Simple Forward VNF
NVIDIA DOCA Simple Forward VNF Reference Application
This document provides a Simple Forward implementation on top NVIDIA® BlueField®-2 DPU.
Simple forward is a forwarding application which takes VXLAN traffic from a single RX port and transmits it on a single TX port.
For a packet received on an RX port, simple forward will create a flow based on the packet’s tunnel and 5-tuples. For the following packets with the same key, simple forward checks the packet’s keys. If it finds that the packet matches the existing flow, then it does not create a new flow. Otherwise, a new flow is created. And then the packets are forwarded on the other port.
Simple forward should be run with dual ports. By using a traffic generator, the RX port receives the VXLAN packets and forwarding forwards them back to the traffic generator.
Simple forward initializes DPDK first, during which time simple forward handles the incoming packets.
The following diagram illustrates the initialization process.
-
DPDK_init
– EAL init, parse argument from command line and register signal. - Start port –
mbuf_create
,dev_configure
, rx/tx/hairpin queue setup and start the port. -
Simple_fwd INIT
– create flow tables, build default forward pipes.
The following diagram illustrates how to process the packet.
- Based on the packet’s info, find the key values (e.g. src/dst ip, src/dst port, etc).
- Traverse the inner flow tables, check if the keys exist or not.
- If yes, update inner counter
- If no, a new flow table is added and new pipes are configured on the DPU
- Forward the packet to the other port.
- DPDK initialization.
dpdk_init(&argc, &argv, &nb_queues, &nb_ports)
- Port initialization and start.
simple_fwd_start_dpdk_port(&port_cfg);
- Mbuf pool created using
rte_pktmbuf_pool_create
- Driver initialization – use
rte_eth_dev_configure
to configure the number of queues - Rx/Tx queue initialization – use
rte_eth_rx_queue_setup
andrte_eth_tx_queue_setup
to initialize the queues - Rx hairpin queue initialization – use
rte_eth_rx_hairpin_queue_setup
to initialize the queues - Start the port using
rte_eth_dev_start
- Mbuf pool created using
- Simple forward initialization.
simple_fwd_init((void *)&port_cfg);
-
simple_fwd_create
- create flow tables usingdoca_ft_create
-
simple_fwd_init_ports_and_pipes
– initialize DOCA port usingsimple_fwd_init_doca_port
and build default pipes for ports usingbuild_fwd_pipe
-
- Main loop.
simple_fwd_process_packets(void *p);
- Receive packets using
rte_eth_rx_burst
in a loop - Process packets using
simple_fwd_process_offload
-
Tx_burst
the packets on the other port. Or mbuf free ifrx_only
is set to true.
- Receive packets using
- Process packets.
simple_fwd_process_offload(mbufs[j]);
- Parse the packet's
rte_mbuf
usingsimple_fwd_parse_packet
. - Handle the packet using
simple_fwd_handle_packet
. If the packet's key does not match the existed the flow entry, create a new flow entry and PIPE usingsimple_fwd_handle_new_flow
. Otherwise, increase the counter.
- Parse the packet's
- Simple forward destroy.
simple_fwd_destroy();
- Simple forward close port.
simple_fwd_close_port(port_id)
- Please refer to the DOCA Installation Guide for details on how to install BlueField related software.
- To build the application
- The binary of simple forward example is located under /opt/mellanox/doca/examples/simple_fwd_vnf/bin/doca_simple_fwd_vnf. To re-build the simple forward sample, run the following:
cd /opt/mellanox/doca/examples/simple_fwd_vnf/src meson /tmp/build ninja -C /tmp/build
doca_simple_fwd_vnf
will be created under tmp/build. - The build process depends on the
PKG_CONFIG_PATH
environment variable to locate the DPDK libraries. If the variable was accidently corrupted, and the build fails, run the following command:- For Ubuntu:
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$PKG_CONFIG_PATH:/opt/mellanox/dpdk/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/pkgconfig
- For CentOS:
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$PKG_CONFIG_PATH:/opt/mellanox/dpdk/lib64/pkgconfig
- For Ubuntu:
- The simple forward example is based on DPDK libraries. Therefore, the user is required to provide DPDK flags, and allocate huge pages. Run:
echo 1024 > /sys/kernel/mm/hugepages/hugepages-2048kB/nr_hugepages sudo mkdir /mnt/huge sudo mount -t hugetlbfs nodev /mnt/huge
- The binary of simple forward example is located under /opt/mellanox/doca/examples/simple_fwd_vnf/bin/doca_simple_fwd_vnf. To re-build the simple forward sample, run the following:
- To run the application:
doca_simple_fwd_vnf [dpdk_flags] -- [additional application flags]
Note:SFs must be enabled according to Scalable Function Setup Guide.
/opt/mellanox/doca/examples/simple_fwd_vnf/bin/doca_simple_fwd_vnf -a auxiliary:mlx5_core.sf.4 -a auxiliary:mlx5_core.sf.5 -- --nr_queues=4 --stats_timer=2
Note:The flag
-a auxiliary:mlx5_core.sf.4 -a auxiliary:mlx5_core.sf.5
is mandatory for proper usage of the application. Modifying this flag will result unexpected behavior as only 2 ports are supported. The SF number is arbitrary and configurable. For additional information on available flags for DPDK, use-h
before the--
separator.
The command
quit
terminates the application.Supported EAL options:
-
--log_level
– set log level -
--stats_timer
– set interval to dump stats information -
--nr_queues
– set queues number -
--rx_only
– set rx_only (0 or 1) -
--hw_offload
– set HW offload (0 or 1) -
--hairpinq
– set fowarding to hairpin queue
-
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