Network Interface Controller Drivers

August 17, 2015

Contents

• 1. CXGBE Poll Mode Driver
  • 1.1. Features
  • 1.2. Limitations
  • 1.3. Supported Chelsio T5 NICs
  • 1.4. Prerequisites
  • 1.5. Pre-Installation Configuration
    • 1.5.1. Config File Options
    • 1.5.2. Driver Compilation
  • 1.6. Linux
    • 1.6.1. Linux Installation
    • 1.6.2. Sample Application Notes
  • 1.7. FreeBSD
    • 1.7.1. FreeBSD Installation
    • 1.7.2. Sample Application Notes
• 2. Driver for VM Emulated Devices
  • 2.1. Validated Hypervisors
  • 2.2. Recommended Guest Operating System in Virtual Machine
  • 2.3. Setting Up a KVM Virtual Machine
  • 2.4. Known Limitations of Emulated Devices
• 3. IXGBE Driver
  • 3.1. Vector PMD for IXGBE
    • 3.1.1. RX Constraints
    • 3.1.2. TX Constraint
    • 3.1.3. Sample Application Notes
• 4. I40E/IXGBE/IGB Virtual Function Driver
  • 4.1. SR-IOV Mode Utilization in a DPDK Environment
    • 4.1.1. Physical and Virtual Function Infrastructure
    • 4.1.2. Validated Hypervisors
    • 4.1.3. Expected Guest Operating System in Virtual Machine
  • 4.2. Setting Up a KVM Virtual Machine Monitor
  • 4.3. DPDK SR-IOV PMD PF/VF Driver Usage Model
    • 4.3.1. Fast Host-based Packet Processing
  • 4.4. SR-IOV (PF/VF) Approach for Inter-VM Communication
• 5. MLX4 poll mode driver library
  • 5.1. Implementation details
  • 5.2. Features and limitations
  • 5.3. Configuration
    • 5.3.1. Compilation options
    • 5.3.2. Environment variables
    • 5.3.3. Run-time configuration
    • 5.3.4. Kernel module parameters
  • 5.4. Prerequisites
    • 5.4.1. Getting Mellanox OFED
  • 5.5. Usage example
• 6. Poll Mode Driver for Emulated Virtio NIC
  • 6.1. Virtio Implementation in DPDK
  • 6.2. Features and Limitations of virtio PMD
  • 6.3. Prerequisites
  • 6.4. Virtio with kni vhost Back End
  • 6.5. Virtio with qemu virtio Back End
• 7. Poll Mode Driver for Paravirtual VMXNET3 NIC
  • 7.1. VMXNET3 Implementation in the DPDK
  • 7.2. Features and Limitations of VMXNET3 PMD
  • 7.3. Prerequisites
  • 7.4. VMXNET3 with a Native NIC Connected to a vSwitch
  • 7.5. VMXNET3 Chaining VMs Connected to a vSwitch
• 8. Libpcap and Ring Based Poll Mode Drivers
  • 8.1. Using the Drivers from the EAL Command Line
    • 8.1.1. Libpcap-based PMD
    • 8.1.2. Rings-based PMD
    • 8.1.3. Using the Poll Mode Driver from an Application

Figures

Fig. 4.15 Virtualization for a Single Port NIC in SR-IOV Mode

Fig. 4.16 Performance Benchmark Setup

Fig. 4.17 Fast Host-based Packet Processing

Fig. 4.18 Inter-VM Communication

Fig. 6.3 Host2VM Communication Example Using kni vhost Back End

Fig. 6.5 Host2VM Communication Example Using qemu vhost Back End

Fig. 7.1 Assigning a VMXNET3 interface to a VM using VMware vSphere Client

Fig. 7.2 VMXNET3 with a Native NIC Connected to a vSwitch

Fig. 7.3 VMXNET3 Chaining VMs Connected to a vSwitch