      Network devices using DPDK-compatible driver
247      ============================================
248      <none>
249
250      Network devices using kernel driver
251      ===================================
252      0000:01:10.0 'THUNDERX BGX (Common Ethernet Interface) a026' if= drv=thunder-BGX unused=vfio-pci
253      0000:01:10.1 'THUNDERX BGX (Common Ethernet Interface) a026' if= drv=thunder-BGX unused=vfio-pci
254      0001:01:00.0 'THUNDERX Network Interface Controller a01e' if= drv=thunder-nic unused=vfio-pci
255      0001:01:00.1 'Device a034' if=eth0 drv=thunder-nicvf unused=vfio-pci
256      0001:01:00.2 'Device a034' if=eth1 drv=thunder-nicvf unused=vfio-pci
257      0001:01:00.3 'Device a034' if=eth2 drv=thunder-nicvf unused=vfio-pci
258      0001:01:00.4 'Device a034' if=eth3 drv=thunder-nicvf unused=vfio-pci
259      0001:01:00.5 'Device a034' if=eth4 drv=thunder-nicvf unused=vfio-pci
260      0001:01:00.6 'Device a034' if=lbk0 drv=thunder-nicvf unused=vfio-pci
261      0001:01:00.7 'Device a034' if=lbk1 drv=thunder-nicvf unused=vfio-pci
262      0001:01:01.0 'Device a034' if=lbk2 drv=thunder-nicvf unused=vfio-pci
263      0001:01:01.1 'Device a034' if=lbk3 drv=thunder-nicvf unused=vfio-pci
264      0001:01:01.2 'Device a034' if= drv=thunder-nicvf unused=vfio-pci
265      0001:01:01.3 'Device a034' if= drv=thunder-nicvf unused=vfio-pci
266      0001:01:01.4 'Device a034' if= drv=thunder-nicvf unused=vfio-pci
267      0001:01:01.5 'Device a034' if= drv=thunder-nicvf unused=vfio-pci
268      0001:01:01.6 'Device a034' if= drv=thunder-nicvf unused=vfio-pci
269      0001:01:01.7 'Device a034' if= drv=thunder-nicvf unused=vfio-pci
270      0001:01:02.0 'Device a034' if= drv=thunder-nicvf unused=vfio-pci
271      0001:01:02.1 'Device a034' if= drv=thunder-nicvf unused=vfio-pci
272      0001:01:02.2 'Device a034' if= drv=thunder-nicvf unused=vfio-pci
273
274      Other network devices
275      =====================
276      0002:00:03.0 'Device a01f' unused=vfio-pci,uio_pci_generic
277
278   .. note::
279
280      Here total no of primary VFs = 5 (variable, depends on no of ethernet ports present) + 4 (fixed, loopback ports).
281      Ethernet ports are indicated as `if=eth0` while loopback ports as `if=lbk0`.
282
283We want to bind two physical interfaces with 24 queues each device, we attach two primary VFs
284and four secondary VFs. In our example we choose two 10G interfaces eth1 (0002:01:00.2) and eth2 (0002:01:00.3).
285We will choose four secondary queue sets from the ending of the list (0001:01:01.2-0002:01:02.2).
286
287
288#. Bind two primary VFs to the ``vfio-pci`` driver:
289
290   .. code-block:: console
291
292      usertools/dpdk-devbind.py -b vfio-pci 0002:01:00.2
293      usertools/dpdk-devbind.py -b vfio-pci 0002:01:00.3
294
295#. Bind four primary VFs to the ``vfio-pci`` driver:
296
297   .. code-block:: console
298
299      usertools/dpdk-devbind.py -b vfio-pci 0002:01:01.7
300      usertools/dpdk-devbind.py -b vfio-pci 0002:01:02.0
301      usertools/dpdk-devbind.py -b vfio-pci 0002:01:02.1
302      usertools/dpdk-devbind.py -b vfio-pci 0002:01:02.2
303
304The nicvf thunderx driver will make use of attached secondary VFs automatically during the interface configuration stage.
305
306Thunder-nic VF's
307~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
308
309Use sysfs to distinguish thunder-nic primary VFs and secondary VFs.
310   .. code-block:: console
311
312      ls -l /sys/bus/pci/drivers/thunder-nic/
313      total 0
314      drwxr-xr-x  2 root root     0 Jan 22 11:19 ./
315      drwxr-xr-x 86 root root     0 Jan 22 11:07 ../
316      lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root     0 Jan 22 11:19 0001:01:00.0 -> '../../../../devices/platform/soc@0/849000000000.pci/pci0001:00/0001:00:10.0/0001:01:00.0'/
317
318   .. code-block:: console
319
320      cat /sys/bus/pci/drivers/thunder-nic/0001\:01\:00.0/sriov_sqs_assignment
321      12
322      0 0001:01:00.1 vfio-pci +: 12 13
323      1 0001:01:00.2 thunder-nicvf -:
324      2 0001:01:00.3 thunder-nicvf -:
325      3 0001:01:00.4 thunder-nicvf -:
326      4 0001:01:00.5 thunder-nicvf -:
327      5 0001:01:00.6 thunder-nicvf -:
328      6 0001:01:00.7 thunder-nicvf -:
329      7 0001:01:01.0 thunder-nicvf -:
330      8 0001:01:01.1 thunder-nicvf -:
331      9 0001:01:01.2 thunder-nicvf -:
332      10 0001:01:01.3 thunder-nicvf -:
333      11 0001:01:01.4 thunder-nicvf -:
334      12 0001:01:01.5 vfio-pci: 0
335      13 0001:01:01.6 vfio-pci: 0
336      14 0001:01:01.7 thunder-nicvf: 255
337      15 0001:01:02.0 thunder-nicvf: 255
338      16 0001:01:02.1 thunder-nicvf: 255
339      17 0001:01:02.2 thunder-nicvf: 255
340      18 0001:01:02.3 thunder-nicvf: 255
341      19 0001:01:02.4 thunder-nicvf: 255
342      20 0001:01:02.5 thunder-nicvf: 255
343      21 0001:01:02.6 thunder-nicvf: 255
344      22 0001:01:02.7 thunder-nicvf: 255
345      23 0001:01:03.0 thunder-nicvf: 255
346      24 0001:01:03.1 thunder-nicvf: 255
347      25 0001:01:03.2 thunder-nicvf: 255
348      26 0001:01:03.3 thunder-nicvf: 255
349      27 0001:01:03.4 thunder-nicvf: 255
350      28 0001:01:03.5 thunder-nicvf: 255
351      29 0001:01:03.6 thunder-nicvf: 255
352      30 0001:01:03.7 thunder-nicvf: 255
353      31 0001:01:04.0 thunder-nicvf: 255
354
355Every column that ends with 'thunder-nicvf: number' can be used as secondary VF.
356In printout above all entres after '14 0001:01:01.7 thunder-nicvf: 255' can be used as secondary VF.
357
358Debugging Options
359-----------------
360
361EAL command option to change  log level
362   .. code-block:: console
363
364      --log-level=pmd.net.thunderx.driver:info
365      or
366      --log-level=pmd.net.thunderx.driver,7
367
368Runtime Configuration
369---------------------
370
371skip_data_bytes
372~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
373This feature is used to create a hole between HEADROOM and actual data. Size of hole is specified
374in bytes as module param("skip_data_bytes") to PMD.
375This scheme is useful when application would like to insert vlan header without disturbing HEADROOM.
376
377Example:
378   .. code-block:: console
379
380      -a 0002:01:00.2,skip_data_bytes=8
381
382Limitations
383-----------
384
385CRC stripping
386~~~~~~~~~~~~~
387
388The ThunderX SoC family NICs strip the CRC for every packets coming into the
389host interface irrespective of the offload configuration.
390
391Maximum packet length
392~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
393
394The ThunderX SoC family NICs support a maximum of a 9K jumbo frame. The value
395is fixed and cannot be changed. So, even when the ``rxmode.mtu``
396member of ``struct rte_eth_conf`` is set to a value lower than 9200, frames
397up to 9200 bytes can still reach the host interface.
398
399Maximum packet segments
400~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
401
402The ThunderX SoC family NICs support up to 12 segments per packet when working
403in scatter/gather mode. So, setting MTU will result with ``EINVAL`` when the
404frame size does not fit in the maximum number of segments.
405
406skip_data_bytes
407~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
408
409Maximum limit of skip_data_bytes is 128 bytes and number of bytes should be multiple of 8.
410