path: root/doc/guides/nics/thunderx.rst

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ThunderX NICVF Poll Mode Driver
===============================

The ThunderX NICVF PMD (**librte_pmd_thunderx_nicvf**) provides poll mode driver
support for the inbuilt NIC found in the **Cavium ThunderX** SoC family
as well as their virtual functions (VF) in SR-IOV context.

More information can be found at `Cavium Networks Official Website
<http://www.cavium.com/ThunderX_ARM_Processors.html>`_.

Features
--------

Features of the ThunderX PMD are:

- Multiple queues for TX and RX
- Receive Side Scaling (RSS)
- Packet type information
- Checksum offload
- Promiscuous mode
- Multicast mode
- Port hardware statistics
- Jumbo frames
- Link state information
- Scattered and gather for TX and RX
- VLAN stripping
- SR-IOV VF
- NUMA support

Supported ThunderX SoCs
-----------------------
- CN88xx

Prerequisites
-------------
- Follow the DPDK :ref:`Getting Started Guide for Linux <linux_gsg>` to setup the basic DPDK environment.

Pre-Installation Configuration
------------------------------

Config File Options
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The following options can be modified in the ``config`` file.
Please note that enabling debugging options may affect system performance.

- ``CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_THUNDERX_NICVF_PMD`` (default ``n``)

  By default it is enabled only for defconfig_arm64-thunderx-* config.
  Toggle compilation of the ``librte_pmd_thunderx_nicvf`` driver.

- ``CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_THUNDERX_NICVF_DEBUG_INIT`` (default ``n``)

  Toggle display of initialization related messages.

- ``CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_THUNDERX_NICVF_DEBUG_RX`` (default ``n``)

  Toggle display of receive fast path run-time message

- ``CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_THUNDERX_NICVF_DEBUG_TX`` (default ``n``)

  Toggle display of transmit fast path run-time message

- ``CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_THUNDERX_NICVF_DEBUG_DRIVER`` (default ``n``)

  Toggle display of generic debugging messages

- ``CONFIG_RTE_LIBRTE_THUNDERX_NICVF_DEBUG_MBOX`` (default ``n``)

  Toggle display of PF mailbox related run-time check messages

Driver Compilation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To compile the ThunderX NICVF PMD for Linux arm64 gcc target, run the
following “make” command:

.. code-block:: console

   cd <DPDK-source-directory>
   make config T=arm64-thunderx-linuxapp-gcc install

Linux
-----

.. _thunderx_testpmd_example:

Running testpmd
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This section demonstrates how to launch ``testpmd`` with ThunderX NIC VF device
managed by ``librte_pmd_thunderx_nicvf`` in the Linux operating system.

#. Load ``vfio-pci`` driver:

   .. code-block:: console

      modprobe vfio-pci

   .. _thunderx_vfio_noiommu:

#. Enable **VFIO-NOIOMMU** mode (optional):

   .. code-block:: console

      echo 1 > /sys/module/vfio/parameters/enable_unsafe_noiommu_mode

   .. note::

      **VFIO-NOIOMMU** is required only when running in VM context and should not be enabled otherwise.
      See also :ref:`SR-IOV: Prerequisites and sample Application Notes <thunderx_sriov_example>`.

#. Bind the ThunderX NIC VF device to ``vfio-pci`` loaded in the previous step:

   Setup VFIO permissions for regular users and then bind to ``vfio-pci``:

   .. code-block:: console

      ./tools/dpdk-devbind.py --bind vfio-pci 0002:01:00.2

#. Start ``testpmd`` with basic parameters:

   .. code-block:: console

      ./arm64-thunderx-linuxapp-gcc/app/testpmd -c 0xf -n 4 -w 0002:01:00.2 \
        -- -i --disable-hw-vlan-filter --crc-strip --no-flush-rx \
        --port-topology=loop

   Example output:

   .. code-block:: console

      ...

      PMD: rte_nicvf_pmd_init(): librte_pmd_thunderx nicvf version 1.0

      ...
      EAL:   probe driver: 177d:11 rte_nicvf_pmd
      EAL:   using IOMMU type 1 (Type 1)
      EAL:   PCI memory mapped at 0x3ffade50000
      EAL: Trying to map BAR 4 that contains the MSI-X table.
           Trying offsets: 0x40000000000:0x0000, 0x10000:0x1f0000
      EAL:   PCI memory mapped at 0x3ffadc60000
      PMD: nicvf_eth_dev_init(): nicvf: device (177d:11) 2:1:0:2
      PMD: nicvf_eth_dev_init(): node=0 vf=1 mode=tns-bypass sqs=false
           loopback_supported=true
      PMD: nicvf_eth_dev_init(): Port 0 (177d:11) mac=a6:c6:d9:17:78:01
      Interactive-mode selected
      Configuring Port 0 (socket 0)
      ...

      PMD: nicvf_dev_configure(): Configured ethdev port0 hwcap=0x0
      Port 0: A6:C6:D9:17:78:01
      Checking link statuses...
      Port 0 Link Up - speed 10000 Mbps - full-duplex
      Done
      testpmd>

.. _thunderx_sriov_example:

SR-IOV: Prerequisites and sample Application Notes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Current ThunderX NIC PF/VF kernel modules maps each physical Ethernet port
automatically to virtual function (VF) and presented them as PCIe-like SR-IOV device.
This section provides instructions to configure SR-IOV with Linux OS.

#. Verify PF devices capabilities using ``lspci``:

   .. code-block:: console

      lspci -vvv

   Example output:

   .. code-block:: console

      0002:01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Cavium Networks Device a01e (rev 01)
              ...
              Capabilities: [100 v1] Alternative Routing-ID Interpretation (ARI)
              ...
              Capabilities: [180 v1] Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV)
              ...
              Kernel driver in use: thunder-nic
              ...

   .. note::

      Unless ``thunder-nic`` driver is in use make sure your kernel config includes ``CONFIG_THUNDER_NIC_PF`` setting.

#. Verify VF devices capabilities and drivers using ``lspci``:

   .. code-block:: console

      lspci -vvv

   Example output:

   .. code-block:: console

      0002:01:00.1 Ethernet controller: Cavium Networks Device 0011 (rev 01)
              ...
              Capabilities: [100 v1] Alternative Routing-ID Interpretation (ARI)
              ...
              Kernel driver in use: thunder-nicvf
              ...

      0002:01:00.2 Ethernet controller: Cavium Networks Device 0011 (rev 01)
              ...
              Capabilities: [100 v1] Alternative Routing-ID Interpretation (ARI)
              ...
              Kernel driver in use: thunder-nicvf
              ...

   .. note::

      Unless ``thunder-nicvf`` driver is in use make sure your kernel config includes ``CONFIG_THUNDER_NIC_VF`` setting.

#. Verify PF/VF bind using ``dpdk-devbind.py``:

   .. code-block:: console

      ./tools/dpdk-devbind.py --status

   Example output:

   .. code-block:: console

      ...
      0002:01:00.0 'Device a01e' if= drv=thunder-nic unused=vfio-pci
      0002:01:00.1 'Device 0011' if=eth0 drv=thunder-nicvf unused=vfio-pci
      0002:01:00.2 'Device 0011' if=eth1 drv=thunder-nicvf unused=vfio-pci
      ...

#. Load ``vfio-pci`` driver:

   .. code-block:: console

      modprobe vfio-pci

#. Bind VF devices to ``vfio-pci`` using ``dpdk-devbind.py``:

   .. code-block:: console

      ./tools/dpdk-devbind.py --bind vfio-pci 0002:01:00.1
      ./tools/dpdk-devbind.py --bind vfio-pci 0002:01:00.2

#. Verify VF bind using ``dpdk-devbind.py``:

   .. code-block:: console

      ./tools/dpdk-devbind.py --status

   Example output:

   .. code-block:: console

      ...
      0002:01:00.1 'Device 0011' drv=vfio-pci unused=
      0002:01:00.2 'Device 0011' drv=vfio-pci unused=
      ...
      0002:01:00.0 'Device a01e' if= drv=thunder-nic unused=vfio-pci
      ...

#. Pass VF device to VM context (PCIe Passthrough):

   The VF devices may be passed through to the guest VM using qemu or
   virt-manager or virsh etc.
   ``librte_pmd_thunderx_nicvf`` or ``thunder-nicvf`` should be used to bind
   the VF devices in the guest VM in :ref:`VFIO-NOIOMMU <thunderx_vfio_noiommu>` mode.

   Example qemu guest launch command:

   .. code-block:: console

      sudo qemu-system-aarch64 -name vm1 \
      -machine virt,gic_version=3,accel=kvm,usb=off \
      -cpu host -m 4096 \
      -smp 4,sockets=1,cores=8,threads=1 \
      -nographic -nodefaults \
      -kernel <kernel image> \
      -append "root=/dev/vda console=ttyAMA0 rw hugepagesz=512M hugepages=3" \
      -device vfio-pci,host=0002:01:00.1 \
      -drive file=<rootfs.ext3>,if=none,id=disk1,format=raw  \
      -device virtio-blk-device,scsi=off,drive=disk1,id=virtio-disk1,bootindex=1 \
      -netdev tap,id=net0,ifname=tap0,script=/etc/qemu-ifup_thunder \
      -device virtio-net-device,netdev=net0 \
      -serial stdio \
      -mem-path /dev/huge

#. Refer to section :ref:`Running testpmd <thunderx_testpmd_example>` for instruction
   how to launch ``testpmd`` application.

Limitations
-----------

CRC striping
~~~~~~~~~~~~

The ThunderX SoC family NICs strip the CRC for every packets coming into the
host interface. So, CRC will be stripped even when the
``rxmode.hw_strip_crc`` member is set to 0 in ``struct rte_eth_conf``.

Maximum packet length
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The ThunderX SoC family NICs support a maximum of a 9K jumbo frame. The value
is fixed and cannot be changed. So, even when the ``rxmode.max_rx_pkt_len``
member of ``struct rte_eth_conf`` is set to a value lower than 9200, frames
up to 9200 bytes can still reach the host interface.

Maximum packet segments
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The ThunderX SoC family NICs support up to 12 segments per packet when working
in scatter/gather mode. So, setting MTU will result with ``EINVAL`` when the
frame size does not fit in the maximum number of segments.

Limited VFs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The ThunderX SoC family NICs has 128VFs and each VF has 8/8 queues
for RX/TX respectively. Current driver implementation has one to one mapping
between physical port and VF hence only limited VFs can be used.