summaryrefslogtreecommitdiffstats
path: root/doc/guides/sample_app_ug/multi_process.rst
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
Diffstat (limited to 'doc/guides/sample_app_ug/multi_process.rst')
-rw-r--r--doc/guides/sample_app_ug/multi_process.rst774
1 files changed, 774 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/doc/guides/sample_app_ug/multi_process.rst b/doc/guides/sample_app_ug/multi_process.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..35714905
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/guides/sample_app_ug/multi_process.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,774 @@
+.. BSD LICENSE
+ Copyright(c) 2010-2014 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.
+ All rights reserved.
+
+ Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
+ modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
+ are met:
+
+ * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
+ notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
+ * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
+ notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in
+ the documentation and/or other materials provided with the
+ distribution.
+ * Neither the name of Intel Corporation nor the names of its
+ contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived
+ from this software without specific prior written permission.
+
+ THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
+ "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
+ LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR
+ A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT
+ OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
+ SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT
+ LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
+ DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
+ THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
+ (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
+ OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
+
+.. _multi_process_app:
+
+Multi-process Sample Application
+================================
+
+This chapter describes the example applications for multi-processing that are included in the DPDK.
+
+Example Applications
+--------------------
+
+Building the Sample Applications
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The multi-process example applications are built in the same way as other sample applications,
+and as documented in the *DPDK Getting Started Guide*.
+To build all the example applications:
+
+#. Set RTE_SDK and go to the example directory:
+
+ .. code-block:: console
+
+ export RTE_SDK=/path/to/rte_sdk
+ cd ${RTE_SDK}/examples/multi_process
+
+#. Set the target (a default target will be used if not specified). For example:
+
+ .. code-block:: console
+
+ export RTE_TARGET=x86_64-native-linuxapp-gcc
+
+ See the *DPDK Getting Started Guide* for possible RTE_TARGET values.
+
+#. Build the applications:
+
+ .. code-block:: console
+
+ make
+
+.. note::
+
+ If just a specific multi-process application needs to be built,
+ the final make command can be run just in that application's directory,
+ rather than at the top-level multi-process directory.
+
+Basic Multi-process Example
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The examples/simple_mp folder in the DPDK release contains a basic example application to demonstrate how
+two DPDK processes can work together using queues and memory pools to share information.
+
+Running the Application
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+To run the application, start one copy of the simple_mp binary in one terminal,
+passing at least two cores in the coremask, as follows:
+
+.. code-block:: console
+
+ ./build/simple_mp -c 3 -n 4 --proc-type=primary
+
+For the first DPDK process run, the proc-type flag can be omitted or set to auto,
+since all DPDK processes will default to being a primary instance,
+meaning they have control over the hugepage shared memory regions.
+The process should start successfully and display a command prompt as follows:
+
+.. code-block:: console
+
+ $ ./build/simple_mp -c 3 -n 4 --proc-type=primary
+ EAL: coremask set to 3
+ EAL: Detected lcore 0 on socket 0
+ EAL: Detected lcore 1 on socket 0
+ EAL: Detected lcore 2 on socket 0
+ EAL: Detected lcore 3 on socket 0
+ ...
+
+ EAL: Requesting 2 pages of size 1073741824
+ EAL: Requesting 768 pages of size 2097152
+ EAL: Ask a virtual area of 0x40000000 bytes
+ EAL: Virtual area found at 0x7ff200000000 (size = 0x40000000)
+ ...
+
+ EAL: check igb_uio module
+ EAL: check module finished
+ EAL: Master core 0 is ready (tid=54e41820)
+ EAL: Core 1 is ready (tid=53b32700)
+
+ Starting core 1
+
+ simple_mp >
+
+To run the secondary process to communicate with the primary process,
+again run the same binary setting at least two cores in the coremask:
+
+.. code-block:: console
+
+ ./build/simple_mp -c C -n 4 --proc-type=secondary
+
+When running a secondary process such as that shown above, the proc-type parameter can again be specified as auto.
+However, omitting the parameter altogether will cause the process to try and start as a primary rather than secondary process.
+
+Once the process type is specified correctly,
+the process starts up, displaying largely similar status messages to the primary instance as it initializes.
+Once again, you will be presented with a command prompt.
+
+Once both processes are running, messages can be sent between them using the send command.
+At any stage, either process can be terminated using the quit command.
+
+.. code-block:: console
+
+ EAL: Master core 10 is ready (tid=b5f89820) EAL: Master core 8 is ready (tid=864a3820)
+ EAL: Core 11 is ready (tid=84ffe700) EAL: Core 9 is ready (tid=85995700)
+ Starting core 11 Starting core 9
+ simple_mp > send hello_secondary simple_mp > core 9: Received 'hello_secondary'
+ simple_mp > core 11: Received 'hello_primary' simple_mp > send hello_primary
+ simple_mp > quit simple_mp > quit
+
+.. note::
+
+ If the primary instance is terminated, the secondary instance must also be shut-down and restarted after the primary.
+ This is necessary because the primary instance will clear and reset the shared memory regions on startup,
+ invalidating the secondary process's pointers.
+ The secondary process can be stopped and restarted without affecting the primary process.
+
+How the Application Works
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The core of this example application is based on using two queues and a single memory pool in shared memory.
+These three objects are created at startup by the primary process,
+since the secondary process cannot create objects in memory as it cannot reserve memory zones,
+and the secondary process then uses lookup functions to attach to these objects as it starts up.
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+ if (rte_eal_process_type() == RTE_PROC_PRIMARY){
+ send_ring = rte_ring_create(_PRI_2_SEC, ring_size, SOCKET0, flags);
+ recv_ring = rte_ring_create(_SEC_2_PRI, ring_size, SOCKET0, flags);
+ message_pool = rte_mempool_create(_MSG_POOL, pool_size, string_size, pool_cache, priv_data_sz, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, SOCKET0, flags);
+ } else {
+ recv_ring = rte_ring_lookup(_PRI_2_SEC);
+ send_ring = rte_ring_lookup(_SEC_2_PRI);
+ message_pool = rte_mempool_lookup(_MSG_POOL);
+ }
+
+Note, however, that the named ring structure used as send_ring in the primary process is the recv_ring in the secondary process.
+
+Once the rings and memory pools are all available in both the primary and secondary processes,
+the application simply dedicates two threads to sending and receiving messages respectively.
+The receive thread simply dequeues any messages on the receive ring, prints them,
+and frees the buffer space used by the messages back to the memory pool.
+The send thread makes use of the command-prompt library to interactively request user input for messages to send.
+Once a send command is issued by the user, a buffer is allocated from the memory pool, filled in with the message contents,
+then enqueued on the appropriate rte_ring.
+
+Symmetric Multi-process Example
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The second example of DPDK multi-process support demonstrates how a set of processes can run in parallel,
+with each process performing the same set of packet- processing operations.
+(Since each process is identical in functionality to the others,
+we refer to this as symmetric multi-processing, to differentiate it from asymmetric multi- processing -
+such as a client-server mode of operation seen in the next example,
+where different processes perform different tasks, yet co-operate to form a packet-processing system.)
+The following diagram shows the data-flow through the application, using two processes.
+
+.. _figure_sym_multi_proc_app:
+
+.. figure:: img/sym_multi_proc_app.*
+
+ Example Data Flow in a Symmetric Multi-process Application
+
+
+As the diagram shows, each process reads packets from each of the network ports in use.
+RSS is used to distribute incoming packets on each port to different hardware RX queues.
+Each process reads a different RX queue on each port and so does not contend with any other process for that queue access.
+Similarly, each process writes outgoing packets to a different TX queue on each port.
+
+Running the Application
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+As with the simple_mp example, the first instance of the symmetric_mp process must be run as the primary instance,
+though with a number of other application- specific parameters also provided after the EAL arguments.
+These additional parameters are:
+
+* -p <portmask>, where portmask is a hexadecimal bitmask of what ports on the system are to be used.
+ For example: -p 3 to use ports 0 and 1 only.
+
+* --num-procs <N>, where N is the total number of symmetric_mp instances that will be run side-by-side to perform packet processing.
+ This parameter is used to configure the appropriate number of receive queues on each network port.
+
+* --proc-id <n>, where n is a numeric value in the range 0 <= n < N (number of processes, specified above).
+ This identifies which symmetric_mp instance is being run, so that each process can read a unique receive queue on each network port.
+
+The secondary symmetric_mp instances must also have these parameters specified,
+and the first two must be the same as those passed to the primary instance, or errors result.
+
+For example, to run a set of four symmetric_mp instances, running on lcores 1-4,
+all performing level-2 forwarding of packets between ports 0 and 1,
+the following commands can be used (assuming run as root):
+
+.. code-block:: console
+
+ # ./build/symmetric_mp -c 2 -n 4 --proc-type=auto -- -p 3 --num-procs=4 --proc-id=0
+ # ./build/symmetric_mp -c 4 -n 4 --proc-type=auto -- -p 3 --num-procs=4 --proc-id=1
+ # ./build/symmetric_mp -c 8 -n 4 --proc-type=auto -- -p 3 --num-procs=4 --proc-id=2
+ # ./build/symmetric_mp -c 10 -n 4 --proc-type=auto -- -p 3 --num-procs=4 --proc-id=3
+
+.. note::
+
+ In the above example, the process type can be explicitly specified as primary or secondary, rather than auto.
+ When using auto, the first process run creates all the memory structures needed for all processes -
+ irrespective of whether it has a proc-id of 0, 1, 2 or 3.
+
+.. note::
+
+ For the symmetric multi-process example, since all processes work in the same manner,
+ once the hugepage shared memory and the network ports are initialized,
+ it is not necessary to restart all processes if the primary instance dies.
+ Instead, that process can be restarted as a secondary,
+ by explicitly setting the proc-type to secondary on the command line.
+ (All subsequent instances launched will also need this explicitly specified,
+ as auto-detection will detect no primary processes running and therefore attempt to re-initialize shared memory.)
+
+How the Application Works
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The initialization calls in both the primary and secondary instances are the same for the most part,
+calling the rte_eal_init(), 1 G and 10 G driver initialization and then rte_eal_pci_probe() functions.
+Thereafter, the initialization done depends on whether the process is configured as a primary or secondary instance.
+
+In the primary instance, a memory pool is created for the packet mbufs and the network ports to be used are initialized -
+the number of RX and TX queues per port being determined by the num-procs parameter passed on the command-line.
+The structures for the initialized network ports are stored in shared memory and
+therefore will be accessible by the secondary process as it initializes.
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+ if (num_ports & 1)
+ rte_exit(EXIT_FAILURE, "Application must use an even number of ports\n");
+
+ for(i = 0; i < num_ports; i++){
+ if(proc_type == RTE_PROC_PRIMARY)
+ if (smp_port_init(ports[i], mp, (uint16_t)num_procs) < 0)
+ rte_exit(EXIT_FAILURE, "Error initializing ports\n");
+ }
+
+In the secondary instance, rather than initializing the network ports, the port information exported by the primary process is used,
+giving the secondary process access to the hardware and software rings for each network port.
+Similarly, the memory pool of mbufs is accessed by doing a lookup for it by name:
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+ mp = (proc_type == RTE_PROC_SECONDARY) ? rte_mempool_lookup(_SMP_MBUF_POOL) : rte_mempool_create(_SMP_MBUF_POOL, NB_MBUFS, MBUF_SIZE, ... )
+
+Once this initialization is complete, the main loop of each process, both primary and secondary,
+is exactly the same - each process reads from each port using the queue corresponding to its proc-id parameter,
+and writes to the corresponding transmit queue on the output port.
+
+Client-Server Multi-process Example
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The third example multi-process application included with the DPDK shows how one can
+use a client-server type multi-process design to do packet processing.
+In this example, a single server process performs the packet reception from the ports being used and
+distributes these packets using round-robin ordering among a set of client processes,
+which perform the actual packet processing.
+In this case, the client applications just perform level-2 forwarding of packets by sending each packet out on a different network port.
+
+The following diagram shows the data-flow through the application, using two client processes.
+
+.. _figure_client_svr_sym_multi_proc_app:
+
+.. figure:: img/client_svr_sym_multi_proc_app.*
+
+ Example Data Flow in a Client-Server Symmetric Multi-process Application
+
+
+Running the Application
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The server process must be run initially as the primary process to set up all memory structures for use by the clients.
+In addition to the EAL parameters, the application- specific parameters are:
+
+* -p <portmask >, where portmask is a hexadecimal bitmask of what ports on the system are to be used.
+ For example: -p 3 to use ports 0 and 1 only.
+
+* -n <num-clients>, where the num-clients parameter is the number of client processes that will process the packets received
+ by the server application.
+
+.. note::
+
+ In the server process, a single thread, the master thread, that is, the lowest numbered lcore in the coremask, performs all packet I/O.
+ If a coremask is specified with more than a single lcore bit set in it,
+ an additional lcore will be used for a thread to periodically print packet count statistics.
+
+Since the server application stores configuration data in shared memory, including the network ports to be used,
+the only application parameter needed by a client process is its client instance ID.
+Therefore, to run a server application on lcore 1 (with lcore 2 printing statistics) along with two client processes running on lcores 3 and 4,
+the following commands could be used:
+
+.. code-block:: console
+
+ # ./mp_server/build/mp_server -c 6 -n 4 -- -p 3 -n 2
+ # ./mp_client/build/mp_client -c 8 -n 4 --proc-type=auto -- -n 0
+ # ./mp_client/build/mp_client -c 10 -n 4 --proc-type=auto -- -n 1
+
+.. note::
+
+ If the server application dies and needs to be restarted, all client applications also need to be restarted,
+ as there is no support in the server application for it to run as a secondary process.
+ Any client processes that need restarting can be restarted without affecting the server process.
+
+How the Application Works
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The server process performs the network port and data structure initialization much as the symmetric multi-process application does when run as primary.
+One additional enhancement in this sample application is that the server process stores its port configuration data in a memory zone in hugepage shared memory.
+This eliminates the need for the client processes to have the portmask parameter passed into them on the command line,
+as is done for the symmetric multi-process application, and therefore eliminates mismatched parameters as a potential source of errors.
+
+In the same way that the server process is designed to be run as a primary process instance only,
+the client processes are designed to be run as secondary instances only.
+They have no code to attempt to create shared memory objects.
+Instead, handles to all needed rings and memory pools are obtained via calls to rte_ring_lookup() and rte_mempool_lookup().
+The network ports for use by the processes are obtained by loading the network port drivers and probing the PCI bus,
+which will, as in the symmetric multi-process example,
+automatically get access to the network ports using the settings already configured by the primary/server process.
+
+Once all applications are initialized, the server operates by reading packets from each network port in turn and
+distributing those packets to the client queues (software rings, one for each client process) in round-robin order.
+On the client side, the packets are read from the rings in as big of bursts as possible, then routed out to a different network port.
+The routing used is very simple. All packets received on the first NIC port are transmitted back out on the second port and vice versa.
+Similarly, packets are routed between the 3rd and 4th network ports and so on.
+The sending of packets is done by writing the packets directly to the network ports; they are not transferred back via the server process.
+
+In both the server and the client processes, outgoing packets are buffered before being sent,
+so as to allow the sending of multiple packets in a single burst to improve efficiency.
+For example, the client process will buffer packets to send,
+until either the buffer is full or until we receive no further packets from the server.
+
+Master-slave Multi-process Example
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+The fourth example of DPDK multi-process support demonstrates a master-slave model that
+provide the capability of application recovery if a slave process crashes or meets unexpected conditions.
+In addition, it also demonstrates the floating process,
+which can run among different cores in contrast to the traditional way of binding a process/thread to a specific CPU core,
+using the local cache mechanism of mempool structures.
+
+This application performs the same functionality as the L2 Forwarding sample application,
+therefore this chapter does not cover that part but describes functionality that is introduced in this multi-process example only.
+Please refer to :doc:`l2_forward_real_virtual` for more information.
+
+Unlike previous examples where all processes are started from the command line with input arguments, in this example,
+only one process is spawned from the command line and that process creates other processes.
+The following section describes this in more detail.
+
+Master-slave Process Models
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+The process spawned from the command line is called the *master process* in this document.
+A process created by the master is called a *slave process*.
+The application has only one master process, but could have multiple slave processes.
+
+Once the master process begins to run, it tries to initialize all the resources such as
+memory, CPU cores, driver, ports, and so on, as the other examples do.
+Thereafter, it creates slave processes, as shown in the following figure.
+
+.. _figure_master_slave_proc:
+
+.. figure:: img/master_slave_proc.*
+
+ Master-slave Process Workflow
+
+
+The master process calls the rte_eal_mp_remote_launch() EAL function to launch an application function for each pinned thread through the pipe.
+Then, it waits to check if any slave processes have exited.
+If so, the process tries to re-initialize the resources that belong to that slave and launch them in the pinned thread entry again.
+The following section describes the recovery procedures in more detail.
+
+For each pinned thread in EAL, after reading any data from the pipe, it tries to call the function that the application specified.
+In this master specified function, a fork() call creates a slave process that performs the L2 forwarding task.
+Then, the function waits until the slave exits, is killed or crashes. Thereafter, it notifies the master of this event and returns.
+Finally, the EAL pinned thread waits until the new function is launched.
+
+After discussing the master-slave model, it is necessary to mention another issue, global and static variables.
+
+For multiple-thread cases, all global and static variables have only one copy and they can be accessed by any thread if applicable.
+So, they can be used to sync or share data among threads.
+
+In the previous examples, each process has separate global and static variables in memory and are independent of each other.
+If it is necessary to share the knowledge, some communication mechanism should be deployed, such as, memzone, ring, shared memory, and so on.
+The global or static variables are not a valid approach to share data among processes.
+For variables in this example, on the one hand, the slave process inherits all the knowledge of these variables after being created by the master.
+On the other hand, other processes cannot know if one or more processes modifies them after slave creation since that
+is the nature of a multiple process address space.
+But this does not mean that these variables cannot be used to share or sync data; it depends on the use case.
+The following are the possible use cases:
+
+#. The master process starts and initializes a variable and it will never be changed after slave processes created. This case is OK.
+
+#. After the slave processes are created, the master or slave cores need to change a variable, but other processes do not need to know the change.
+ This case is also OK.
+
+#. After the slave processes are created, the master or a slave needs to change a variable.
+ In the meantime, one or more other process needs to be aware of the change.
+ In this case, global and static variables cannot be used to share knowledge. Another communication mechanism is needed.
+ A simple approach without lock protection can be a heap buffer allocated by rte_malloc or mem zone.
+
+Slave Process Recovery Mechanism
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+Before talking about the recovery mechanism, it is necessary to know what is needed before a new slave instance can run if a previous one exited.
+
+When a slave process exits, the system returns all the resources allocated for this process automatically.
+However, this does not include the resources that were allocated by the DPDK. All the hardware resources are shared among the processes,
+which include memzone, mempool, ring, a heap buffer allocated by the rte_malloc library, and so on.
+If the new instance runs and the allocated resource is not returned, either resource allocation failed or the hardware resource is lost forever.
+
+When a slave process runs, it may have dependencies on other processes.
+They could have execution sequence orders; they could share the ring to communicate; they could share the same port for reception and forwarding;
+they could use lock structures to do exclusive access in some critical path.
+What happens to the dependent process(es) if the peer leaves?
+The consequence are varied since the dependency cases are complex.
+It depends on what the processed had shared.
+However, it is necessary to notify the peer(s) if one slave exited.
+Then, the peer(s) will be aware of that and wait until the new instance begins to run.
+
+Therefore, to provide the capability to resume the new slave instance if the previous one exited, it is necessary to provide several mechanisms:
+
+#. Keep a resource list for each slave process.
+ Before a slave process run, the master should prepare a resource list.
+ After it exits, the master could either delete the allocated resources and create new ones,
+ or re-initialize those for use by the new instance.
+
+#. Set up a notification mechanism for slave process exit cases. After the specific slave leaves,
+ the master should be notified and then help to create a new instance.
+ This mechanism is provided in Section `Master-slave Process Models`_.
+
+#. Use a synchronization mechanism among dependent processes.
+ The master should have the capability to stop or kill slave processes that have a dependency on the one that has exited.
+ Then, after the new instance of exited slave process begins to run, the dependency ones could resume or run from the start.
+ The example sends a STOP command to slave processes dependent on the exited one, then they will exit.
+ Thereafter, the master creates new instances for the exited slave processes.
+
+The following diagram describes slave process recovery.
+
+.. _figure_slave_proc_recov:
+
+.. figure:: img/slave_proc_recov.*
+
+ Slave Process Recovery Process Flow
+
+
+Floating Process Support
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+When the DPDK application runs, there is always a -c option passed in to indicate the cores that are enabled.
+Then, the DPDK creates a thread for each enabled core.
+By doing so, it creates a 1:1 mapping between the enabled core and each thread.
+The enabled core always has an ID, therefore, each thread has a unique core ID in the DPDK execution environment.
+With the ID, each thread can easily access the structures or resources exclusively belonging to it without using function parameter passing.
+It can easily use the rte_lcore_id() function to get the value in every function that is called.
+
+For threads/processes not created in that way, either pinned to a core or not, they will not own a unique ID and the
+rte_lcore_id() function will not work in the correct way.
+However, sometimes these threads/processes still need the unique ID mechanism to do easy access on structures or resources.
+For example, the DPDK mempool library provides a local cache mechanism
+(refer to :ref:`mempool_local_cache`)
+for fast element allocation and freeing.
+If using a non-unique ID or a fake one,
+a race condition occurs if two or more threads/ processes with the same core ID try to use the local cache.
+
+Therefore, unused core IDs from the passing of parameters with the -c option are used to organize the core ID allocation array.
+Once the floating process is spawned, it tries to allocate a unique core ID from the array and release it on exit.
+
+A natural way to spawn a floating process is to use the fork() function and allocate a unique core ID from the unused core ID array.
+However, it is necessary to write new code to provide a notification mechanism for slave exit
+and make sure the process recovery mechanism can work with it.
+
+To avoid producing redundant code, the Master-Slave process model is still used to spawn floating processes,
+then cancel the affinity to specific cores.
+Besides that, clear the core ID assigned to the DPDK spawning a thread that has a 1:1 mapping with the core mask.
+Thereafter, get a new core ID from the unused core ID allocation array.
+
+Run the Application
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+This example has a command line similar to the L2 Forwarding sample application with a few differences.
+
+To run the application, start one copy of the l2fwd_fork binary in one terminal.
+Unlike the L2 Forwarding example,
+this example requires at least three cores since the master process will wait and be accountable for slave process recovery.
+The command is as follows:
+
+.. code-block:: console
+
+ #./build/l2fwd_fork -c 1c -n 4 -- -p 3 -f
+
+This example provides another -f option to specify the use of floating process.
+If not specified, the example will use a pinned process to perform the L2 forwarding task.
+
+To verify the recovery mechanism, proceed as follows: First, check the PID of the slave processes:
+
+.. code-block:: console
+
+ #ps -fe | grep l2fwd_fork
+ root 5136 4843 29 11:11 pts/1 00:00:05 ./build/l2fwd_fork
+ root 5145 5136 98 11:11 pts/1 00:00:11 ./build/l2fwd_fork
+ root 5146 5136 98 11:11 pts/1 00:00:11 ./build/l2fwd_fork
+
+Then, kill one of the slaves:
+
+.. code-block:: console
+
+ #kill -9 5145
+
+After 1 or 2 seconds, check whether the slave has resumed:
+
+.. code-block:: console
+
+ #ps -fe | grep l2fwd_fork
+ root 5136 4843 3 11:11 pts/1 00:00:06 ./build/l2fwd_fork
+ root 5247 5136 99 11:14 pts/1 00:00:01 ./build/l2fwd_fork
+ root 5248 5136 99 11:14 pts/1 00:00:01 ./build/l2fwd_fork
+
+It can also monitor the traffic generator statics to see whether slave processes have resumed.
+
+Explanation
+^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+As described in previous sections,
+not all global and static variables need to change to be accessible in multiple processes;
+it depends on how they are used.
+In this example,
+the statics info on packets dropped/forwarded/received count needs to be updated by the slave process,
+and the master needs to see the update and print them out.
+So, it needs to allocate a heap buffer using rte_zmalloc.
+In addition, if the -f option is specified,
+an array is needed to store the allocated core ID for the floating process so that the master can return it
+after a slave has exited accidentally.
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+ static int
+ l2fwd_malloc_shared_struct(void)
+ {
+ port_statistics = rte_zmalloc("port_stat", sizeof(struct l2fwd_port_statistics) * RTE_MAX_ETHPORTS, 0);
+
+ if (port_statistics == NULL)
+ return -1;
+
+ /* allocate mapping_id array */
+
+ if (float_proc) {
+ int i;
+
+ mapping_id = rte_malloc("mapping_id", sizeof(unsigned) * RTE_MAX_LCORE, 0);
+ if (mapping_id == NULL)
+ return -1;
+
+ for (i = 0 ;i < RTE_MAX_LCORE; i++)
+ mapping_id[i] = INVALID_MAPPING_ID;
+
+ }
+ return 0;
+ }
+
+For each slave process, packets are received from one port and forwarded to another port that another slave is operating on.
+If the other slave exits accidentally, the port it is operating on may not work normally,
+so the first slave cannot forward packets to that port.
+There is a dependency on the port in this case. So, the master should recognize the dependency.
+The following is the code to detect this dependency:
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+ for (portid = 0; portid < nb_ports; portid++) {
+ /* skip ports that are not enabled */
+
+ if ((l2fwd_enabled_port_mask & (1 << portid)) == 0)
+ continue;
+
+ /* Find pair ports' lcores */
+
+ find_lcore = find_pair_lcore = 0;
+ pair_port = l2fwd_dst_ports[portid];
+
+ for (i = 0; i < RTE_MAX_LCORE; i++) {
+ if (!rte_lcore_is_enabled(i))
+ continue;
+
+ for (j = 0; j < lcore_queue_conf[i].n_rx_port;j++) {
+ if (lcore_queue_conf[i].rx_port_list[j] == portid) {
+ lcore = i;
+ find_lcore = 1;
+ break;
+ }
+
+ if (lcore_queue_conf[i].rx_port_list[j] == pair_port) {
+ pair_lcore = i;
+ find_pair_lcore = 1;
+ break;
+ }
+ }
+
+ if (find_lcore && find_pair_lcore)
+ break;
+ }
+
+ if (!find_lcore || !find_pair_lcore)
+ rte_exit(EXIT_FAILURE, "Not find port=%d pair\\n", portid);
+
+ printf("lcore %u and %u paired\\n", lcore, pair_lcore);
+
+ lcore_resource[lcore].pair_id = pair_lcore;
+ lcore_resource[pair_lcore].pair_id = lcore;
+ }
+
+Before launching the slave process,
+it is necessary to set up the communication channel between the master and slave so that
+the master can notify the slave if its peer process with the dependency exited.
+In addition, the master needs to register a callback function in the case where a specific slave exited.
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+ for (i = 0; i < RTE_MAX_LCORE; i++) {
+ if (lcore_resource[i].enabled) {
+ /* Create ring for master and slave communication */
+
+ ret = create_ms_ring(i);
+ if (ret != 0)
+ rte_exit(EXIT_FAILURE, "Create ring for lcore=%u failed",i);
+
+ if (flib_register_slave_exit_notify(i,slave_exit_cb) != 0)
+ rte_exit(EXIT_FAILURE, "Register master_trace_slave_exit failed");
+ }
+ }
+
+After launching the slave process, the master waits and prints out the port statics periodically.
+If an event indicating that a slave process exited is detected,
+it sends the STOP command to the peer and waits until it has also exited.
+Then, it tries to clean up the execution environment and prepare new resources.
+Finally, the new slave instance is launched.
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+ while (1) {
+ sleep(1);
+ cur_tsc = rte_rdtsc();
+ diff_tsc = cur_tsc - prev_tsc;
+
+ /* if timer is enabled */
+
+ if (timer_period > 0) {
+ /* advance the timer */
+ timer_tsc += diff_tsc;
+
+ /* if timer has reached its timeout */
+ if (unlikely(timer_tsc >= (uint64_t) timer_period)) {
+ print_stats();
+
+ /* reset the timer */
+ timer_tsc = 0;
+ }
+ }
+
+ prev_tsc = cur_tsc;
+
+ /* Check any slave need restart or recreate */
+
+ rte_spinlock_lock(&res_lock);
+
+ for (i = 0; i < RTE_MAX_LCORE; i++) {
+ struct lcore_resource_struct *res = &lcore_resource[i];
+ struct lcore_resource_struct *pair = &lcore_resource[res->pair_id];
+
+ /* If find slave exited, try to reset pair */
+
+ if (res->enabled && res->flags && pair->enabled) {
+ if (!pair->flags) {
+ master_sendcmd_with_ack(pair->lcore_id, CMD_STOP);
+ rte_spinlock_unlock(&res_lock);
+ sleep(1);
+ rte_spinlock_lock(&res_lock);
+ if (pair->flags)
+ continue;
+ }
+
+ if (reset_pair(res->lcore_id, pair->lcore_id) != 0)
+ rte_exit(EXIT_FAILURE, "failed to reset slave");
+
+ res->flags = 0;
+ pair->flags = 0;
+ }
+ }
+ rte_spinlock_unlock(&res_lock);
+ }
+
+When the slave process is spawned and starts to run, it checks whether the floating process option is applied.
+If so, it clears the affinity to a specific core and also sets the unique core ID to 0.
+Then, it tries to allocate a new core ID.
+Since the core ID has changed, the resource allocated by the master cannot work,
+so it remaps the resource to the new core ID slot.
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+ static int
+ l2fwd_launch_one_lcore( attribute ((unused)) void *dummy)
+ {
+ unsigned lcore_id = rte_lcore_id();
+
+ if (float_proc) {
+ unsigned flcore_id;
+
+ /* Change it to floating process, also change it's lcore_id */
+
+ clear_cpu_affinity();
+
+ RTE_PER_LCORE(_lcore_id) = 0;
+
+ /* Get a lcore_id */
+
+ if (flib_assign_lcore_id() < 0 ) {
+ printf("flib_assign_lcore_id failed\n");
+ return -1;
+ }
+
+ flcore_id = rte_lcore_id();
+
+ /* Set mapping id, so master can return it after slave exited */
+
+ mapping_id[lcore_id] = flcore_id;
+ printf("Org lcore_id = %u, cur lcore_id = %u\n",lcore_id, flcore_id);
+ remapping_slave_resource(lcore_id, flcore_id);
+ }
+
+ l2fwd_main_loop();
+
+ /* return lcore_id before return */
+ if (float_proc) {
+ flib_free_lcore_id(rte_lcore_id());
+ mapping_id[lcore_id] = INVALID_MAPPING_ID;
+ }
+ return 0;
+ }