Re: Intel QAT 8970 accel card on ARM Ampere Server

["Juraj Linkeš" <juraj.linkes@pantheon.tech>]

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We've talked about this some more and the best way to move forward is to
rebuild the ubuntu kernel. It should be fairly straightforward
according to their
wiki page <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/BuildYourOwnKernel>. The page
mentions a fairly old release (19.04), but was updated a year ago so the
instructions are likely still valid.

However, I don't have the link to the kernel patch that Honnappa
mentioned. @Honnappa
Nagarahalli <Honnappa.Nagarahalli@arm.com> @Ruifeng Wang
<Ruifeng.Wang@arm.com>, can you please provide a reference for the patch?

Since the patch is small, there shouldn't be problems with applying it. Let
us know whether this is doable.

Regards,
Juraj

On Fri, Aug 4, 2023 at 11:48 AM Ruifeng Wang <Ruifeng.Wang@arm.com> wrote:

> Hi Patrick,
>
>
>
> Thanks for reaching out and my apologies for delayed response.
>
>
>
> We noticed that some information is missing regarding using QAT with DPDK
> on Arm.
>
> The DPDK document will be updated to include the missing part.
>
> Will get back on this later.
>
>
>
> Best regards,
>
> Ruifeng
>
>
>
> *From:* Patrick Robb <probb@iol.unh.edu>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, August 1, 2023 1:14 AM
> *To:* Ruifeng Wang <Ruifeng.Wang@arm.com>; Honnappa Nagarahalli <
> Honnappa.Nagarahalli@arm.com>; Juraj Linkeš <juraj.linkes@pantheon.tech>
> *Cc:* Dharmik Jayesh Thakkar <DharmikJayesh.Thakkar@arm.com>; ci@dpdk.org
> *Subject:* Intel QAT 8970 accel card on ARM Ampere Server
>
>
>
> Hi Ruifeng, Honnappa, Juraj,
>
>
>
> The Intel QAT 8970 accelerator card has arrived to the Community Lab, and
> we've installed it on the Ampere server. Presumably, we should test both
> crypto and compress operations (and their respective performance metrics).
> To that end, there are also DTS testsuites for testing QAT crypto/compress
> functions. These testsuites make use of the crypto perf dpdk app and the
> compress perf dpdk app. If you want, you can setup the DTS stuff yourself,
> both on the system side, and the Jenkins side (you are allowed to submit
> PRs on our gitlab now), but we can also do that on the lab side as we
> probably have more experience. I do, however, have a question about the QAT
> kernel driver and corresponding PMDs.
>
>
>
> compress suite:
> https://git.dpdk.org/tools/dts/tree/test_plans/compressdev_qat_pmd_test_plan.rst
>
> crypto suite:
> https://git.dpdk.org/tools/dts/tree/test_plans/crypto_perf_cryptodev_perf_test_plan.rst
>
>
>
> For reference, the DPDK docs page explaining QAT driver capabilities and
> building the QAT PMDs (crypto sym, crypto asym, and compress) is here:
> https://doc.dpdk.org/guides/cryptodevs/qat.html#building-qat
>
> Some notes before I get to my main question:
>
> -The 8970 is a C62x device
>
> -OpenSSL (arm requires it for QAT) is installed
>
> -3 PFs are visible from lspci (expected)
>
> -SRIOV is enabled
>
>
>
> However, although the system is on a valid kernel version for the QAT
> driver, the kernel module for QAT is not loaded, so in trying to set up
> testing, I am unable to create the 16 VFs for the 3 PFs respectively, like
> the example below:
>
>
>
> echo 16 > /sys/bus/pci/drivers/c6xx/(pci address)/sriov_numvfs
> echo 16 > /sys/bus/pci/drivers/c6xx/(pci address)/sriov_numvfs
> echo 16 > /sys/bus/pci/drivers/c6xx/(pci address)/sriov_numvfs
>
>
>
> There is also an option to download the firmware from the kernel firmware
> repo and copy the qat binaries to /lib/firmware and start the qat modules
> from there. I wasn't able to resolve the situation with this method, but it
> also could have been user error on my part.
>
>
>
> There is an option to install using the IDZ QAT Driver
> <https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/topic-technology/open/quick-assist-technology/overview.html>,
> but it should not be required given the kernel version the Ampere server is
> on, and I don't want to go down the road of relying on this "fall back"
> method without consulting you first. Is it possible that there is anything
> specific to running a QAT device on ARM specifically which I am missing
> here? The DTS testsuite testplans actually seem to recommend going down
> this road in general, but the DPDK docs say to use the kernel driver, so I
> don't know.
>
>
>
> In any case, one of you should be able to login to the Ampere server in
> situations like this, or just in general. Ruifeng/Juraj I see you both have
> accounts on our IdM system, so you should have access. Please let me know
> if you need renewed vpn cert configs and I will send you one. If you do
> login, know this system could be running CI testing at any time. I can
> always schedule time for it to be offline and available for maintenance if
> you want to do anything which could be disruptive to testing.
>
>
>
> I also CC'd Dharmik on this as I see he sent an email regarding QAT
> support on aarch64 in June.
>
>
>
> Let me know if you have any thoughts on the QAT kernel driver part.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Patrick
>

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