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33 The MLX5 poll mode driver library (**librte_pmd_mlx5**) provides support for
34 **Mellanox ConnectX-4** and **Mellanox ConnectX-4 Lx** families of
35 10/25/40/50/100 Gb/s adapters as well as their virtual functions (VF) in
38 Information and documentation about these adapters can be found on the
39 `Mellanox website <http://www.mellanox.com>`__. Help is also provided by the
40 `Mellanox community <http://community.mellanox.com/welcome>`__.
42 There is also a `section dedicated to this poll mode driver
43 <http://www.mellanox.com/page/products_dyn?product_family=209&mtag=pmd_for_dpdk>`__.
47 Due to external dependencies, this driver is disabled by default. It must
48 be enabled manually by setting ``CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_MLX5_PMD=y`` and
51 Implementation details
52 ----------------------
54 Besides its dependency on libibverbs (that implies libmlx5 and associated
55 kernel support), librte_pmd_mlx5 relies heavily on system calls for control
56 operations such as querying/updating the MTU and flow control parameters.
58 For security reasons and robustness, this driver only deals with virtual
59 memory addresses. The way resources allocations are handled by the kernel
60 combined with hardware specifications that allow it to handle virtual memory
61 addresses directly ensure that DPDK applications cannot access random
62 physical memory (or memory that does not belong to the current process).
64 This capability allows the PMD to coexist with kernel network interfaces
65 which remain functional, although they stop receiving unicast packets as
66 long as they share the same MAC address.
68 Enabling librte_pmd_mlx5 causes DPDK applications to be linked against
74 - Multiple TX and RX queues.
75 - Support for scattered TX and RX frames.
76 - IPv4, IPv6, TCPv4, TCPv6, UDPv4 and UDPv6 RSS on any number of queues.
77 - Several RSS hash keys, one for each flow type.
78 - Configurable RETA table.
79 - Support for multiple MAC addresses.
83 - RX CRC stripping configuration.
85 - Multicast promiscuous mode.
86 - Hardware checksum offloads.
87 - Flow director (RTE_FDIR_MODE_PERFECT and RTE_FDIR_MODE_PERFECT_MAC_VLAN).
88 - Secondary process TX is supported.
89 - KVM and VMware ESX SR-IOV modes are supported.
94 - Inner RSS for VXLAN frames is not supported yet.
95 - Port statistics through software counters only.
96 - Hardware checksum offloads for VXLAN inner header are not supported yet.
97 - Secondary process RX is not supported.
105 These options can be modified in the ``.config`` file.
107 - ``CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_MLX5_PMD`` (default **n**)
109 Toggle compilation of librte_pmd_mlx5 itself.
111 - ``CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_MLX5_DEBUG`` (default **n**)
113 Toggle debugging code and stricter compilation flags. Enabling this option
114 adds additional run-time checks and debugging messages at the cost of
117 - ``CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_MLX5_TX_MP_CACHE`` (default **8**)
119 Maximum number of cached memory pools (MPs) per TX queue. Each MP from
120 which buffers are to be transmitted must be associated to memory regions
121 (MRs). This is a slow operation that must be cached.
123 This value is always 1 for RX queues since they use a single MP.
125 Environment variables
126 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
128 - ``MLX5_PMD_ENABLE_PADDING``
130 Enables HW packet padding in PCI bus transactions.
132 When packet size is cache aligned and CRC stripping is enabled, 4 fewer
133 bytes are written to the PCI bus. Enabling padding makes such packets
136 In cases where PCI bandwidth is the bottleneck, padding can improve
139 This is disabled by default since this can also decrease performance for
140 unaligned packet sizes.
142 Run-time configuration
143 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
145 - librte_pmd_mlx5 brings kernel network interfaces up during initialization
146 because it is affected by their state. Forcing them down prevents packets
149 - **ethtool** operations on related kernel interfaces also affect the PMD.
151 - ``rxq_cqe_comp_en`` parameter [int]
153 A nonzero value enables the compression of CQE on RX side. This feature
154 allows to save PCI bandwidth and improve performance at the cost of a
155 slightly higher CPU usage. Enabled by default.
157 - ``txq_inline`` parameter [int]
159 Amount of data to be inlined during TX operations. Improves latency.
160 Can improve PPS performance when PCI back pressure is detected and may be
161 useful for scenarios involving heavy traffic on many queues.
163 It is not enabled by default (set to 0) since the additional software
164 logic necessary to handle this mode can lower performance when back
165 pressure is not expected.
167 - ``txqs_min_inline`` parameter [int]
169 Enable inline send only when the number of TX queues is greater or equal
172 This option should be used in combination with ``txq_inline`` above.
174 - ``txq_mpw_en`` parameter [int]
176 A nonzero value enables multi-packet send. This feature allows the TX
177 burst function to pack up to five packets in two descriptors in order to
178 save PCI bandwidth and improve performance at the cost of a slightly
181 It is currently only supported on the ConnectX-4 Lx family of adapters.
187 This driver relies on external libraries and kernel drivers for resources
188 allocations and initialization. The following dependencies are not part of
189 DPDK and must be installed separately:
193 User space Verbs framework used by librte_pmd_mlx5. This library provides
194 a generic interface between the kernel and low-level user space drivers
197 It allows slow and privileged operations (context initialization, hardware
198 resources allocations) to be managed by the kernel and fast operations to
199 never leave user space.
203 Low-level user space driver library for Mellanox ConnectX-4 devices,
204 it is automatically loaded by libibverbs.
206 This library basically implements send/receive calls to the hardware
209 - **Kernel modules** (mlnx-ofed-kernel)
211 They provide the kernel-side Verbs API and low level device drivers that
212 manage actual hardware initialization and resources sharing with user
215 Unlike most other PMDs, these modules must remain loaded and bound to
218 - mlx5_core: hardware driver managing Mellanox ConnectX-4 devices and
219 related Ethernet kernel network devices.
220 - mlx5_ib: InifiniBand device driver.
221 - ib_uverbs: user space driver for Verbs (entry point for libibverbs).
223 - **Firmware update**
225 Mellanox OFED releases include firmware updates for ConnectX-4 adapters.
227 Because each release provides new features, these updates must be applied to
228 match the kernel modules and libraries they come with.
232 Both libraries are BSD and GPL licensed. Linux kernel modules are GPL
235 Currently supported by DPDK:
237 - Mellanox OFED **3.3-1.0.0.0**.
239 - Minimum firmware version:
241 - ConnectX-4: **12.16.1006**
242 - ConnectX-4 Lx: **14.16.1006**
244 Getting Mellanox OFED
245 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
247 While these libraries and kernel modules are available on OpenFabrics
248 Alliance's `website <https://www.openfabrics.org/>`__ and provided by package
249 managers on most distributions, this PMD requires Ethernet extensions that
250 may not be supported at the moment (this is a work in progress).
253 <http://www.mellanox.com/page/products_dyn?product_family=26&mtag=linux>`__
254 includes the necessary support and should be used in the meantime. For DPDK,
255 only libibverbs, libmlx5, mlnx-ofed-kernel packages and firmware updates are
256 required from that distribution.
260 Several versions of Mellanox OFED are available. Installing the version
261 this DPDK release was developed and tested against is strongly
262 recommended. Please check the `prerequisites`_.
267 Compared to librte_pmd_mlx4 that implements a single RSS configuration per
268 port, librte_pmd_mlx5 supports per-protocol RSS configuration.
270 Since ``testpmd`` defaults to IP RSS mode and there is currently no
271 command-line parameter to enable additional protocols (UDP and TCP as well
272 as IP), the following commands must be entered from its CLI to get the same
273 behavior as librte_pmd_mlx4:
275 .. code-block:: console
278 > port config all rss all
284 This section demonstrates how to launch **testpmd** with Mellanox ConnectX-4
285 devices managed by librte_pmd_mlx5.
287 #. Load the kernel modules:
289 .. code-block:: console
291 modprobe -a ib_uverbs mlx5_core mlx5_ib
293 Alternatively if MLNX_OFED is fully installed, the following script can
296 .. code-block:: console
298 /etc/init.d/openibd restart
302 User space I/O kernel modules (uio and igb_uio) are not used and do
303 not have to be loaded.
305 #. Make sure Ethernet interfaces are in working order and linked to kernel
306 verbs. Related sysfs entries should be present:
308 .. code-block:: console
310 ls -d /sys/class/net/*/device/infiniband_verbs/uverbs* | cut -d / -f 5
314 .. code-block:: console
321 #. Optionally, retrieve their PCI bus addresses for whitelisting:
323 .. code-block:: console
326 for intf in eth2 eth3 eth4 eth5;
328 (cd "/sys/class/net/${intf}/device/" && pwd -P);
331 sed -n 's,.*/\(.*\),-w \1,p'
335 .. code-block:: console
342 #. Request huge pages:
344 .. code-block:: console
346 echo 1024 > /sys/kernel/mm/hugepages/hugepages-2048kB/nr_hugepages/nr_hugepages
348 #. Start testpmd with basic parameters:
350 .. code-block:: console
352 testpmd -c 0xff00 -n 4 -w 05:00.0 -w 05:00.1 -w 06:00.0 -w 06:00.1 -- --rxq=2 --txq=2 -i
356 .. code-block:: console
359 EAL: PCI device 0000:05:00.0 on NUMA socket 0
360 EAL: probe driver: 15b3:1013 librte_pmd_mlx5
361 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: PCI information matches, using device "mlx5_0" (VF: false)
362 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: 1 port(s) detected
363 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: port 1 MAC address is e4:1d:2d:e7:0c:fe
364 EAL: PCI device 0000:05:00.1 on NUMA socket 0
365 EAL: probe driver: 15b3:1013 librte_pmd_mlx5
366 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: PCI information matches, using device "mlx5_1" (VF: false)
367 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: 1 port(s) detected
368 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: port 1 MAC address is e4:1d:2d:e7:0c:ff
369 EAL: PCI device 0000:06:00.0 on NUMA socket 0
370 EAL: probe driver: 15b3:1013 librte_pmd_mlx5
371 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: PCI information matches, using device "mlx5_2" (VF: false)
372 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: 1 port(s) detected
373 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: port 1 MAC address is e4:1d:2d:e7:0c:fa
374 EAL: PCI device 0000:06:00.1 on NUMA socket 0
375 EAL: probe driver: 15b3:1013 librte_pmd_mlx5
376 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: PCI information matches, using device "mlx5_3" (VF: false)
377 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: 1 port(s) detected
378 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: port 1 MAC address is e4:1d:2d:e7:0c:fb
379 Interactive-mode selected
380 Configuring Port 0 (socket 0)
381 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: 0x8cba80: TX queues number update: 0 -> 2
382 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: 0x8cba80: RX queues number update: 0 -> 2
383 Port 0: E4:1D:2D:E7:0C:FE
384 Configuring Port 1 (socket 0)
385 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: 0x8ccac8: TX queues number update: 0 -> 2
386 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: 0x8ccac8: RX queues number update: 0 -> 2
387 Port 1: E4:1D:2D:E7:0C:FF
388 Configuring Port 2 (socket 0)
389 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: 0x8cdb10: TX queues number update: 0 -> 2
390 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: 0x8cdb10: RX queues number update: 0 -> 2
391 Port 2: E4:1D:2D:E7:0C:FA
392 Configuring Port 3 (socket 0)
393 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: 0x8ceb58: TX queues number update: 0 -> 2
394 PMD: librte_pmd_mlx5: 0x8ceb58: RX queues number update: 0 -> 2
395 Port 3: E4:1D:2D:E7:0C:FB
396 Checking link statuses...
397 Port 0 Link Up - speed 40000 Mbps - full-duplex
398 Port 1 Link Up - speed 40000 Mbps - full-duplex
399 Port 2 Link Up - speed 10000 Mbps - full-duplex
400 Port 3 Link Up - speed 10000 Mbps - full-duplex