Re: mlx5 reta size is dynamic

["Nélio Laranjeiro" <nelio.laranjeiro@6wind.com>]

Hi,

On Thu, Mar 22, 2018 at 10:59:36AM +0000, Hanoch Haim (hhaim) wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> 1) Regarding this sentence, 
> "Your need is to have a fixed size returned by the
> rte_eth_dev_info_get(), the PMD can have an internal dynamic size, it
> won't modify your spreading."
> 
> I'm fine with that as long:
> 
> 1. rte_eth_dev_info_get  will expose the same *size* 
> 2. rte_eth_dev_rss_reta_update will behave the as there are reta_size
> for *any* random input (will enlarge the table internally to maximum
> size)
> In other words, from the user prospective you will have static
> reta_size. 

Good, the requirement is clear enough for me i.e. user static RETA table
size and spreading accordingly.

> 2) "In such situation, changing the RETA means stopping the traffic,
> destroying every single flow, hash Rx queue, indirection table to
> remake everything with the new configuration.
> Until then, we always recommended to any application to restart the
> port on this device after a RETA update to apply this new
> configuration."
> 
> From an experiment I did, you *can* change it under traffic and it works without issue.
> Drivers tested are: igbe/i40e/mlx5

hmm, it is certainly calling a devops which will end by calling
mlx5_traffic_start().

Thanks,

> Thanks,
> Hanoh
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nélio Laranjeiro [mailto:nelio.laranjeiro@6wind.com] 
> Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2018 12:46 PM
> To: Hanoch Haim (hhaim)
> Cc: Yongseok Koh; dev@dpdk.org
> Subject: Re: [dpdk-dev] mlx5 reta size is dynamic
> 
> Hi Hanoch,
> 
> On Thu, Mar 22, 2018 at 10:00:45AM +0000, Hanoch Haim (hhaim) wrote:
> > Hi Nelio,
> > 
> > Let me provide more background. 
> > The context is TRex running in Advance Stateful (ASTf) mode using multi-core.  
> > In this case the flows are distributed using RSS. New flows (c->s) 
> > need to have a tuple that will match the generated core. For this 
> > calculation there is a need of to know the *RETA table size*
> > 
> > 
> > Code:
> > 
> >        /*1.  verify that driver can support RSS */
> >        rte_eth_dev_info_get(m_repid,&dev_info);
> >        save_reta_size = dev_info.reta_size
> >        save_hash_key = dev_info.hash_key_size
> >        printf("RETA_SIZE : %d \n",save_reta_size);
> >        printf("HASH_SIZE : %d \n",save_hash_key);
> > 
> >        /*2.  configure queues  */
> >        ret = rte_eth_dev_configure(m_repid,
> >                                    nb_rx_queue,
> >                                    nb_tx_queue,
> >                                    eth_conf);
> > 	..
> > 
> >        /* 3. reading the RETA again */
> >        rte_eth_dev_info_get(m_repid,&dev_info);
> >        save_reta_size = dev_info.reta_size        <<
> >        save_hash_key = dev_info.hash_key_size
> >        printf("RETA_SIZE1 : %d \n",save_reta_size);
> > 
> > 
> >        /* 4. update the RETA table */
> >        rte_eth_dev_rss_reta_update(m_repid, &reta_conf[0], 
> > dev_info.reta_size)
> > 
> >        
> > 2.   /*Output in case of  Intel i40e*/
> > 
> >        RETA_SIZE : 512
> >        HASH_SIZE : 52
> > 
> >        RETA_SIZE1 : 512
> > 
> > 3.       /*Output in case of  Mlx5 */
> > 
> >        RETA_SIZE : 512
> >        HASH_SIZE : 0
> > 
> >        RETA_SIZE1 : 4  << not round of 64 , depends on the number of 
> > rx queues
> 
> Your need is to have a fixed size returned by the rte_eth_dev_info_get(), the PMD can have an internal dynamic size, it won't modify your spreading.
> 
> An information, you are getting the hash key size, according to the documentation of struct rte_eth_rss_conf, only the i40e can have a key len different from 40 bytes, others should just ignore the field [1].
> 
> Regards,
> 
> [1] https://dpdk.org/browse/dpdk/tree/lib/librte_ether/rte_ethdev.h#n380
> 
> > Hanoh
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Nélio Laranjeiro [mailto:nelio.laranjeiro@6wind.com]
> > Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2018 11:28 AM
> > To: Hanoch Haim (hhaim)
> > Cc: Yongseok Koh; dev@dpdk.org
> > Subject: Re: [dpdk-dev] mlx5 reta size is dynamic
> > 
> > Hi Hanoch,
> > 
> > On Thu, Mar 22, 2018 at 09:02:19AM +0000, Hanoch Haim (hhaim) wrote:
> > > Hi Nelio,
> > > I think you didn't understand me. I suggest to keep the RETA table 
> > > size constant (maximum 512 in your case) and don't change its base 
> > > on the number of configured Rx-queue.
> > 
> > It is even simpler, we can return the maximum size or a multiple of 
> > RTE_RETA_GROUP_SIZE according to the number of Rx queues being used, 
> > in the devop->dev_infos_get() as it is what the
> > rte_eth_dev_rss_reta_update() implementation will expect.
> >  
> > > This will make the DPDK API consistent. As a user I need to do 
> > > tricks (allocate an odd/prime number of rx-queues) to get the RETA 
> > > size constant at 512
> > 
> > I understand this issue, what I don't fully understand your needs.
> > 
> > > I'm not talking about changing the values in the RETA table which 
> > > can be done while there is traffic.
> > 
> > On MLX5 changing the entries of the RETA table don't affect the current traffic, it needs a port restart to affect it and only for "default"
> > flows, any flow created through the public flow API are not impacted by the RETA table.
> > 
> > 
> > From my understanding, you wish to have a size returned by
> > devop->dev_infos_get() usable directly by rte_eth_dev_rss_reta_update().
> > This is why you are asking for a fix size?  So, if internally the PMD starts with a smaller RETA table does not really matter, until the RETA API works without any trick from the application side.  Is this correct?
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > 
> > > Thanks,
> > > Hanoh
> > > 
> > > 
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Nélio Laranjeiro [mailto:nelio.laranjeiro@6wind.com]
> > > Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2018 10:55 AM
> > > To: Hanoch Haim (hhaim)
> > > Cc: Yongseok Koh; dev@dpdk.org
> > > Subject: Re: [dpdk-dev] mlx5 reta size is dynamic
> > > 
> > > On Thu, Mar 22, 2018 at 06:52:53AM +0000, Hanoch Haim (hhaim) wrote:
> > > > Hi Yongseok,
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > RSS has a DPDK API,application can ask for the reta table size and 
> > > > configure it. In your case you are assuming specific use case and 
> > > > change the size dynamically which solve 90% of the use-cases but 
> > > > break the 10% use-case.
> > > > Instead, you could provide the application a consistent API and 
> > > > with that 100% of the applications can work with no issue. This is 
> > > > what happen with Intel (ixgbe/i40e) Another minor issue the 
> > > > rss_key_size return as zero but internally it is 40 bytes
> > > 
> > > Hi Hanoch,
> > > 
> > > Legacy DPDK API has always considered there is only a single indirection table aka. RETA whereas this is not true [1][2] on this device.
> > > 
> > > On MLX5 there is an indirection table per Hash Rx queue according to the list of queues making part of it.
> > > The Hash Rx queue is configured to make the hash with configured
> > > information:
> > >  - Algorithm,
> > >  - key
> > >  - hash field (Verbs hash field)
> > >  - Indirection table
> > > An Hash Rx queue cannot handle multiple RSS configuration, we have an Hash Rx queue per protocol and thus a full configuration per protocol.
> > > 
> > > In such situation, changing the RETA means stopping the traffic, destroying every single flow, hash Rx queue, indirection table to remake everything with the new configuration.
> > > Until then, we always recommended to any application to restart the port on this device after a RETA update to apply this new configuration.
> > > 
> > > Since the flow API is the new way to configure flows, application should move to this new one instead of using old API for such behavior.
> > > We should also remove such devop from the PMD to avoid any confusion.
> > > 
> > > Regards,
> > > 
> > > > Thanks,
> > > > Hanoh
> > > > 
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > From: Yongseok Koh [mailto:yskoh@mellanox.com]
> > > > Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2018 11:48 PM
> > > > To: Hanoch Haim (hhaim)
> > > > Cc: dev@dpdk.org
> > > > Subject: Re: [dpdk-dev] mlx5 reta size is dynamic
> > > > 
> > > > On Wed, Mar 21, 2018 at 06:56:33PM +0000, Hanoch Haim (hhaim) wrote:
> > > > > Hi mlx5 driver expert,
> > > > > 
> > > > > DPDK: 17.11
> > > > > Any reason mlx5 driver change the rate table size dynamically 
> > > > > based on the rx- queues# ?
> > > > 
> > > > The device only supports 2^n-sized indirection table. For example, if the number of Rx queues is 6, device can't have 1-1 mapping but the size of ind tbl could be 8, 16, 32 and so on. If we configure it as 8 for example, 2 out of 6 queues will have 1/4 of traffic while the rest 4 queues receives 1/8. We thought it was too much disparity and preferred setting the max size in order to mitigate the imbalance.
> > > > 
> > > > > There is a hidden assumption that the user wants to distribute 
> > > > > the packets evenly which is not always correct.
> > > > 
> > > > But it is mostly correct because RSS is used for uniform distribution. The decision wasn't made based on our speculation but by many request from multiple customers.
> > > > 
> > > > > /* If the requested number of RX queues is not a power of two, use the
> > > > >           * maximum indirection table size for better balancing.
> > > > >           * The result is always rounded to the next power of two. */
> > > > >           reta_idx_n = (1 << log2above((rxqs_n & (rxqs_n - 1)) ?
> > > > >                                            priv->ind_table_max_size :
> > > > >                                            rxqs_n));
> > > > 
> > > > Thanks,
> > > > Yongseok
> > > 
> > > [1] https://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2015-October/024668.html
> > > [2] https://dpdk.org/ml/archives/dev/2015-October/024669.html
> > > 
> > > --
> > > Nélio Laranjeiro
> > > 6WIND
> > 
> > --
> > Nélio Laranjeiro
> > 6WIND
> 
> --
> Nélio Laranjeiro
> 6WIND

-- 
Nélio Laranjeiro
6WIND