[dpdk-users] A simpler question - does DPDK run over virtual interfaces?

[Templin (US), Fred L]

Thank you for this insight. I have made good progress since I originally posted
this message, and I now seem to be getting what I need out of DPDK using
virtual interfaces for the time being. As you note, we will hopefully circle
back to using physical interfaces for improved performance purposes as
we gain more experience.

Fred

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ferruh Yigit [mailto:ferruh.yigit at intel.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 2021 9:19 AM
> To: Templin (US), Fred L <Fred.L.Templin at boeing.com>; users at dpdk.org
> Subject: Re: [dpdk-users] A simpler question - does DPDK run over virtual interfaces?
> 
> On 4/13/2021 12:39 PM, Templin (US), Fred L wrote:
> > Let me backtrack and start by asking a simpler question - can DPDK run over
> > virtual interfaces such as a loopback?
> >
> 
> It can, using DPDK virtual interfaces, like using 'af_packet' or 'pcap'. Like:
> "./build/app/dpdk-testpmd --vdev net_af_packet0,iface=lo --no-pci -- -i"
> 
> I don't know about CORE vnode, but if it is seen as another Linux virtual
> interface, above should work same.
> 
> This may work to test/check some functionality, but for performance you will
> need the physical interfaces.
> 
> Btw, binding a physical interface to vfio driver is to enable driving it by
> DPDK, you don't need this step for Linux virtual interfaces.
> 
> > Thanks - Fred
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Templin (US), Fred L
> >> Sent: Monday, April 12, 2021 10:42 AM
> >> To: 'users at dpdk.org' <users at dpdk.org>
> >> Subject: Problems using DPDK within CORE emulations running on Ubuntu 18.04 VMs
> >>
> >> Hi, I am running Ubuntu 18.04 in a VM running on VirtualBox. I have built and
> >> installed DPDK-20.11 from sources and had no troubles building by following
> >> the Getting Started Guide for Linux instructions:
> >>
> >> http://doc.dpdk.org/guides/linux_gsg/intro.html
> >>
> >> Next, within the Ubuntu VM I run the CORE network emulator:
> >>
> >> https://www.nrl.navy.mil/Our-Work/Areas-of-Research/Information-Technology/NCS/CORE/
> >>
> >> I have a simple two-node network setup with two CORE vnodes connected
> >> via a network switch, and verified that I can ping between the two nodes.
> >> Now, I want to experiment with the DPDK-20.11 "ip_fragmentation" and
> >> "ip_reassembly" example programs (which I was able to build successfully)
> >> but it appears that these example programs require ports to be mapped.
> >>
> >> So, I skipped ahead to Section 5 of the Getting Started Guide for Linux
> >> ("Linux Drivers") and tried to follow the instructions in Section 5.5. on
> >> "Binding and Unbinding Network Ports to/from the Kernel Modules" by
> >> typing commands into one of the CORE vnode shell windows. The text
> >> at the end of this message shows the commands I typed and the output
> >> I was shown in response. In particular, the "dpdk-devbind.py --status"
> >> script does not appear to show a usable map of my CORE vnode
> >> network interfaces, and attempts to bind were unsuccessful.
> >>
> >> Has anyone ever run DPDK out of a CORE vnode before and/or can
> >> you tell me what steps are needed to be able to bind CORE vnode
> >> interfaces so that they can be used by DPDK? Or, is DPDK simply
> >> incompatible with virtualization environments.
> >>
> >> Another question - can DPDK be run over loopback interfaces?
> >>
> >> Thanks - Fred
> >>
> >> ---
> >>
> >> Script started on 2021-04-12 09:54:19-0700
> >> root at n1: pwd
> >> /home/fltemplin/src/DPDK/dpdk-20.11/usertools
> >> root at n1: ip link sho
> >> 1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
> >>     link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
> >> 5: eth0 at if6: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
> >>     link/ether 00:00:00:aa:00:00 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff link-netnsid 0
> >> root at n1: sudo modprobe vfio-pci
> >> root at n1: ip link sho
> >> 1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
> >>     link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
> >> 5: eth0 at if6: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc noqueue state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
> >>     link/ether 00:00:00:aa:00:00 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff link-netnsid 0
> >> root at n1: ./dpdk-devbind.py --status
> >>
> >> Network devices using kernel driver
> >> ===================================
> >> 0000:00:03.0 '82540EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller 100e' if= drv=e1000 unused=vfio-pci
> >> 0000:00:08.0 '82540EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller 100e' if= drv=e1000 unused=vfio-pci
> >>
> >> No 'Baseband' devices detected
> >> ==============================
> >>
> >> No 'Crypto' devices detected
> >> ============================
> >>
> >> No 'Eventdev' devices detected
> >> ==============================
> >>
> >> No 'Mempool' devices detected
> >> =============================
> >>
> >> No 'Compress' devices detected
> >> ==============================
> >>
> >> No 'Misc (rawdev)' devices detected
> >> ===================================
> >>
> >> No 'Regex' devices detected
> >> ===========================
> >> root at n1: exit
> >>
> >> Script done on 2021-04-12 09:55:41-0700
> >>
> >