DOCA Documentation v2.2.0

Switch

NVIDIA DOCA Switch Application Guide

This document provides a switch implementation on top of NVIDIA® BlueField® DPU.

DOCA Switch is a network application that leverages the DPU's hardware capability for internal switching between representor ports on the DPU.

DOCA Switch is based on the DOCA Flow library. As such, it exposes a command line interface which receives DOCA Flow like commands to allow adding rules in real time.

DOCA Switch is designed to run on the DPU as a standalone application (all network traffic goes directly through it).

Traffic flows between two VMs on the host:

system-design-diagram-2.png

Traffic flow from a physical port to a VM on the host:

system-design-diagram-1.png

DOCA Switch is based on 3 modules:

  • Command line interface – receives pre-defined DOCA Flow-like commands and parses them
  • Flow pipes manger – generates a unique identification number for each DOCA Flow structure created
  • Switch core – combines all modules together and calls necessary DOCA Flow API

application-architecture-diagram.png

Port initialization cannot be made dynamically. All ports must be defined when running the application with standard DPDK flags.

  • When adding a pipe or an entry, the user must run commands to create the relevant structs beforehand
  • Optional parameters must be specified by the user in the command line; otherwise, NULL is used
  • After a pipe or an entry is created successfully, the relevant ID is printed for future use

Available commands:

  • create pipe port_id=[port_id][,<optional_parameters>] Available optional parameters:
    • name=<pipe-name>
    • root_enable=[1|0]
    • monitor=[1|0]
    • match_mask=[1|0]
    • fwd=[1|0]
    • fwd_miss=[1|0]
    • type=[basic|control]
  • add entry pipe_id=<pipe_id>,pipe_queue=<pipe_queue>[,<optional_parameters>] Available optional parameters:
    • monitor=[1|0]
    • fwd=[1|0]
  • add control_pipe entry priority=<priority>,pipe_id=<pipe_id>,pipe_queue=<pipe_queue>[,<optional_parameters>] Available optional parameters:
    • match_mask=[1|0]
    • fwd=[1|0]
  • destroy pipe port_id=[port_id],pipe_id=<pipe_id>
  • rm entry pipe_queue=<pipe_queue>,entry_id=[entry_id]
  • port pipes flush port_id=[port_id]
  • port pipes dump port_id=[port_id],file=[file_name]
  • query entry_id=[entry_id]
  • create [struct] [field=value,…]
    • Struct options: pipe_match, entry_match, match_mask, actions, monitor, fwd, fwd_miss
      • Match struct fields:
        Fields Field Options
        flags  
        port_meta (source port) According to the number of physical ports
        out_src_mac  
        out_dst_mac  
        out_eth_type  
        out_vlan_id  
        out_src_ip_type ipv4, ipv6
        out_src_ip_addr  
        out_dst_ip_type ipv4, ipv6
        out_dst_ip_addr  
        out_l4_type tcp, udp, gre
        out_tcp_flags FIN, SYN, RST, PSH, ACK, URG, ECE, CWR
        out_src_port  
        out_dst_port  
        tun_type  
        vxlan-tun_id  
        gre_key  
        gtp_teid  
        in_src_mac  
        in_dst_mac  
        in_eth_type  
        in_vlan_id  
        in_src_ip_type ipv4, ipv6
        in_src_ip_addr  
        in_dst_ip_type ipv4, ipv6
        in_dst_ip_addr  
        in_l4_type tcp, udp
        in_tcp_flags FIN, SYN, RST, PSH, ACK, URG, ECE, CWR
        in_src_port  
        in_dst_port  
      • Actions struct fields:
        Fields Field Options
        decap true, false
        mod_src_mac  
        mod_dst_mac  
        mod_src_ip_type ipv4, ipv6
        mod_src_ip_addr  
        mod_dst_ip_type ipv4, ipv6
        mod_dst_ip_addr  
        mod_src_port  
        mod_dst_port  
        dec_ttl true, false
        has_encap true, false
        encap_src_mac  
        encap_dst_mac  
        encap_src_ip_type ipv4, ipv6
        encap_src_ip_addr  
        encap_dst_ip_type ipv4, ipv6
        encap_dst_ip_addr  
        encap_tup_type vxlan, gtpu, gre
        encap_vxlan-tun_id  
        encap_gre_key  
        encap_gtp_teid  
      • FWD struct fields:
        Fields Field Options
        type rss, port, pipe, drop
        rss_flags  
        rss_queues  
        num_of_queues  
        rss_mark  
        port_id  
        next_pipe_id  
      • Monitor struct fields:
        • flags
        • id
        • cir
        • cbs
        • aging

Consider that the physical port number (only one physical port is supported) will always be 0 and all representor ports are numbered from 1 to N where N is the number of representors being used. For example:

  • Physical port ID: 0
  • VF0 representor port ID: 1
  • VF1 representor port ID: 2
  • VF2 representor port ID: 3

The following is an example of creating a pipe and adding one entry into it:

  1. Pipe is configured on port ID 0 (physical port).
  2. Entry is configured to forward all traffic directly into port ID 1 (VF0).
  3. When the forwarding rule is no longer needed, the entry is deleted.
  4. Ultimately, both entries are deleted, each according to the unique random ID it was given:

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create fwd type=port,port_id=0xffff create pipe port_id=0,name=p0_to_vf1,root_enable=1,fwd=1 create fwd type=port,port_id=1 add entry pipe_queue=0,fwd=1,pipe_id=1012 .... rm entry pipe_queue=0,entry_id=447

This application leverages the DOCA Flow library.

  1. Parse application argument.
    1. Initialize the arg parser resources and register DOCA general parameters.
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      doca_argp_init();

    2. Register application parameters.
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      register_switch_params();

    3. Parse application flags.
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      doca_argp_start();

  2. Count total number of ports.
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    switch_ports_count();

    1. Check how many ports are entered when running the application.
  3. Initialize DPDK ports and queues.
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    dpdk_queues_and_ports_init();

  4. Initialize DOCA Switch.
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    switch_init();

    1. Initialize DOCA Flow.
    2. Create port pairs.
    3. Create Flow Pipes Manger module
    4. Register an action for each relevant CLI command.
  5. Initialize Flow Parser.
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    flow_parser_init();

    1. Reset all internal Flow Parser structures.
    2. Start the command line interface.
    3. Receive user commands, parse them, and call the required DOCA Flow API command.
    4. Close the interactive shell once a "quit" command is entered.
  6. Clean Flow Parser resources.
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    flow_parser_cleanup();

  7. Destroy DOCA Switch resources.
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    switch_destroy();

    1. Destroy Flow Pipes Manager resources.
  8. Destroy DOCA Flow.
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    switch_destroy();

  9. Destroy DPDK ports and queues.
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    dpdk_queues_and_ports_fini();

  10. DPDK finish.
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    dpdk_fini();

    1. Call rte_eal_destroy() to destroy initialized EAL resources.
  11. Arg parser destroy.
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    doca_argp_destroy();

  1. Refer to the following documents:
  2. The DOCA Switch example binary is located under /opt/mellanox/doca/applications/switch/bin/doca_switch. To build all the applications together, run:
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    cd /opt/mellanox/doca/applications/ meson build ninja -C build

  3. To build only the Switch application:
    1. Edit the following flags in /opt/mellanox/doca/applications/meson_options.txt:
      • Set enable_all_applications to false
      • Set enable_switch to true
    2. Run the commands in step 2.
      Note:

      doca_switch will be created under ./build/switch/src/.

    Application usage:

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    Usage: doca_switch [DPDK Flags] -- [DOCA Flags] DOCA Flags: -h, --help Print a help synopsis -v, --version Print program version information -l, --log-level Set the log level for the program <CRITICAL=20, ERROR=30, WARNING=40, INFO=50, DEBUG=60>

    Note:

    For additional information on the app, use -h:

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    /opt/mellanox/doca/applications/switch/bin/doca_switch -h


  4. CLI example for running the app on BlueField with 3 VF representors (dv_flow_en=2 is necessary to run the application with hardware steering):
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    /opt/mellanox/doca/applications/switch/bin/doca_switch -a 03:00.0,representor=[0-2],dv_flow_en=2 -- -l 30

Refer to NVIDIA DOCA Arg Parser Programming Guide for more information.

Flag Type Short Flag Long Flag/JSON Key Description JSON Content
General flags l log-level Sets the log level for the application:
  • CRITICAL=20
  • ERROR=30
  • WARNING=40
  • INFO=50
  • DEBUG=60
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"log-level": 60

v version Print program version information N/A
h help Print a help synopsis N/A

  • /opt/mellanox/doca/applications/switch/src

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