[dpdk-users] Why we need [MASTER] in DPDK Pipeline

[Singh, Jasvinder]

Hi Royce,

> -----Original Message-----
> From: users [mailto:users-bounces at dpdk.org] On Behalf Of Royce Niu
> Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2016 3:51 PM
> To: users at dpdk.org
> Subject: [dpdk-users] Why we need [MASTER] in DPDK Pipeline
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> I am using DPDK Pipeline to build a Firewall. I found assign a core to MASTER.
> Could you please tell me why we need MASTER? and why MASTER need a
> dedicated core ? since I meet error to bind MASTER and Firewall to same
> core.
> 

Master pipeline, basically is a management thread that allow users to interact and manage ip-pipeline application during run time. It offers CLI to configure ports, collecting stats, add/remove table entries, loading rules files, displaying rules, quit etc. Therefore, the master pipeline receives inputs from the user, translates them into formal command and forwards command to the desired pipeline (data plane thread). The packet processing pipeline which is continuously working on the packets periodically checks whether there is any command to handle or not, and execute them accordingly if there is any. In addition to this, master pipeline also maintains a copy of all the tables used in pipelines. If user wants to inspect the rules, master pipeline will display them without interrupting data plane thread. 

Now, if anyone don't want to assign dedicated core to master pipeline, then it should also work. However, a slight impact on the performance may be visible depending the commands being run.

In your case, you can bind both master and firewall pipelines to single core and they should work correctly.

Thanks.

Regards,
Jasvinder