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| author | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2026-08-30 09:22:00 -0700 |
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| committer | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2026-08-30 09:22:00 -0700 |
| commit | 034dd340b08be1f2f0477ad16131d609f9dbd53c (patch) | |
| tree | 2536f4b2d7893ccd916b5abdf3c454ad6edc03c2 /Documentation/networking/multi-pf-netdev.rst | |
| download | linux-stable-034dd340b08be1f2f0477ad16131d609f9dbd53c.tar.gz linux-stable-034dd340b08be1f2f0477ad16131d609f9dbd53c.zip | |
Merge tag 'trace-v7.3-2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-tracegrafted
Pull tracing fixes from Steven Rostedt:
- Fix error output of boot instance creation failure
Currently if a boot instance creation fails, instead of printing out
the name of the instance that failed, it prints "(null)". That is
because it prints "cur_str" that had already been processed by
strsep(). Print the saved name instead.
While at it, print the error code of the failure.
- Fix use-after-free for same named historgrams
Histograms can be named so that they can be used in multiple events.
But if the named histogram has a variable attached, the second event
that uses the named histogram which duplicates it and needs to free
the original after duplication leaves the old variable in place and
still visible. If another histogram uses than variable, it will use
the stale one which will try to reference the freed duplicate
histogram and crash the kernel.
Free the duplicate variables along with the duplicated histogram
data.
- Check return value of kthread_run() in event self test
The events self tests uses a kthread for testing but does not check
if it succeeded in creating a kthread. If the kthread creation were
to fail, the code will still try to call kthread_stop() on the error
returned.
- Fix race between reading trace_pipe and updating subbuffer size
If a user is reading the trace_pipe file at the same time they update
the ring buffer sub-buffer size, can cause the trace_pipe read to
read stale data. Add trace_access_lock() around updating the ring
buffer sub-buffer size.
- Fix eventfs_inode on failure path in creation of the events directory
In the creation of the "events" directory, if after allocating the
eventfs_inode a failure is detected, it calls cleanup_ei() which
calls free_ei(). The free_ei() will test if eventfs_inode being freed
has no children. It is a bug if it does. But on the failure case of
the creation of the "events" directory, the children lists have not
yet been initialized and the free will trigger a warning because
list_empty() on an uninitialized list returns false.
Move the initialization into init_ei() where it makes more sense and
makes sure that a created eventfs_inode has its lists initialized
upon creation.
- Check return value of kthread_run() in ftrace direct sample code
The sample code that shows how to use the ftrace direct calls does
not test the return of kthread_run() to see if it succeeds. Return a
failure if the kthread_run() doesn't succeed.
- Clear user events state on fork in case of alloc failure
On fork, the child gets a pointer to the parent's user events state.
It makes a copy of it then updates the child's pointer to it. But if
the allocation fails, the duplication function leaves the child with
a pointer to its parent's descriptor. When the child cleans up its
data, it will free the parent's descriptor while the parent is still
using it.
In the duplication function, set the child's user_event_mm to NULL
before testing if the allocation succeeded, and when it exits it will
not free the parent's descriptor.
- Fix retry exhaustion in simple ring buffer reader swap
simple_ring_buffer_swap_reader_page() starts with retry set to 8 and
post-decrements it only after a failed link replacement. On the final
attempt, a successful replacement leaves retry at zero, while a
failed replacement leaves it at -1.
But the check for success expects the retry value to be non-zero and
exits with an error on zero. This is the opposite result. Fix it.
- Fail nicely when the remote swap_reader_page() returns an error
Currently, if the swap_reader_page() of a remote buffer fails, it
triggers a WARN_ON_ONCE() and continues normally. Instead, have it
exit with an error and a pr_warn() print instead of a full WARNING.
* tag 'trace-v7.3-2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-trace:
ring-buffer: Stop remote reader update when page swap fails
tracing: Fix retry exhaustion in simple ring buffer reader swap
tracing/user_events: Clear copied tracing state before fork duplication
samples/ftrace: Fix kthread_stop() on ERR_PTR in ftrace-direct-multi-modify
samples/ftrace: Fix kthread_stop() on ERR_PTR in ftrace-direct-modify
eventfs: Initialize ei->children and ei->list in init_ei()
tracing: Fix use-after-free in trace_pipe read on sub-buffer order change
tracing: Fix crash passing ERR_PTR to kthread_stop()
tracing: Fix use-after-free with same-name named triggers
tracing: Fix logged instance name on creation failure
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/networking/multi-pf-netdev.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/networking/multi-pf-netdev.rst | 174 |
1 files changed, 174 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/networking/multi-pf-netdev.rst b/Documentation/networking/multi-pf-netdev.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..2f5a5bb3c --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/networking/multi-pf-netdev.rst @@ -0,0 +1,174 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 +.. include:: <isonum.txt> + +=============== +Multi-PF Netdev +=============== + +Contents +======== + +- `Background`_ +- `Overview`_ +- `mlx5 implementation`_ +- `Channels distribution`_ +- `Observability`_ +- `Steering`_ +- `Mutually exclusive features`_ + +Background +========== + +The Multi-PF NIC technology enables several CPUs within a multi-socket server to connect directly to +the network, each through its own dedicated PCIe interface. Through either a connection harness that +splits the PCIe lanes between two cards or by bifurcating a PCIe slot for a single card. This +results in eliminating the network traffic traversing over the internal bus between the sockets, +significantly reducing overhead and latency, in addition to reducing CPU utilization and increasing +network throughput. + +Overview +======== + +The feature adds support for combining multiple PFs of the same port in a Multi-PF environment under +one netdev instance. It is implemented in the netdev layer. Lower-layer instances like pci func, +sysfs entry, and devlink are kept separate. +Passing traffic through different devices belonging to different NUMA sockets saves cross-NUMA +traffic and allows apps running on the same netdev from different NUMAs to still feel a sense of +proximity to the device and achieve improved performance. + +mlx5 implementation +=================== + +Multi-PF or Socket-direct in mlx5 is achieved by grouping PFs together which belong to the same +NIC and has the socket-direct property enabled, once all PFs are probed, we create a single netdev +to represent all of them, symmetrically, we destroy the netdev whenever any of the PFs is removed. + +The netdev network channels are distributed between all devices, a proper configuration would utilize +the correct close NUMA node when working on a certain app/CPU. + +We pick one PF to be a primary (leader), and it fills a special role. The other devices +(secondaries) are disconnected from the network at the chip level (set to silent mode). In silent +mode, no south <-> north traffic flowing directly through a secondary PF. It needs the assistance of +the leader PF (east <-> west traffic) to function. All Rx/Tx traffic is steered through the primary +to/from the secondaries. + +Currently, we limit the support to PFs only, and up to two PFs (sockets). + +Channels distribution +===================== + +We distribute the channels between the different PFs to achieve local NUMA node performance +on multiple NUMA nodes. + +Each combined channel works against one specific PF, creating all its datapath queues against it. We +distribute channels to PFs in a round-robin policy. + +:: + + Example for 2 PFs and 5 channels: + +--------+--------+ + | ch idx | PF idx | + +--------+--------+ + | 0 | 0 | + | 1 | 1 | + | 2 | 0 | + | 3 | 1 | + | 4 | 0 | + +--------+--------+ + + +The reason we prefer round-robin is, it is less influenced by changes in the number of channels. The +mapping between a channel index and a PF is fixed, no matter how many channels the user configures. +As the channel stats are persistent across channel's closure, changing the mapping every single time +would turn the accumulative stats less representing of the channel's history. + +This is achieved by using the correct core device instance (mdev) in each channel, instead of them +all using the same instance under "priv->mdev". + +Observability +============= +The relation between PF, irq, napi, and queue can be observed via netlink spec:: + + $ ./tools/net/ynl/pyynl/cli.py --spec Documentation/netlink/specs/netdev.yaml --dump queue-get --json='{"ifindex": 13}' + [{'id': 0, 'ifindex': 13, 'napi-id': 539, 'type': 'rx'}, + {'id': 1, 'ifindex': 13, 'napi-id': 540, 'type': 'rx'}, + {'id': 2, 'ifindex': 13, 'napi-id': 541, 'type': 'rx'}, + {'id': 3, 'ifindex': 13, 'napi-id': 542, 'type': 'rx'}, + {'id': 4, 'ifindex': 13, 'napi-id': 543, 'type': 'rx'}, + {'id': 0, 'ifindex': 13, 'napi-id': 539, 'type': 'tx'}, + {'id': 1, 'ifindex': 13, 'napi-id': 540, 'type': 'tx'}, + {'id': 2, 'ifindex': 13, 'napi-id': 541, 'type': 'tx'}, + {'id': 3, 'ifindex': 13, 'napi-id': 542, 'type': 'tx'}, + {'id': 4, 'ifindex': 13, 'napi-id': 543, 'type': 'tx'}] + + $ ./tools/net/ynl/pyynl/cli.py --spec Documentation/netlink/specs/netdev.yaml --dump napi-get --json='{"ifindex": 13}' + [{'id': 543, 'ifindex': 13, 'irq': 42}, + {'id': 542, 'ifindex': 13, 'irq': 41}, + {'id': 541, 'ifindex': 13, 'irq': 40}, + {'id': 540, 'ifindex': 13, 'irq': 39}, + {'id': 539, 'ifindex': 13, 'irq': 36}] + +Here you can clearly observe our channels distribution policy:: + + $ ls /proc/irq/{36,39,40,41,42}/mlx5* -d -1 + /proc/irq/36/mlx5_comp0@pci:0000:08:00.0 + /proc/irq/39/mlx5_comp0@pci:0000:09:00.0 + /proc/irq/40/mlx5_comp1@pci:0000:08:00.0 + /proc/irq/41/mlx5_comp1@pci:0000:09:00.0 + /proc/irq/42/mlx5_comp2@pci:0000:08:00.0 + +Steering +======== +Secondary PFs are set to "silent" mode, meaning they are disconnected from the network. + +In Rx, the steering tables belong to the primary PF only, and it is its role to distribute incoming +traffic to other PFs, via cross-vhca steering capabilities. Still maintain a single default RSS table, +that is capable of pointing to the receive queues of a different PF. + +In Tx, the primary PF creates a new Tx flow table, which is aliased by the secondaries, so they can +go out to the network through it. + +In addition, we set default XPS configuration that, based on the CPU, selects an SQ belonging to the +PF on the same node as the CPU. + +XPS default config example: + +NUMA node(s): 2 +NUMA node0 CPU(s): 0-11 +NUMA node1 CPU(s): 12-23 + +PF0 on node0, PF1 on node1. + +- /sys/class/net/eth2/queues/tx-0/xps_cpus:000001 +- /sys/class/net/eth2/queues/tx-1/xps_cpus:001000 +- /sys/class/net/eth2/queues/tx-2/xps_cpus:000002 +- /sys/class/net/eth2/queues/tx-3/xps_cpus:002000 +- /sys/class/net/eth2/queues/tx-4/xps_cpus:000004 +- /sys/class/net/eth2/queues/tx-5/xps_cpus:004000 +- /sys/class/net/eth2/queues/tx-6/xps_cpus:000008 +- /sys/class/net/eth2/queues/tx-7/xps_cpus:008000 +- /sys/class/net/eth2/queues/tx-8/xps_cpus:000010 +- /sys/class/net/eth2/queues/tx-9/xps_cpus:010000 +- /sys/class/net/eth2/queues/tx-10/xps_cpus:000020 +- /sys/class/net/eth2/queues/tx-11/xps_cpus:020000 +- /sys/class/net/eth2/queues/tx-12/xps_cpus:000040 +- /sys/class/net/eth2/queues/tx-13/xps_cpus:040000 +- /sys/class/net/eth2/queues/tx-14/xps_cpus:000080 +- /sys/class/net/eth2/queues/tx-15/xps_cpus:080000 +- /sys/class/net/eth2/queues/tx-16/xps_cpus:000100 +- /sys/class/net/eth2/queues/tx-17/xps_cpus:100000 +- /sys/class/net/eth2/queues/tx-18/xps_cpus:000200 +- /sys/class/net/eth2/queues/tx-19/xps_cpus:200000 +- /sys/class/net/eth2/queues/tx-20/xps_cpus:000400 +- /sys/class/net/eth2/queues/tx-21/xps_cpus:400000 +- /sys/class/net/eth2/queues/tx-22/xps_cpus:000800 +- /sys/class/net/eth2/queues/tx-23/xps_cpus:800000 + +Mutually exclusive features +=========================== + +The nature of Multi-PF, where different channels work with different PFs, conflicts with +stateful features where the state is maintained in one of the PFs. +For example, in the TLS device-offload feature, special context objects are created per connection +and maintained in the PF. Transitioning between different RQs/SQs would break the feature. Hence, +we disable this combination for now. |
