[dpdk-dev] [RFC v3 0/7] vhost2: new librte_vhost2 proposal
Tiwei Bie
tiwei.bie at intel.com
Tue Jun 26 11:14:28 CEST 2018
On Tue, Jun 26, 2018 at 04:47:33PM +0800, Stojaczyk, DariuszX wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Bie, Tiwei
> > Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2018 10:22 AM
> > To: Stojaczyk, DariuszX <dariuszx.stojaczyk at intel.com>
> > Cc: Dariusz Stojaczyk <darek.stojaczyk at gmail.com>; dev at dpdk.org; Maxime
> > Coquelin <maxime.coquelin at redhat.com>; Tetsuya Mukawa
> > <mtetsuyah at gmail.com>; Stefan Hajnoczi <stefanha at redhat.com>; Thomas
> > Monjalon <thomas at monjalon.net>; yliu at fridaylinux.org; Harris, James R
> > <james.r.harris at intel.com>; Kulasek, TomaszX <tomaszx.kulasek at intel.com>;
> > Wodkowski, PawelX <pawelx.wodkowski at intel.com>
> > Subject: Re: [dpdk-dev] [RFC v3 0/7] vhost2: new librte_vhost2 proposal
> >
> > On Mon, Jun 25, 2018 at 08:17:08PM +0800, Stojaczyk, DariuszX wrote:
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > From: dev [mailto:dev-bounces at dpdk.org] On Behalf Of Tiwei Bie
> > > > Sent: Monday, June 25, 2018 1:02 PM
> > > > <snip>
> > > >
> > > > Hi Dariusz,
> > > >
> > >
> > > Hi Tiwei,
> > >
> > > > Thank you for putting efforts in making the DPDK
> > > > vhost more generic!
> > > >
> > > > From my understanding, your proposal is that:
> > > >
> > > > 1) Introduce rte_vhost2 to provide the APIs which
> > > > allow users to implement vhost backends like
> > > > SCSI, net, crypto, ..
> > > >
> > >
> > > That's right.
> > >
> > > > 2) Refactor the existing rte_vhost to use rte_vhost2.
> > > > The rte_vhost will still provide below existing
> > > > sets of APIs:
> > > > 1. The APIs which allow users to implement
> > > > external vhost backends (these APIs were
> > > > designed for SPDK previously)
> > > > 2. The APIs provided by the net backend
> > > > 3. The APIs provided by the crypto backend
> > > > And above APIs in rte_vhost won't be changed.
> > >
> > > That's correct. Rte_vhost would register its own rte_vhost2_tgt_ops
> > underneath and will call existing vhost_device_ops for e.g. starting the device
> > once all queues are started.
> >
> > Currently I have below concerns and questions:
> >
> > - The rte_vhost's problem is still there. Even though
> > rte_vhost2 is introduced, the net and crypto backends
> > in rte_vhost won't benefit from the new callbacks.
> >
> > The existing rte_vhost in DPDK not only provides the
> > APIs for DPDK applications to implement the external
> > backends. But also provides high performance net and
> > crypto backends implementation (maybe more in the
> > future). So it's important that besides the DPDK
> > applications which implement their external backends,
> > the DPDK applications which use the builtin backends
> > will also benefit from the new callbacks.
> >
> > So we should have a clear plan on how will the legacy
> > callbacks in rte_vhost be dealt with in the next step.
> >
> > Besides, the new library's name is a bit misleading.
> > It makes the existing rte_vhost library sound like an
> > obsolete library. But actually the existing rte_vhost
> > isn't an obsolete library. It will still provide the
> > net and crypto backends. So if we want to introduce
> > this new library, we should give it a better name.
> >
> > - It's possible to solve rte_vhost's problem you met
> > by refactoring the existing vhost library directly
> > instead of re-implementing a new vhost library from
> > scratch and keeping the old one's problem as is.
> >
> > In this way, it will solve the problem you met and
> > also solve the problem for rte_vhost. Why not go
> > this way? Something like:
> >
> > Below is the existing callbacks set in rte_vhost.h:
> >
> > /**
> > * Device and vring operations.
> > */
> > struct vhost_device_ops {
> > ......
> > };
> >
> > It's a legacy implementation, and doesn't really
> > follow the DPDK API design (e.g. no rte_ prefix).
> > We can design and implement a new message handling
> > and a new set of callbacks for rte_vhost to solve
> > the problem you met without changing the old one.
> > Something like:
> >
> > struct rte_vhost_device_ops {
> > ......
> > }
> >
> > int
> > vhost_user_msg_handler(struct vhost_dev *vdev, struct vhost_user_msg
> > *msg)
> > {
> > ......
> >
> > if (!vdev->is_using_new_device_ops) {
> > // Call the existing message handler
> > return vhost_user_msg_handler_legacy(vdev, msg);
> > }
> >
> > // Implement the new logic here
> > ......
> > }
> >
> > A vhost application is allowed to register only struct
> > rte_vhost_device_ops or struct vhost_device_ops (which
> > should be deprecated in the future). The two ops cannot
> > be registered at the same time.
> >
> > The existing applications could use the old ops. And
> > if an application registers struct rte_vhost_device_ops,
> > the new callbacks and message handler will be used.
>
> Please notice that some features like vIOMMU are not even a part of the public rte_vhost API. Only vhost-net benefits from vIOMMU right now. Separating vhost-net from a generic vhost library (rte_vhost2) would avoid making such design mistakes in future. What's the point of having a single rte_vhost library, if some vhost-user features are only implemented for vhost-net.
These APIs can be safely added at any time.
And we can also ask developers to add public
APIs if it matters when adding new features
in the future. I don't think it's a big
problem.
Best regards,
Tiwei Bie
>
> >
> > Best regards,
> > Tiwei Bie
> >
> >
> > > Regards,
> > > D.
> > >
> > > >
> > > > Is my above understanding correct? Thanks!
> > > >
> > > > Best regards,
> > > > Tiwei Bie
> > > >
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