[dpdk-dev] dpdk-devbind --status and PCI-PT

[Bly, Mike]

Hello,

I am looking to know if folks were aware that running "dpdk-debind -status" on a host displays both NICs in host space as well as those "owned" by a VM via PCI-PT where that VM is internally running a DPDK enabled application. Per below there is no discernable difference indicated as to actual DPDK ownership for host vs guest designation.

In this example the first two NICs are being accessed via PCI-PT by the VM, which itself bound the NICs to its internal DPDK driver. The last two NICs listed are owned by the host DPDK application. The end result is there is no way via use of the dpdk-devind script to know which NICs are whose within the host space application. Is this known/intentional?

Example to show observation:

Prior to starting the VM, you can see we have two sets of NICs, some bound to host application DPDK drivers and some bound to host kernel drivers.

# dpdk-devbind --status-dev net

Network devices using DPDK-compatible driver
============================================
0000:05:00.0 'I350 Gigabit Network Connection 1521' drv=vfio-pci unused=uio_pci_generic
0000:05:00.1 'I350 Gigabit Network Connection 1521' drv=vfio-pci unused=uio_pci_generic

Network devices using kernel driver
===================================
0000:03:00.0 'Ethernet Connection X552/X557-AT 10GBASE-T 15ad' if=eth0 drv=ixgbe unused=vfio-pci,uio_pci_generic
0000:03:00.1 'Ethernet Connection X552/X557-AT 10GBASE-T 15ad' if=eth1 drv=ixgbe unused=vfio-pci,uio_pci_generic

After starting the VM up, its internal DPDK based application grabs and binds its two NICs to its own DPDK driver(s). After this occurs, the host view is now as shown below.

# dpdk-devbind --status-dev net

Network devices using DPDK-compatible driver
============================================
0000:03:00.0 'Ethernet Connection X552/X557-AT 10GBASE-T 15ad' drv=vfio-pci unused=uio_pci_generic
0000:03:00.1 'Ethernet Connection X552/X557-AT 10GBASE-T 15ad' drv=vfio-pci unused=uio_pci_generic
0000:05:00.0 'I350 Gigabit Network Connection 1521' drv=vfio-pci unused=uio_pci_generic
0000:05:00.1 'I350 Gigabit Network Connection 1521' drv=vfio-pci unused=uio_pci_generic

Regards,

Mike