[dpdk-users] CX4-Lx VF link status in Azure

Benoit Ganne (bganne) bganne at cisco.com
Thu Mar 26 15:26:56 CET 2020


Hi Stephen,

> Is this with netvsc PMD or failsafe PMD?

I am using failsafe PMD using the string "--vdev net_vdev_netvsc0,iface=eth1" etc. as mentioned here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-network/setup-dpdk
I checked with gdb what are the underlying devices and there is 1 mlx5 and 1 tap instance as expected.
To get the link state, the call stack is rte_eth_link_get_nowait() -> fs_link_update() -> mlx5_link_update() -> mlx5_link_update_unlocked_gs() which looks good to me.
The link state update fails in mlx5_link_update_unlocked_gs() because the link speed retrieved from the Linux kernel driver is '0' (unknown). Note that ethtool and '/sys/class/net/<iface>/speed' also fails to report the link speed (but not the link status).
At the end of the day, maybe the Linux kernel driver should report a link speed, however I think it should not prevent DPDK to update the link state (up/down). 
Just removing the offending test makes everything working again but I do not think it is the correct solution: I do not know why this test was added for.

> You maybe missing this patch, which is only in current development branch.
> Since it is tagged for stable, it should end up in later LTS versions as
> well 18.11.X and 19.11.X.

I tried the patch but it did not solve the issue. I think it is expected as I am using failsafe with tap and not netvsc, correct?

Best
ben


More information about the users mailing list