10. BNX2X Poll Mode Driver

The BNX2X poll mode driver library (librte_pmd_bnx2x) implements support for QLogic 578xx 10/20 Gbps family of adapters as well as their virtual functions (VF) in SR-IOV context. It is supported on several standard Linux distros like RHEL and SLES. It is compile-tested under FreeBSD OS.

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

10.1. Supported Features

BNX2X PMD has support for:

Base L2 features
Unicast/multicast filtering
Promiscuous mode
Port hardware statistics
SR-IOV VF

10.2. Non-supported Features

The features not yet supported include:

TSS (Transmit Side Scaling)
RSS (Receive Side Scaling)
LRO/TSO offload
Checksum offload
SR-IOV PF
Rx TX scatter gather

10.3. Co-existence considerations

QLogic 578xx CNAs support Ethernet, iSCSI and FCoE functionalities. These functionalities are supported using QLogic Linux kernel drivers bnx2x, cnic, bnx2i and bnx2fc. DPDK is supported on these adapters using bnx2x PMD.
When SR-IOV is not enabled on the adapter, QLogic Linux kernel drivers (bnx2x, cnic, bnx2i and bnx2fc) and bnx2x PMD can’t be attached to different PFs on a given QLogic 578xx adapter. A given adapter needs to be completely used by DPDK or Linux drivers. Before binding DPDK driver to one or more PFs on the adapter, please make sure to unbind Linux drivers from all PFs of the adapter. If there are multiple adapters on the system, one or more adapters can be used by DPDK driver completely and other adapters can be used by Linux drivers completely.
When SR-IOV is enabled on the adapter, Linux kernel drivers (bnx2x, cnic, bnx2i and bnx2fc) can be bound to the PFs of a given adapter and either bnx2x PMD or Linux drivers bnx2x can be bound to the VFs of the adapter.

10.4. Supported QLogic NICs

578xx

10.5. Prerequisites

Requires firmware version 7.13.11.0. It is included in most of the standard Linux distros. If it is not available visit linux-firmware git repository to get the required firmware.

10.6. Pre-Installation Configuration

10.6.1. 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_BNX2X_PMD (default n)

Toggle compilation of bnx2x driver. To use bnx2x PMD set this config parameter to ‘y’. Also, in order for firmware binary to load user will need zlib devel package installed.
CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_BNX2X_DEBUG_TX (default n)

Toggle display of transmit fast path run-time messages.
CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_BNX2X_DEBUG_RX (default n)

Toggle display of receive fast path run-time messages.
CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_BNX2X_DEBUG_PERIODIC (default n)

Toggle display of register reads and writes.

10.7. Driver compilation and testing

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

10.8. Jumbo: Limitation

Rx descriptor limit for number of segments per MTU is set to 1. PMD doesn’t support Jumbo Rx scatter gather. Some applciations can adjust mbuf_size based on this param and max_pkt_len.

For others, PMD detects the condition where Rx packet length cannot be held by configured mbuf size and logs the message.

Example output:

[...]
[bnx2x_recv_pkts:397(04:00.0:dpdk-port-0)] mbuf size 2048 is not enough to hold Rx packet length more than 2046

10.9. SR-IOV: Prerequisites and sample Application Notes

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

Verify SR-IOV and ARI capabilities are 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 bnx2x

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 etc. bnx2x PMD should be used to bind the VF devices in the guest VM using the instructions outlined in the Application notes below.

Running testpmd: (Supply --log-level="pmd.net.bnx2x.driver",7 to view informational messages):

Follow instructions available in the document compiling and testing a PMD for a NIC to run testpmd.

Example output:

[...]
EAL: PCI device 0000:84:00.0 on NUMA socket 1
EAL:   probe driver: 14e4:168e rte_bnx2x_pmd
EAL:   PCI memory mapped at 0x7f14f6fe5000
EAL:   PCI memory mapped at 0x7f14f67e5000
EAL:   PCI memory mapped at 0x7f15fbd9b000
EAL: PCI device 0000:84:00.1 on NUMA socket 1
EAL:   probe driver: 14e4:168e rte_bnx2x_pmd
EAL:   PCI memory mapped at 0x7f14f5fe5000
EAL:   PCI memory mapped at 0x7f14f57e5000
EAL:   PCI memory mapped at 0x7f15fbd4f000
Interactive-mode selected
Configuring Port 0 (socket 0)
PMD: bnx2x_dev_tx_queue_setup(): fp[00] req_bd=512, thresh=512,
             usable_bd=1020, total_bd=1024,
                          tx_pages=4
PMD: bnx2x_dev_rx_queue_setup(): fp[00] req_bd=128, thresh=0,
             usable_bd=510, total_bd=512,
                          rx_pages=1, cq_pages=8
PMD: bnx2x_print_adapter_info():
[...]
Checking link statuses...
Port 0 Link Up - speed 10000 Mbps - full-duplex
Port 1 Link Up - speed 10000 Mbps - full-duplex
Done
testpmd>