Re: [dpdk-dev] [PATCH v6 3/4] example/kni: add IOVA support for kni application

[Ferruh Yigit <ferruh.yigit@intel.com>]

On 6/25/2019 4:56 AM, vattunuru@marvell.com wrote:
> From: Vamsi Attunuru <vattunuru@marvell.com>
> 
> Current KNI implementation operates in IOVA = PA mode,
> Patch adds support for IOVA = VA mode by addressing
> the issues with page address translations(IOVA <==> KVA).
> 
> In this patch KNI application creates mempool with
> "MEMPOOL_F_NO_PAGE_BOUND" flag to ensure all mbuf memory
> is with in the page boundaries and subsequently kernel KNI
> module uses iommu_iova_to_phys() and phys_to_virt() APIs
> to get the kernel virtual addresses.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Vamsi Attunuru <vattunuru@marvell.com>
> Signed-off-by: Kiran Kumar K <kirankumark@marvell.com>
> ---
>  examples/kni/main.c                               | 53 ++++++++++++++++++++++-
>  lib/librte_eal/linux/eal/eal.c                    |  8 ----
>  lib/librte_eal/linux/eal/include/rte_kni_common.h |  1 +
>  lib/librte_kni/rte_kni.c                          |  2 +

Need to document this new iova_mode and related behavior in KNI documentation.

<...>

> @@ -975,7 +1026,7 @@ main(int argc, char** argv)
>  		rte_exit(EXIT_FAILURE, "Could not parse input parameters\n");
>  
>  	/* Create the mbuf pool */
> -	pktmbuf_pool = rte_pktmbuf_pool_create("mbuf_pool", NB_MBUF,
> +	pktmbuf_pool = kni_packet_pool_create("mbuf_pool", NB_MBUF,

What about keeping the default mempool creation and use
"kni_packet_pool_create()" only when "iova_mode" is set. (Please read below
comment first J )

<...>

> diff --git a/lib/librte_kni/rte_kni.c b/lib/librte_kni/rte_kni.c
> index 99c4bf5..4263f21 100644
> --- a/lib/librte_kni/rte_kni.c
> +++ b/lib/librte_kni/rte_kni.c
> @@ -300,6 +300,8 @@ rte_kni_alloc(struct rte_mempool *pktmbuf_pool,
>  	kni->group_id = conf->group_id;
>  	kni->mbuf_size = conf->mbuf_size;
>  
> +	dev_info.iova_mode = (rte_eal_iova_mode() == RTE_IOVA_VA) ? 1 : 0;
> +

The application using the "iova_mode" requires a specific mempool requirements,
and just updating sample application won't solve the problem here.

What do you think making "iova_mode" user configurable instead of making it
automatically set in the library? So the application that can justify the
requirement can set the "iova_mode".
And make "iova_mode" disabled by default.

To be able to remove the 'kni' check in the eal, still need to check
'rte_eal_iova_mode()', what about following

a) iova_mode=pa && "rte_eal_iova_mode() == RTE_IOVA_PA" ==> Run KNI
b) iova_mode=pa && "rte_eal_iova_mode() == RTE_IOVA_VA" ==> Return error
c) iova_mode=va && "rte_eal_iova_mode() == RTE_IOVA_PA" ==> Run KNI
d) iova_mode=va && "rte_eal_iova_mode() == RTE_IOVA_VA" ==> Run KNI

For b) the workaround for the user want to run KNI can be user giving eal
parameter to force DPDK to IOVA=PA mode.