[dpdk-users] Cannot run DPDK applications using Mellanox NIC - "PMD: net_mlx4: 0x55b8d8015b00: cannot attach flow rules (code 12, "Cannot allocate memory"), flow error type 2, cause 0x7f9ee4028200, message: flow rule rejected by device"

[Junzhi Gong]

Hi everyone,

Currently I have some trouble running DPDK applications using Mellanox NIC. All DPDK applications running with the Mellanox NIC (using SR-IOV VFs) will crash with the following error message:

PMD: net_mlx4: 0x559fa4a25b00: cannot attach flow rules (code 12, "Cannot allocate memory"), flow error type 2, cause 0x7f0ca7e47a80, message: flow rule rejected by device
EAL: Error - exiting with code: 1
  Cause: rte_eth_dev_start:err=-12, port=0

An example running click has the following error messages:

$ click --dpdk -l 1 -n 4 -w 0000:04:00.1 —- xxx.click

EAL: Detected 12 lcore(s)
EAL: Detected 1 NUMA nodes
EAL: Multi-process socket /var/run/dpdk/rte/mp_socket
EAL: No free hugepages reported in hugepages-1048576kB
EAL: Probing VFIO support...
EAL: PCI device 0000:04:00.1 on NUMA socket 0
EAL:   probe driver: 15b3:1004 net_mlx4
PMD: net_mlx4: PCI information matches, using device "mlx4_1" (VF: true)
PMD: net_mlx4: 1 port(s) detected
PMD: net_mlx4: port 1 MAC address is 6a:f5:c3:1e:09:eb
Initializing DPDK
PMD: net_mlx4: 0x559471c5b700: cannot attach flow rules (code 12, "Cannot allocate memory"), flow error type 2, cause 0x7f620462c940, message: flow rule rejected by device
mazu-nat.click:68: While initializing ‘FromDPDKDevice at 3 :: FromDPDKDevice’:
  Cannot start DPDK port 0: error -12

0000:04:00.1 is the PCI address of the VF of the Mellanox NIC. I have tried several different DPDK applications (all applications have been re-compiled using the new configured DPDK), and I have also tried reboot the OS, but the problem still exists. 

I am using Mellanox NIC and its SR-IOV functions ('MT27500/MT27520 Family [ConnectX-3/ConnectX-3 Pro Virtual Function]' in details). The OS is Ubuntu 18.04. I have installed the Mellanox OFED (version 4.4, only the newest version is compatible to Ubuntu 18.04) and configure it by instructions in DPDK doc page (https://doc.dpdk.org/guides/nics/mlx4.html <https://doc.dpdk.org/guides/nics/mlx4.html>). The DPDK version is 18.08. I do not bind the Mellanox NIC to DPDK driver because the driver mlx4_core should be used for Mellanox NICs. Currently I am using 2MB hugepages (number: 1024).

I am very grateful if you can solve my problem. Thank you!

Best,
Junzhi