34. QEDE Poll Mode Driver

The QEDE poll mode driver library (librte_pmd_qede) implements support for QLogic FastLinQ QL4xxxx 10G/25G/40G/50G/100G Intelligent Ethernet Adapters (IEA) and Converged Network Adapters (CNA) family of adapters as well as SR-IOV virtual functions (VF). It is supported on several standard Linux distros like RHEL7.x, SLES12.x and Ubuntu. It is compile-tested under FreeBSD OS.

More information can be found at QLogic Corporation’s Website.

34.1. Supported Features

Unicast/Multicast filtering
Promiscuous mode
Allmulti mode
Port hardware statistics
Jumbo frames
Multiple MAC address
MTU change
Default pause flow control
Multiprocess aware
Scatter-Gather
Multiple Rx/Tx queues
RSS (with RETA/hash table/key)
TSS
Stateless checksum offloads (IPv4/IPv6/TCP/UDP)
LRO/TSO
VLAN offload - Filtering and stripping
N-tuple filter and flow director (limited support)
NPAR (NIC Partitioning)
SR-IOV VF
GRE Tunneling offload
GENEVE Tunneling offload
VXLAN Tunneling offload
MPLSoUDP Tx Tunneling offload

34.2. Non-supported Features

SR-IOV PF

34.3. Co-existence considerations

QLogic FastLinQ QL4xxxx CNAs can have both NIC and Storage personalities. However, coexistence with storage protocol drivers (qedi and qedf) is not supported on the same adapter. So storage personality has to be disabled on that adapter when used in DPDK applications.
For SR-IOV case, qede PMD will be used to bind to SR-IOV VF device and Linux native kernel driver (qede) will be attached to SR-IOV PF.

34.4. Supported QLogic Adapters

QLogic FastLinQ QL4xxxx 10G/25G/40G/50G/100G Intelligent Ethernet Adapters (IEA) and Converged Network Adapters (CNA)

34.5. Prerequisites

Requires storm firmware version 8.37.7.0. Firmware may be available inbox in certain newer Linux distros under the standard directory E.g. /lib/firmware/qed/qed_init_values-8.37.7.0.bin. If the required firmware files are not available then download it from linux-firmware git repository or QLogic Driver Download Center. To download firmware file from QLogic website, select adapter category, model and DPDK Poll Mode Driver.
Requires the NIC be updated minimally with 8.30.x.x Management firmware(MFW) version supported for that NIC. It is highly recommended that the NIC be updated with the latest available management firmware version to get latest feature set. Management Firmware and Firmware Upgrade Utility for Cavium FastLinQ(r) branded adapters can be downloaded from Driver Download Center. For downloading Firmware Upgrade Utility, select NIC category, model and Linux distro. To update the management firmware, refer to the instructions in the Firmware Upgrade Utility Readme document. For OEM branded adapters please follow the instruction provided by the OEM to update the Management Firmware on the NIC.
SR-IOV requires Linux PF driver version 8.20.x.x or higher. If the required PF driver is not available then download it from QLogic Driver Download Center. For downloading PF driver, select adapter category, model and Linux distro.

34.5.1. Performance note

For better performance, it is recommended to use 4K or higher RX/TX rings.

34.5.2. Config File Options

The following options can be modified in the .config file. Please note that enabling debugging options may affect system performance.

CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_QEDE_PMD (default y)

Toggle compilation of QEDE PMD driver.
CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_QEDE_DEBUG_TX (default n)

Toggle display of transmit fast path run-time messages.
CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_QEDE_DEBUG_RX (default n)

Toggle display of receive fast path run-time messages.
CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_QEDE_FW (default “”)

Gives absolute path of firmware file. Eg: "/lib/firmware/qed/qed_init_values-8.37.7.0.bin" Empty string indicates driver will pick up the firmware file from the default location /lib/firmware/qed. CAUTION this option is more for custom firmware, it is not recommended for use under normal condition.

34.6. Driver compilation and testing

Refer to the document compiling and testing a PMD for a NIC for details.

34.7. SR-IOV: Prerequisites and Sample Application Notes

This section provides instructions to configure SR-IOV with Linux OS.

Note: librte_pmd_qede will be used to bind to SR-IOV VF device and Linux native kernel driver (qede) will function as SR-IOV PF driver. Requires PF driver to be 8.20.x.x or higher.

Verify SR-IOV and ARI capability is enabled on the adapter using lspci:

lspci -s <slot> -vvv

Example output:

[...]
Capabilities: [1b8 v1] Alternative Routing-ID Interpretation (ARI)
[...]
Capabilities: [1c0 v1] Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV)
[...]
Kernel driver in use: igb_uio

Load the kernel module:

modprobe qede

Example output:

systemd-udevd[4848]: renamed network interface eth0 to ens5f0
systemd-udevd[4848]: renamed network interface eth1 to ens5f1

Bring up the PF ports:
```
ifconfig ens5f0 up
ifconfig ens5f1 up
```
Create VF device(s):

Echo the number of VFs to be created into "sriov_numvfs" sysfs entry of the parent PF.

Example output:
```
echo 2 > /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:03.0/0000:81:00.0/sriov_numvfs
```
Assign VF MAC address:

Assign MAC address to the VF using iproute2 utility. The syntax is:
```
ip link set <PF iface> vf <VF id> mac <macaddr>
```
Example output:
```
ip link set ens5f0 vf 0 mac 52:54:00:2f:9d:e8
```
PCI Passthrough:

The VF devices may be passed through to the guest VM using virt-manager or virsh. QEDE PMD should be used to bind the VF devices in the guest VM using the instructions from Driver compilation and testing section above.

Running testpmd (Supply --log-level="pmd.net.qede.driver:info to view informational messages):

Refer to the document compiling and testing a PMD for a NIC to run testpmd application.

Example output:

  testpmd -l 0,4-11 -n 4 -- -i --nb-cores=8 --portmask=0xf --rxd=4096 \
  --txd=4096 --txfreet=4068 --enable-rx-cksum --rxq=4 --txq=4 \
  --rss-ip --rss-udp

  [...]

EAL: PCI device 0000:84:00.0 on NUMA socket 1
EAL:   probe driver: 1077:1634 rte_qede_pmd
EAL:   Not managed by a supported kernel driver, skipped
EAL: PCI device 0000:84:00.1 on NUMA socket 1
EAL:   probe driver: 1077:1634 rte_qede_pmd
EAL:   Not managed by a supported kernel driver, skipped
EAL: PCI device 0000:88:00.0 on NUMA socket 1
EAL:   probe driver: 1077:1656 rte_qede_pmd
EAL:   PCI memory mapped at 0x7f738b200000
EAL:   PCI memory mapped at 0x7f738b280000
EAL:   PCI memory mapped at 0x7f738b300000
PMD: Chip details : BB1
PMD: Driver version : QEDE PMD 8.7.9.0_1.0.0
PMD: Firmware version : 8.7.7.0
PMD: Management firmware version : 8.7.8.0
PMD: Firmware file : /lib/firmware/qed/qed_init_values_zipped-8.7.7.0.bin
[QEDE PMD: (84:00.0:dpdk-port-0)]qede_common_dev_init:macaddr \
                                                    00:0e:1e:d2:09:9c
  [...]
[QEDE PMD: (84:00.0:dpdk-port-0)]qede_tx_queue_setup:txq 0 num_desc 4096 \
                                            tx_free_thresh 4068 socket 0
[QEDE PMD: (84:00.0:dpdk-port-0)]qede_tx_queue_setup:txq 1 num_desc 4096 \
                                            tx_free_thresh 4068 socket 0
[QEDE PMD: (84:00.0:dpdk-port-0)]qede_tx_queue_setup:txq 2 num_desc 4096 \
                                             tx_free_thresh 4068 socket 0
[QEDE PMD: (84:00.0:dpdk-port-0)]qede_tx_queue_setup:txq 3 num_desc 4096 \
                                             tx_free_thresh 4068 socket 0
[QEDE PMD: (84:00.0:dpdk-port-0)]qede_rx_queue_setup:rxq 0 num_desc 4096 \
                                            rx_buf_size=2148 socket 0
[QEDE PMD: (84:00.0:dpdk-port-0)]qede_rx_queue_setup:rxq 1 num_desc 4096 \
                                            rx_buf_size=2148 socket 0
[QEDE PMD: (84:00.0:dpdk-port-0)]qede_rx_queue_setup:rxq 2 num_desc 4096 \
                                            rx_buf_size=2148 socket 0
[QEDE PMD: (84:00.0:dpdk-port-0)]qede_rx_queue_setup:rxq 3 num_desc 4096 \
                                            rx_buf_size=2148 socket 0
[QEDE PMD: (84:00.0:dpdk-port-0)]qede_dev_start:port 0
[QEDE PMD: (84:00.0:dpdk-port-0)]qede_dev_start:link status: down
  [...]
Checking link statuses...
Port 0 Link Up - speed 25000 Mbps - full-duplex
Port 1 Link Up - speed 25000 Mbps - full-duplex
Port 2 Link Up - speed 25000 Mbps - full-duplex
Port 3 Link Up - speed 25000 Mbps - full-duplex
Done
testpmd>