13. CXGBE Poll Mode Driver

The CXGBE PMD (librte_net_cxgbe) provides poll mode driver support for Chelsio Terminator 10/25/40/100 Gbps family of adapters. CXGBE PMD has support for the latest Linux and FreeBSD operating systems.

CXGBEVF PMD provides poll mode driver support for SR-IOV Virtual functions and has support for the latest Linux operating systems.

More information can be found at Chelsio Communications Official Website.

13.1. Features

CXGBE and CXGBEVF PMD has support for:

• Multiple queues for TX and RX

• Receiver Side Steering (RSS) Receiver Side Steering (RSS) on IPv4, IPv6, IPv4-TCP/UDP, IPv6-TCP/UDP. For 4-tuple, enabling ‘RSS on TCP’ and ‘RSS on TCP + UDP’ is supported.

• VLAN filtering

• Checksum offload

• Promiscuous mode

• All multicast mode

• Port hardware statistics

• Jumbo frames

• Flow API - Support for both Wildcard (LE-TCAM) and Exact (HASH) match filters.

13.2. Limitations

The Chelsio Terminator series of devices provide two/four ports but expose a single PCI bus address, thus, librte_net_cxgbe registers itself as a PCI driver that allocates one Ethernet device per detected port.

For this reason, one cannot allow/block a single port without allowing/blocking the other ports on the same device.

13.3. Supported Chelsio T5 NICs

• 1G NICs: T502-BT

• 10G NICs: T520-BT, T520-CR, T520-LL-CR, T520-SO-CR, T540-CR

• 40G NICs: T580-CR, T580-LP-CR, T580-SO-CR

• Other T5 NICs: T522-CR

13.4. Supported Chelsio T6 NICs

• 25G NICs: T6425-CR, T6225-CR, T6225-LL-CR, T6225-SO-CR

• 100G NICs: T62100-CR, T62100-LP-CR, T62100-SO-CR

13.5. Supported SR-IOV Chelsio NICs

SR-IOV virtual functions are supported on all the Chelsio NICs listed in Supported Chelsio T5 NICs and Supported Chelsio T6 NICs.

13.6. Prerequisites

• Requires firmware version 1.25.6.0 and higher. Visit Chelsio Download Center to get latest firmware bundled with the latest Chelsio Unified Wire package.

  For Linux, installing and loading the latest cxgb4 kernel driver from the Chelsio Unified Wire package should get you the latest firmware. More information can be obtained from the User Guide that is bundled with the Chelsio Unified Wire package.

  For FreeBSD, the latest firmware obtained from the Chelsio Unified Wire package must be manually flashed via cxgbetool available in FreeBSD source repository.

  Instructions on how to manually flash the firmware are given in section Linux Installation for Linux and section FreeBSD Installation for FreeBSD.

13.7. Runtime Options

The following devargs options can be enabled at runtime. They must be passed as part of EAL arguments. For example,

dpdk-testpmd -a 02:00.4,keep_ovlan=1 -- -i

13.7.1. Common Runtime Options

• keep_ovlan (default 0)

  Toggle behavior to keep/strip outer VLAN in Q-in-Q packets. If enabled, the outer VLAN tag is preserved in Q-in-Q packets. Otherwise, the outer VLAN tag is stripped in Q-in-Q packets.

• tx_mode_latency (default 0)

  When set to 1, Tx doesn’t wait for max number of packets to get coalesced and sends the packets immediately at the end of the current Tx burst. When set to 0, Tx waits across multiple Tx bursts until the max number of packets have been coalesced. In this case, Tx only sends the coalesced packets to hardware once the max coalesce limit has been reached.

13.7.2. CXGBE VF Only Runtime Options

• force_link_up (default 0)

  When set to 1, CXGBEVF PMD always forces link as up for all VFs on underlying Chelsio NICs. This enables multiple VFs on the same NIC to send traffic to each other even when the physical link is down.

13.7.3. CXGBE PF Only Runtime Options

• filtermode (default 0)

  Apart from the 4-tuple (IP src/dst addresses and TCP/UDP src/dst port addresses), there are only 40-bits available to match other fields in packet headers. So, filtermode devarg allows user to dynamically select a 40-bit supported match field combination for LETCAM (wildcard) filters.

  Default value of 0 makes driver pick the combination configured in the firmware configuration file on the adapter.

  The supported flags and their corresponding values are shown in table below. These flags can be OR’d to create 1 of the multiple supported combinations for LETCAM filters.

  FLAG	VALUE
  Physical Port	0x1
  PFVF	0x2
  Destination MAC	0x4
  Ethertype	0x8
  Inner VLAN	0x10
  Outer VLAN	0x20
  IP TOS	0x40
  IP Protocol	0x80

  The supported filtermode combinations and their corresponding OR’d values are shown in table below.

  FILTERMODE COMBINATIONS	VALUE
  Protocol, TOS, Outer VLAN, Port	0xE1
  Protocol, TOS, Outer VLAN	0xE0
  Protocol, TOS, Inner VLAN, Port	0xD1
  Protocol, TOS, Inner VLAN	0xD0
  Protocol, TOS, PFVF, Port	0xC3
  Protocol, TOS, PFVF	0xC2
  Protocol, TOS, Port	0xC1
  Protocol, TOS	0xC0
  Protocol, Outer VLAN, Port	0xA1
  Protocol, Outer VLAN	0xA0
  Protocol, Inner VLAN, Port	0x91
  Protocol, Inner VLAN	0x90
  Protocol, Ethertype, DstMAC, Port	0x8D
  Protocol, Ethertype, DstMAC	0x8C
  Protocol, Ethertype, Port	0x89
  Protocol, Ethertype	0x88
  Protocol, DstMAC, PFVF, Port	0x87
  Protocol, DstMAC, PFVF	0x86
  Protocol, DstMAC, Port	0x85
  Protocol, DstMAC	0x84
  Protocol, PFVF, Port	0x83
  Protocol, PFVF	0x82
  Protocol, Port	0x81
  Protocol	0x80
  TOS, Outer VLAN, Port	0x61
  TOS, Outer VLAN	0x60
  TOS, Inner VLAN, Port	0x51
  TOS, Inner VLAN	0x50
  TOS, Ethertype, DstMAC, Port	0x4D
  TOS, Ethertype, DstMAC	0x4C
  TOS, Ethertype, Port	0x49
  TOS, Ethertype	0x48
  TOS, DstMAC, PFVF, Port	0x47
  TOS, DstMAC, PFVF	0x46
  TOS, DstMAC, Port	0x45
  TOS, DstMAC	0x44
  TOS, PFVF, Port	0x43
  TOS, PFVF	0x42
  TOS, Port	0x41
  TOS	0x40
  Outer VLAN, Inner VLAN, Port	0x31
  Outer VLAN, Ethertype, Port	0x29
  Outer VLAN, Ethertype	0x28
  Outer VLAN, DstMAC, Port	0x25
  Outer VLAN, DstMAC	0x24
  Outer VLAN, Port	0x21
  Outer VLAN	0x20
  Inner VLAN, Ethertype, Port	0x19
  Inner VLAN, Ethertype	0x18
  Inner VLAN, DstMAC, Port	0x15
  Inner VLAN, DstMAC	0x14
  Inner VLAN, Port	0x11
  Inner VLAN	0x10
  Ethertype, DstMAC, Port	0xD
  Ethertype, DstMAC	0xC
  Ethertype, PFVF, Port	0xB
  Ethertype, PFVF	0xA
  Ethertype, Port	0x9
  Ethertype	0x8
  DstMAC, PFVF, Port	0x7
  DstMAC, PFVF	0x6
  DstMAC, Port	0x5
  Destination MAC	0x4
  PFVF, Port	0x3
  PFVF	0x2
  Physical Port	0x1

  For example, to enable matching ethertype field in Ethernet header, and protocol field in IPv4 header, the filtermode combination must be given as:

  dpdk-testpmd -a 02:00.4,filtermode=0x88 -- -i
  

• filtermask (default 0)

  filtermask devarg works similar to filtermode, but is used to configure a filter mode combination for HASH (exact-match) filters.

  Note

  The combination chosen for filtermask devarg must be a subset of the combination chosen for filtermode devarg.

  Default value of 0 makes driver pick the combination configured in the firmware configuration file on the adapter.

  Note that the filter rule will only be inserted in HASH region, if the rule contains all the fields specified in the filtermask combination. Otherwise, the filter rule will get inserted in LETCAM region.

  The same combination list explained in the tables in filtermode devarg section earlier applies for filtermask devarg, as well.

  For example, to enable matching only protocol field in IPv4 header, the filtermask combination must be given as:

  dpdk-testpmd -a 02:00.4,filtermode=0x88,filtermask=0x80 -- -i
  

13.8. Driver compilation and testing

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

13.9. Linux

13.9.1. Linux Installation

Steps to manually install the latest firmware from the downloaded Chelsio Unified Wire package for Linux operating system are as follows:

1. Load the kernel module:

   modprobe cxgb4
   

2. Use ifconfig to get the interface name assigned to Chelsio card:

   ifconfig -a | grep "00:07:43"
   

   Example output:

   p1p1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:07:43:2D:EA:C0
   p1p2      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:07:43:2D:EA:C8
   

3. Install cxgbtool:

   cd <path_to_uwire>/tools/cxgbtool
   make install
   

4. Use cxgbtool to load the firmware config file onto the card:

   cxgbtool p1p1 loadcfg <path_to_uwire>/src/network/firmware/t5-config.txt
   

5. Use cxgbtool to load the firmware image onto the card:

   cxgbtool p1p1 loadfw <path_to_uwire>/src/network/firmware/t5fw-*.bin
   

6. Unload and reload the kernel module:

   modprobe -r cxgb4
   modprobe cxgb4
   

7. Verify with ethtool:

   ethtool -i p1p1 | grep "firmware"
   

   Example output:

   firmware-version: 1.25.6.0, TP 0.1.23.2
   

13.9.2. Running testpmd

This section demonstrates how to launch testpmd with Chelsio devices managed by librte_net_cxgbe in Linux operating system.

1. Load the kernel module:

   modprobe cxgb4
   

2. Get the PCI bus addresses of the interfaces bound to cxgb4 driver:

   dmesg | tail -2
   

   Example output:

   cxgb4 0000:02:00.4 p1p1: renamed from eth0
   cxgb4 0000:02:00.4 p1p2: renamed from eth1
   

   Note

   Both the interfaces of a Chelsio 2-port adapter are bound to the same PCI bus address.

3. Unload the kernel module:

   modprobe -ar cxgb4 csiostor
   

4. Running testpmd

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

   Note

   Currently, CXGBE PMD only supports the binding of PF4 for Chelsio NICs.

   Example output:

   [...]
   EAL: PCI device 0000:02:00.4 on NUMA socket -1
   EAL:   probe driver: 1425:5401 rte_cxgbe_pmd
   EAL:   PCI memory mapped at 0x7fd7c0200000
   EAL:   PCI memory mapped at 0x7fd77cdfd000
   EAL:   PCI memory mapped at 0x7fd7c10b7000
   PMD: rte_cxgbe_pmd: fw: 1.25.6.0, TP: 0.1.23.2
   PMD: rte_cxgbe_pmd: Coming up as MASTER: Initializing adapter
   Interactive-mode selected
   Configuring Port 0 (socket 0)
   Port 0: 00:07:43:2D:EA:C0
   Configuring Port 1 (socket 0)
   Port 1: 00:07:43:2D:EA:C8
   Checking link statuses...
   PMD: rte_cxgbe_pmd: Port0: passive DA port module inserted
   PMD: rte_cxgbe_pmd: Port1: passive DA port module inserted
   Port 0 Link Up - speed 10000 Mbps - full-duplex
   Port 1 Link Up - speed 10000 Mbps - full-duplex
   Done
   testpmd>
   

   Note

   Flow control pause TX/RX is disabled by default and can be enabled via testpmd. Refer section Enable/Disable Flow Control for more details.

13.9.3. Configuring SR-IOV Virtual Functions

This section demonstrates how to enable SR-IOV virtual functions on Chelsio NICs and demonstrates how to run testpmd with SR-IOV virtual functions.

1. Load the kernel module:

   modprobe cxgb4
   

2. Get the PCI bus addresses of the interfaces bound to cxgb4 driver:

   dmesg | tail -2
   

   Example output:

   cxgb4 0000:02:00.4 p1p1: renamed from eth0
   cxgb4 0000:02:00.4 p1p2: renamed from eth1
   

   Note

   Both the interfaces of a Chelsio 2-port adapter are bound to the same PCI bus address.

3. Use ifconfig to get the interface name assigned to Chelsio card:

   ifconfig -a | grep "00:07:43"
   

   Example output:

   p1p1      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:07:43:2D:EA:C0
   p1p2      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:07:43:2D:EA:C8
   

4. Bring up the interfaces:

   ifconfig p1p1 up
   ifconfig p1p2 up
   

5. Instantiate SR-IOV Virtual Functions. PF0..3 can be used for SR-IOV VFs. Multiple VFs can be instantiated on each of PF0..3. To instantiate one SR-IOV VF on each PF0 and PF1:

   echo 1 > /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000\:02\:00.0/sriov_numvfs
   echo 1 > /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000\:02\:00.1/sriov_numvfs
   

6. Get the PCI bus addresses of the virtual functions:

   lspci | grep -i "Chelsio" | grep -i "VF"
   

   Example output:

   02:01.0 Ethernet controller: Chelsio Communications Inc T540-CR Unified Wire Ethernet Controller [VF]
   02:01.1 Ethernet controller: Chelsio Communications Inc T540-CR Unified Wire Ethernet Controller [VF]
   

7. Running testpmd

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

   Example output:

   [...]
   EAL: PCI device 0000:02:01.0 on NUMA socket 0
   EAL:   probe driver: 1425:5803 net_cxgbevf
   PMD: rte_cxgbe_pmd: Firmware version: 1.25.6.0
   PMD: rte_cxgbe_pmd: TP Microcode version: 0.1.23.2
   PMD: rte_cxgbe_pmd: Chelsio rev 0
   PMD: rte_cxgbe_pmd: No bootstrap loaded
   PMD: rte_cxgbe_pmd: No Expansion ROM loaded
   PMD: rte_cxgbe_pmd:  0000:02:01.0 Chelsio rev 0 1G/10GBASE-SFP
   EAL: PCI device 0000:02:01.1 on NUMA socket 0
   EAL:   probe driver: 1425:5803 net_cxgbevf
   PMD: rte_cxgbe_pmd: Firmware version: 1.25.6.0
   PMD: rte_cxgbe_pmd: TP Microcode version: 0.1.23.2
   PMD: rte_cxgbe_pmd: Chelsio rev 0
   PMD: rte_cxgbe_pmd: No bootstrap loaded
   PMD: rte_cxgbe_pmd: No Expansion ROM loaded
   PMD: rte_cxgbe_pmd:  0000:02:01.1 Chelsio rev 0 1G/10GBASE-SFP
   Configuring Port 0 (socket 0)
   Port 0: 06:44:29:44:40:00
   Configuring Port 1 (socket 0)
   Port 1: 06:44:29:44:40:10
   Checking link statuses...
   Done
   testpmd>
   

13.10. FreeBSD

13.10.1. FreeBSD Installation

Steps to manually install the latest firmware from the downloaded Chelsio Unified Wire package for FreeBSD operating system are as follows:

1. Load the kernel module:

   kldload if_cxgbe
   

2. Use dmesg to get the t5nex instance assigned to the Chelsio card:

   dmesg | grep "t5nex"
   

   Example output:

   t5nex0: <Chelsio T520-CR> irq 16 at device 0.4 on pci2
   cxl0: <port 0> on t5nex0
   cxl1: <port 1> on t5nex0
   t5nex0: PCIe x8, 2 ports, 14 MSI-X interrupts, 31 eq, 13 iq
   

   In the example above, a Chelsio T520-CR card is bound to a t5nex0 instance.

3. Install cxgbetool from FreeBSD source repository:

   cd <path_to_FreeBSD_source>/tools/tools/cxgbetool/
   make && make install
   

4. Use cxgbetool to load the firmware image onto the card:

   cxgbetool t5nex0 loadfw <path_to_uwire>/src/network/firmware/t5fw-*.bin
   

5. Unload and reload the kernel module:

   kldunload if_cxgbe
   kldload if_cxgbe
   

6. Verify with sysctl:

   sysctl -a | grep "t5nex" | grep "firmware"
   

   Example output:

   dev.t5nex.0.firmware_version: 1.25.6.0
   

13.10.2. Running testpmd

This section demonstrates how to launch testpmd with Chelsio devices managed by librte_net_cxgbe in FreeBSD operating system.

1. Change to DPDK source directory where the target has been compiled in section Driver compilation and testing:

   cd <DPDK-source-directory>
   

2. Copy the contigmem kernel module to /boot/kernel directory:

   cp <build_dir>/kernel/freebsd/contigmem.ko /boot/kernel/
   

3. Add the following lines to /boot/loader.conf:

   # reserve 2 x 1G blocks of contiguous memory using contigmem driver
   hw.contigmem.num_buffers=2
   hw.contigmem.buffer_size=1073741824
   # load contigmem module during boot process
   contigmem_load="YES"
   

   The above lines load the contigmem kernel module during boot process and allocate 2 x 1G blocks of contiguous memory to be used for DPDK later on. This is to avoid issues with potential memory fragmentation during later system up time, which may result in failure of allocating the contiguous memory required for the contigmem kernel module.

4. Restart the system and ensure the contigmem module is loaded successfully:

   reboot
   kldstat | grep "contigmem"
   

   Example output:

   2    1 0xffffffff817f1000 3118     contigmem.ko
   

5. Repeat step 1 to ensure that you are in the DPDK source directory.

6. Load the cxgbe kernel module:

   kldload if_cxgbe
   

7. Get the PCI bus addresses of the interfaces bound to t5nex driver:

   pciconf -l | grep "t5nex"
   

   Example output:

   t5nex0@pci0:2:0:4: class=0x020000 card=0x00001425 chip=0x54011425 rev=0x00
   

   In the above example, the t5nex0 is bound to 2:0:4 bus address.

   Note

   Both the interfaces of a Chelsio 2-port adapter are bound to the same PCI bus address.

8. Unload the kernel module:

   kldunload if_cxgbe
   

9. Set the PCI bus addresses to hw.nic_uio.bdfs kernel environment parameter:

   kenv hw.nic_uio.bdfs="2:0:4"
   

   This automatically binds 2:0:4 to nic_uio kernel driver when it is loaded in the next step.

   Note

   Currently, CXGBE PMD only supports the binding of PF4 for Chelsio NICs.

10. Load nic_uio kernel driver:

    kldload <build_dir>/kernel/freebsd/nic_uio.ko
    

11. Start testpmd with basic parameters:

    ./<build_dir>/app/dpdk-testpmd -l 0-3 -n 4 -a 0000:02:00.4 -- -i
    

    Example output:

    [...]
    EAL: PCI device 0000:02:00.4 on NUMA socket 0
    EAL:   probe driver: 1425:5401 rte_cxgbe_pmd
    EAL:   PCI memory mapped at 0x8007ec000
    EAL:   PCI memory mapped at 0x842800000
    EAL:   PCI memory mapped at 0x80086c000
    PMD: rte_cxgbe_pmd: fw: 1.25.6.0, TP: 0.1.23.2
    PMD: rte_cxgbe_pmd: Coming up as MASTER: Initializing adapter
    Interactive-mode selected
    Configuring Port 0 (socket 0)
    Port 0: 00:07:43:2D:EA:C0
    Configuring Port 1 (socket 0)
    Port 1: 00:07:43:2D:EA:C8
    Checking link statuses...
    PMD: rte_cxgbe_pmd: Port0: passive DA port module inserted
    PMD: rte_cxgbe_pmd: Port1: passive DA port module inserted
    Port 0 Link Up - speed 10000 Mbps - full-duplex
    Port 1 Link Up - speed 10000 Mbps - full-duplex
    Done
    testpmd>
    

Note

Flow control pause TX/RX is disabled by default and can be enabled via testpmd. Refer section Enable/Disable Flow Control for more details.

13.11. Sample Application Notes

13.11.1. Enable/Disable Flow Control

Flow control pause TX/RX is disabled by default and can be enabled via testpmd as follows:

testpmd> set flow_ctrl rx on tx on 0 0 0 0 mac_ctrl_frame_fwd off autoneg on 0
testpmd> set flow_ctrl rx on tx on 0 0 0 0 mac_ctrl_frame_fwd off autoneg on 1

To disable again, run:

testpmd> set flow_ctrl rx off tx off 0 0 0 0 mac_ctrl_frame_fwd off autoneg off 0
testpmd> set flow_ctrl rx off tx off 0 0 0 0 mac_ctrl_frame_fwd off autoneg off 1

13.11.2. Jumbo Mode

There are two ways to enable sending and receiving of jumbo frames via testpmd. One method involves using the mtu command, which changes the mtu of an individual port without having to stop the selected port. Another method involves stopping all the ports first and then running max-pkt-len command to configure the mtu of all the ports with a single command.

• To configure each port individually, run the mtu command as follows:

  testpmd> port config mtu 0 9000
  testpmd> port config mtu 1 9000
  

• To configure all the ports at once, stop all the ports first and run the max-pkt-len command as follows:

  testpmd> port stop all
  testpmd> port config all max-pkt-len 9000
  

13.12. Hardware Configuration and Debugging

13.12.1. Firmware Configuration File

To enable or disable Chelsio NIC features before firmware initialization, the Chelsio firmware configuration file can be placed in following directory.

# For Chelsio T5 NIC series
cp <path_to_config_file>/t5-config.txt /lib/firmware/cxgb4/t5-config.txt

# For Chelsio T6 NIC series
cp <path_to_config_file>/t6-config.txt /lib/firmware/cxgb4/t6-config.txt

The firmware configuration file is mainly intended to be used to debug firmware initialization failures. It can also be used to redistribute NIC resources from disabled physical functions (PFs) to main PF before initializing firmware.

The CXGBE PMD will search and pick up the firmware configuration file during the Chelsio NIC probe, in following order.

1. If the firmware configuration file is present in /lib/firmware/cxgb4/ directory, then this file is downloaded to temporary location in NIC’s on-chip RAM. When firmware is initializing, it picks up the file from the temporary on-chip RAM location.

2. Otherwise, if the firmware configuration file has been written onto the NIC persistent flash area using cxgbtool, then this file is picked up from the persistent flash area during firmware initialization.

3. If no firmware configuration file is found at /lib/firmware/cxgb4/ directory or on the NIC persistent flash area, then the firmware will initialize with the default configuration file embedded inside the firmware binary.

Warning

Note that the Chelsio firmware configuration file contains very low level details that is specific to the Chelsio NIC. Hence, the firmware configuration file must not be modified without expert guidance from Chelsio support team.