xref: /dpdk/doc/guides/rel_notes/release_18_11.rst (revision f00d0d5fb652504ad6af2ab1a8b146b1cb86fe38)
1..  SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
2    Copyright 2018 The DPDK contributors
3
4DPDK Release 18.11
5==================
6
7.. **Read this first.**
8
9   The text in the sections below explains how to update the release notes.
10
11   Use proper spelling, capitalization and punctuation in all sections.
12
13   Variable and config names should be quoted as fixed width text:
14   ``LIKE_THIS``.
15
16   Build the docs and view the output file to ensure the changes are correct::
17
18      make doc-guides-html
19
20      xdg-open build/doc/html/guides/rel_notes/release_18_11.html
21
22
23New Features
24------------
25
26.. This section should contain new features added in this release.
27   Sample format:
28
29   * **Add a title in the past tense with a full stop.**
30
31     Add a short 1-2 sentence description in the past tense.
32     The description should be enough to allow someone scanning
33     the release notes to understand the new feature.
34
35     If the feature adds a lot of sub-features you can use a bullet list
36     like this:
37
38     * Added feature foo to do something.
39     * Enhanced feature bar to do something else.
40
41     Refer to the previous release notes for examples.
42
43     Suggested order in release notes items:
44     * Core libs (EAL, mempool, ring, mbuf, buses)
45     * Device abstraction libs and PMDs
46       - ethdev (lib, PMDs)
47       - cryptodev (lib, PMDs)
48       - eventdev (lib, PMDs)
49       - etc
50     * Other libs
51     * Apps, Examples, Tools (if significative)
52
53     This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
54     Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
55     =========================================================
56
57* **Added support for using externally allocated memory in DPDK.**
58
59  DPDK has gained support for creating new ``rte_malloc`` heaps referencing
60  memory that was created outside of DPDK's own page allocator, and using that
61  memory natively with any other DPDK library or data structure.
62
63* **Added check for ensuring allocated memory addressable by devices.**
64
65  Some devices can have addressing limitations so a new function,
66  ``rte_mem_check_dma_mask``, has been added for checking allocated memory is
67  not out of the device range. Because now memory can be dynamically allocated
68  after initialization, a dma mask is kept and any new allocated memory will be
69  checked out against that dma mask and rejected if out of range. If more than
70  one device has addressing limitations, the dma mask is the more restricted one.
71
72* **Updated the C11 memory model version of ring library.**
73
74  The latency is decreased for architectures using the C11 memory model
75  version of the ring library.
76
77  On Cavium ThunderX2 platform, the changes decreased latency by 27~29%
78  and 3~15% for MPMC and SPSC cases respectively (with 2 lcores). The
79  real improvements may vary with the number of contending lcores and
80  the size of ring.
81
82* **Added hot-unplug handle mechanism.**
83
84  ``rte_dev_hotplug_handle_enable`` and ``rte_dev_hotplug_handle_disable`` are
85  for enabling or disabling hotplug handle mechanism.
86
87* **Support device multi-process hotplug.**
88
89  Hotplug and hot-unplug for devices will now be supported in multiprocessing
90  scenario. Any ethdev devices created in the primary process will be regarded
91  as shared and will be available for all DPDK processes. Synchronization
92  between processes will be done using DPDK IPC.
93
94* **Added new Flow API actions to rewrite fields in packet headers.**
95
96  Added new Flow API actions to:
97
98  * Modify source and destination IP addresses in the outermost IPv4/IPv6
99    headers.
100  * Modify source and destination port numbers in the outermost TCP/UDP
101    headers.
102
103* **Added new Flow API action to swap MAC addresses in Ethernet header.**
104
105  Added new Flow API action to swap the source and destination MAC
106  addresses in the outermost Ethernet header.
107
108* **Add support to offload more flow match and actions for CXGBE PMD**
109
110  Flow API support has been enhanced for CXGBE Poll Mode Driver to offload:
111
112  * Match items: destination MAC address.
113  * Action items: push/pop/rewrite vlan header,
114    rewrite IP addresses in outermost IPv4/IPv6 header,
115    rewrite port numbers in outermost TCP/UDP header,
116    swap MAC addresses in outermost Ethernet header.
117
118* **Added a devarg to use the latest supported vector path in i40e.**
119  A new devarg ``use-latest-supported-vec`` was introduced to allow users to
120  choose the latest vector path that the platform supported. For example, users
121  can use AVX2 vector path on BDW/HSW to get better performance.
122
123* **Added support for SR-IOV in netvsc PMD.**
124
125  The ``netvsc`` poll mode driver now supports the Accelerated Networking
126  SR-IOV option in Hyper-V and Azure. This is an alternative to the previous
127  vdev_netvsc, tap, and failsafe drivers combination.
128
129* **Added a new net driver for Marvell Armada 3k device.**
130
131  Added the new ``mvneta`` net driver for Marvell Armada 3k device. See the
132  :doc:`../nics/mvneta` NIC guide for more details on this new driver.
133
134* **Added NXP ENETC PMD.**
135
136  Added the new enetc driver for NXP enetc platform. See the
137  "ENETC Poll Mode Driver" document for more details on this new driver.
138
139* **Added Ethernet poll mode driver for Aquantia aQtion family of 10G devices.**
140
141  Added the new ``atlantic`` ethernet poll mode driver for Aquantia XGBE devices.
142  See the :doc:`../nics/atlantic` nic driver guide for more details on this
143  driver.
144
145* **Updated Solarflare network PMD.**
146
147  Updated the sfc_efx driver including the following changes:
148
149  * Added support for Rx scatter in EF10 datapath implementation.
150  * Added support for Rx descriptor status API in EF10 datapath implementation.
151  * Added support for TSO in EF10 datapath implementation.
152  * Added support for Tx descriptor status API in EF10 (ef10 and ef10_simple)
153    datapaths implementation.
154
155* **Updated the enic driver.**
156
157  * Added AVX2-based vectorized Rx handler.
158  * Added VLAN and checksum offloads to the simple Tx handler.
159  * Added the count flow action.
160  * Enabled the virtual address IOVA mode.
161
162* **Updated failsafe driver.**
163
164  Updated the failsafe driver including the following changes:
165
166  * Support for Rx and Tx queues start and stop.
167  * Support for Rx and Tx queues deferred start.
168  * Support for runtime Rx and Tx queues setup.
169  * Support multicast MAC address set.
170
171* **Added a devarg to use PCAP interface physical MAC address.**
172  A new devarg ``phy_mac`` was introduced to allow users to use physical
173  MAC address of the selected PCAP interface.
174
175* **Added TAP Rx/Tx queues sharing with a secondary process.**
176
177  A secondary process can attach a TAP device created in the primary process,
178  probe the queues, and process Rx/Tx in a secondary process.
179
180* **Added classification and metering support to SoftNIC PMD.**
181
182  Added support for flow classification (rte_flow API), and metering and
183  policing (rte_mtr API) to the SoftNIC PMD.
184
185* **Added Crypto support to Softnic PMD.**
186
187  The Softnic is now capable of processing symmetric crypto workloads such
188  as cipher, cipher-authentication chaining, and aead encryption and
189  decryption. This is achieved by calling DPDK Cryptodev APIs.
190
191* **Added cryptodev port to port library.**
192
193  Cryptodev port is a shim layer in the port library that interacts with DPDK
194  Cryptodev PMDs including burst enqueuing and dequeuing crypto operations.
195
196* **Added symmetric cryptographic actions to the pipeline library.**
197
198  In the pipeline library an added symmetric crypto action parsing and action
199  handler are implemented. The action allows automatically preparing the crypto
200  operation with the rules specified such as algorithm, key, and IV, etc for
201  the cryptodev port to process.
202
203* **Added support for GEN3 devices to Intel QAT driver .**
204
205  Added support for the third generation of Intel QuickAssist devices.
206
207* **Updated the QAT PMD.**
208
209  The QAT PMD was updated with additional support for:
210
211  * AES-CMAC algorithm.
212
213* **Updated the AESNI MB PMD.**
214
215  The AESNI MB PMD has been updated with additional support for AES-GCM
216  algorithm support.
217
218* **Added NXP CAAM JR PMD.**
219
220  Added the new caam job ring driver for NXP platforms. See the
221  "NXP CAAM JOB RING (caam_jr)" document for more details on this new driver.
222
223* **Added support for Dynamic Huffman Encoding to Intel QAT comp PMD.**
224
225  The Intel QuickAssist (QAT) compression PMD has been updated with support
226  for Dynamic Huffman Encoding for the Deflate algorithm.
227
228* **Added Event Ethernet Tx Adapter.**
229
230  Added event ethernet Tx adapter library that  provides configuration and
231  data path APIs for the ethernet transmit stage of an event driven packet
232  processing application. These APIs abstract the implementation of the
233  transmit stage and allow the application to use eventdev PMD support or
234  a common implementation.
235
236* **Added Distributed Software Eventdev PMD.**
237
238  Added the new Distributed Software Event Device (DSW), which is a
239  pure-software eventdev driver distributing the work of scheduling
240  among all eventdev ports and the lcores using them. DSW, compared to
241  the SW eventdev PMD, sacrifices load balancing performance to
242  gain better event scheduling throughput and scalability.
243
244* **Added extendable bucket feature to hash library (rte_hash).**
245
246  This new “extendable bucket” feature provides 100% insertion guarantee to
247  the capacity specified by the user by extending hash table with extra
248  buckets when needed to accommodate the unlikely event of intensive hash
249  collisions.  In addition, the internal hashing algorithm was changed to use
250  partial-key hashing to improve memory efficiency and lookup performance.
251
252* **Added lock free reader/writer concurrency to hash library (rte_hash).**
253
254  Lock free reader/writer concurrency prevents the readers from getting
255  blocked due to a pre-empted writer thread. This allows the hash library
256  to be used in scenarios where the writer thread runs on control plane.
257
258* **Added Traffic Pattern Aware Power Control Library**
259
260  Added an experimental library. This extend Power Library and provide
261  empty_poll APIs. This feature measure how many times empty_poll are
262  executed per core, use the number of empty polls as a hint for system
263  power management.
264
265  See the :doc:`../prog_guide/power_man` section of the DPDK Programmers
266  Guide document for more information.
267
268* **Added JSON power policy interface for containers.**
269
270  Extended the Power Library and vm_power_manager sample app to allow power
271  policies to be submitted via a FIFO using JSON formatted strings. Previously
272  limited to Virtual Machines, this feature extends power policy functionality
273  to containers and host applications that need to have their cores frequency
274  controlled based on the rules contained in the policy.
275
276* **Added Telemetry API.**
277
278  Added the telemetry API which allows applications to transparently expose
279  their telemetry via a UNIX socket in JSON. The JSON can be consumed by any
280  Service Assurance agent, such as CollectD.
281
282* **Updated KNI kernel module, rte_kni library, and KNI sample application.**
283
284  Updated the KNI kernel module with a new kernel module parameter,
285  ``carrier=[on|off]`` to allow the user to control the default carrier
286  state of KNI kernel network interfaces.  The default carrier state
287  is now set to ``off``, so the interfaces cannot be used until the
288  carrier state is set to ``on`` via ``rte_kni_update_link`` or
289  by writing ``1`` to ``/sys/devices/virtual/net/<iface>/carrier``.
290  In previous versions the default carrier state was left undefined.
291  See :doc:`../prog_guide/kernel_nic_interface` for more information.
292
293  Added the new API function ``rte_kni_update_link`` to allow the user
294  to set the carrier state of the KNI kernel network interface.
295
296  Added a new command line flag ``-m`` to the KNI sample application to
297  monitor and automatically reflect the physical NIC carrier state to the
298  KNI kernel network interface with the new ``rte_kni_update_link`` API.
299  See :doc:`../sample_app_ug/kernel_nic_interface` for more information.
300
301* **Added ability to switch queue deferred start flag on testpmd app.**
302
303  Added a console command to testpmd app, giving ability to switch
304  ``rx_deferred_start`` or ``tx_deferred_start`` flag of the specified queue of
305  the specified port. The port must be stopped before the command call in order
306  to reconfigure queues.
307
308* **Add a new sample for vDPA**
309
310  The vdpa sample application creates vhost-user sockets by using the
311  vDPA backend. vDPA stands for vhost Data Path Acceleration which utilizes
312  virtio ring compatible devices to serve virtio driver directly to enable
313  datapath acceleration. As vDPA driver can help to set up vhost datapath,
314  this application doesn't need to launch dedicated worker threads for vhost
315  enqueue/dequeue operations.
316
317* **Added cryptodev FIPS validation example application.**
318
319  Added an example application to parse and perform symmetric cryptography
320  computation to the NIST Cryptographic Algorithm Validation Program (CAVP)
321  test vectors.
322
323* **Allow unit test binary to take parameters from the environment**
324
325  The unit test "test", or "dpdk-test", binary is often called from scripts,
326  which can make passing additional parameters, such as a coremask, to it more
327  awkward. Support has been added to the application to allow it to take
328  additional command-line parameter values from the "DPDK_TEST_PARAMS"
329  environment variable to make this application easier to use.
330
331
332API Changes
333-----------
334
335.. This section should contain API changes. Sample format:
336
337   * Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the API change.
338     Use fixed width quotes for ``function_names`` or ``struct_names``.
339     Use the past tense.
340
341   This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
342   Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
343   =========================================================
344
345* eal: ``rte_memseg_list`` structure now has an additional flag indicating
346  whether the memseg list is externally allocated. This will have implications
347  for any users of memseg-walk-related functions, as they will now have to skip
348  externally allocated segments in most cases if the intent is to only iterate
349  over internal DPDK memory.
350  ``socket_id`` parameter across the entire DPDK has gained additional meaning,
351  as some socket ID's will now be representing externally allocated memory. No
352  changes will be required for existing code as backwards compatibility will be
353  kept, and those who do not use this feature will not see these extra socket
354  ID's. Any new API's must not check socket ID parameters themselves, and must
355  instead leave it to the memory subsystem to decide whether socket ID is a
356  valid one.
357
358* eal: The following devargs functions, which were deprecated in 18.05,
359  were removed in 18.11:
360  ``rte_eal_parse_devargs_str()``, ``rte_eal_devargs_add()``,
361  ``rte_eal_devargs_type_count()``, and ``rte_eal_devargs_dump()``.
362
363* eal: The parameters of the function ``rte_devargs_remove()`` have changed
364  from bus and device names to ``struct rte_devargs``.
365
366* eal: The deprecated functions attach/detach were removed in 18.11.
367  ``rte_eal_dev_attach`` can be replaced by
368  ``rte_dev_probe`` or ``rte_eal_hotplug_add``.
369  ``rte_eal_dev_detach`` can be replaced by
370  ``rte_dev_remove`` or ``rte_eal_hotplug_remove``.
371
372* eal: The scope of ``rte_eal_hotplug_add()``/``rte_dev_probe()``
373  and ``rte_eal_hotplug_remove()``/``rte_dev_remove()`` is extended.
374  In multi-process model, they will guarantee that the device is
375  attached or detached on all processes.
376
377* mbuf: The ``__rte_mbuf_raw_free()`` and ``__rte_pktmbuf_prefree_seg()``
378  functions were deprecated since 17.05 and are replaced by
379  ``rte_mbuf_raw_free()`` and ``rte_pktmbuf_prefree_seg()``.
380
381* ethdev: The deprecated functions attach/detach were removed in 18.11.
382  ``rte_eth_dev_attach`` can be replaced by ``RTE_ETH_FOREACH_MATCHING_DEV``
383  and ``rte_dev_probe`` or ``rte_eal_hotplug_add``.
384  ``rte_eth_dev_detach`` can be replaced by
385  ``rte_dev_remove`` or ``rte_eal_hotplug_remove``.
386
387* ethdev: A call to ``rte_eth_dev_release_port()`` has been added in
388  ``rte_eth_dev_close()``. As a consequence, a closed port is freed
389  and seen as invalid because of its state ``RTE_ETH_DEV_UNUSED``.
390  This new behaviour is enabled per driver for a migration period.
391
392* A new device flag, RTE_ETH_DEV_NOLIVE_MAC_ADDR, changes the order of
393  actions inside rte_eth_dev_start regarding MAC set. Some NICs do not
394  support MAC changes once the port has started and with this new device
395  flag the MAC can be properly configured in any case. This is particularly
396  important for bonding.
397
398* The default behaviour of CRC strip offload changed. Without any specific Rx
399  offload flag, default behavior by PMD is now to strip CRC.
400  DEV_RX_OFFLOAD_CRC_STRIP offload flag has been removed.
401  To request keeping CRC, application should set ``DEV_RX_OFFLOAD_KEEP_CRC`` Rx
402  offload.
403
404* eventdev: Type of 2nd parameter to ``rte_event_eth_rx_adapter_caps_get()``
405  has been changed from uint8_t to uint16_t.
406
407* kni: By default, interface carrier status is ``off`` which means there won't
408  be any traffic. It can be set to ``on`` via ``rte_kni_update_link()`` API
409  or via ``sysfs`` interface:
410  ``echo 1 > /sys/class/net/vEth0/carrier``.
411  Note interface should be ``up`` to be able to read/write sysfs interface.
412  When KNI sample application is used, ``-m`` parameter can be used to
413  automatically update the carrier status for the interface.
414
415* kni: When ethtool support enabled (``CONFIG_RTE_KNI_KMOD_ETHTOOL=y``)
416  ethtool commands ``ETHTOOL_GSET & ETHTOOL_SSET`` are no more supported for the
417  kernels that has ``ETHTOOL_GLINKSETTINGS & ETHTOOL_SLINKSETTINGS`` support.
418  This means ``ethtool "-a|--show-pause", "-s|--change"`` won't work, and
419  ``ethtool <iface>`` output will have less information.
420
421
422ABI Changes
423-----------
424
425.. This section should contain ABI changes. Sample format:
426
427   * Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the ABI change
428     that was announced in the previous releases and made in this release.
429     Use fixed width quotes for ``function_names`` or ``struct_names``.
430     Use the past tense.
431
432   This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
433   Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
434   =========================================================
435
436* eal: added ``legacy_mem`` and ``single_file_segments`` values to
437       ``rte_config`` structure on account of improving DPDK usability when
438       using either ``--legacy-mem`` or ``--single-file-segments`` flags.
439
440* eal: EAL library ABI version was changed due to previously announced work on
441       supporting external memory in DPDK:
442         - structure ``rte_memseg_list`` now has a new field indicating length
443           of memory addressed by the segment list
444         - structure ``rte_memseg_list`` now has a new flag indicating whether
445           the memseg list refers to external memory
446         - structure ``rte_malloc_heap`` now has a new field indicating socket
447           ID the malloc heap belongs to
448         - structure ``rte_mem_config`` has had its ``malloc_heaps`` array
449           resized from ``RTE_MAX_NUMA_NODES`` to ``RTE_MAX_HEAPS`` value
450         - structure ``rte_malloc_heap`` now has a ``heap_name`` member
451         - structure ``rte_eal_memconfig`` has been extended to contain next
452           socket ID for externally allocated segments
453
454* eal: Added ``dma_maskbits`` to ``rte_mem_config`` for keeping more restricted
455       dma mask based on devices addressing limitations.
456
457* eal: The structure ``rte_device`` got a new field to reference a ``rte_bus``.
458  It is changing the size of the ``struct rte_device`` and the inherited
459  device structures of all buses.
460
461
462Removed Items
463-------------
464
465.. This section should contain removed items in this release. Sample format:
466
467   * Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the removed item
468     in the past tense.
469
470   This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
471   Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
472   =========================================================
473
474
475Shared Library Versions
476-----------------------
477
478.. Update any library version updated in this release
479   and prepend with a ``+`` sign, like this:
480
481     librte_acl.so.2
482   + librte_cfgfile.so.2
483     librte_cmdline.so.2
484
485   This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
486   =========================================================
487
488The libraries prepended with a plus sign were incremented in this version.
489
490.. code-block:: diff
491
492     librte_acl.so.2
493     librte_bbdev.so.1
494     librte_bitratestats.so.2
495     librte_bpf.so.1
496   + librte_bus_dpaa.so.2
497   + librte_bus_fslmc.so.2
498   + librte_bus_ifpga.so.2
499   + librte_bus_pci.so.2
500   + librte_bus_vdev.so.2
501   + librte_bus_vmbus.so.2
502     librte_cfgfile.so.2
503     librte_cmdline.so.2
504     librte_compressdev.so.1
505     librte_cryptodev.so.5
506     librte_distributor.so.1
507   + librte_eal.so.9
508     librte_efd.so.1
509   + librte_ethdev.so.11
510   + librte_eventdev.so.6
511     librte_flow_classify.so.1
512     librte_gro.so.1
513     librte_gso.so.1
514     librte_hash.so.2
515     librte_ip_frag.so.1
516     librte_jobstats.so.1
517     librte_kni.so.2
518     librte_kvargs.so.1
519     librte_latencystats.so.1
520     librte_lpm.so.2
521     librte_mbuf.so.4
522     librte_member.so.1
523     librte_mempool.so.5
524     librte_meter.so.2
525     librte_metrics.so.1
526     librte_net.so.1
527     librte_pci.so.1
528     librte_pdump.so.2
529     librte_pipeline.so.3
530     librte_pmd_bnxt.so.2
531     librte_pmd_bond.so.2
532     librte_pmd_i40e.so.2
533     librte_pmd_ixgbe.so.2
534     librte_pmd_dpaa2_qdma.so.1
535     librte_pmd_ring.so.2
536     librte_pmd_softnic.so.1
537     librte_pmd_vhost.so.2
538     librte_port.so.3
539     librte_power.so.1
540     librte_rawdev.so.1
541     librte_reorder.so.1
542     librte_ring.so.2
543     librte_sched.so.1
544     librte_security.so.1
545     librte_table.so.3
546     librte_timer.so.1
547     librte_vhost.so.4
548
549
550Known Issues
551------------
552
553.. This section should contain new known issues in this release. Sample format:
554
555   * **Add title in present tense with full stop.**
556
557     Add a short 1-2 sentence description of the known issue
558     in the present tense. Add information on any known workarounds.
559
560   This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
561   Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
562   =========================================================
563
564* When using SR-IOV (VF) support with netvsc PMD and the Mellanox mlx5 bifurcated
565  driver; the Linux netvsc device must be brought up before the netvsc device is
566  unbound and passed to the DPDK.
567
568* IBM Power8 is not supported by this release of DPDK. IBM Power9 is supported.
569
570
571Tested Platforms
572----------------
573
574.. This section should contain a list of platforms that were tested
575   with this release.
576
577   The format is:
578
579   * <vendor> platform with <vendor> <type of devices> combinations
580
581     * List of CPU
582     * List of OS
583     * List of devices
584     * Other relevant details...
585
586   This section is a comment. Do not overwrite or remove it.
587   Also, make sure to start the actual text at the margin.
588   =========================================================
589