[dpdk-dev] KNI with multiple kthreads per port

["JP M." <jpm.dpdk@gmail.com>]

Howdy! First time posting; please be gentle. :-)

Environment:
 * DPDK 1.8.0 release
 * Linux kernel 3.0.3x-ish
 * 32-bit (yes, KNI works fine, after a few tweaks hugepage init strategy)

I'm trying to use the KNI example app with a configuration where multiple
kthreads are created for a physical port. Per the user guide and code, the
first such kthread is the "master", any the only one configurable; I'll
refer to the additional kthread(s) as "slaves", although their relationship
to the master kthread isn't discussed anywhere that I've looked thus far.

# insmod rte_kni.ko kthread_mode=multiple
# kni [....] --config="(0,0,1,2,3)"
# ifconfig vEth0_0 10.0.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0

>From the above: PMD-bound physical port0. Rx/Tx on cores 0 and 1,
respectively. Master thread on core 2, one slave kthread on core 3.  Upon
startup, KNI devices vEth0_0 (master) and vEth0_1 (slave) are created.
After ifconfig, vEth0_0 works fine; by design, vEth0_1 cannot be configured.

The problem I'm encountering is that the subset of packets hitting vEth0_1
are being dropped... somewhere.  They're definitely getting as far as the
call to netif_rx(skb).  I'll try on a newer system for comparison.  But
before I go too much further, I'd like to establish the correct set-up and
expectations.

Should I be bonding vEth0_0 and vEth0_1?  Because I tried doing so (via
sysfs); however, attempts to add either as slaves to bond0 were ignored.

Any ideas appreciated. (Though it may end up being a moot point, with the
other work this past week on KNI performance.)