[dpdk-dev] Binding NICs while running DPDK app

[Daniele Di Proietto <daniele.di.proietto@gmail.com>]

Hi,

I would like to implement a scenario like the following:

- Some NICs are bound to the igb_uio driver
- A DPDK application is started and it sends/receives packet to/from those NICs.
- Another set of NICs are bound to the igb_uio driver.
- The same DPDK application continues processing packets from the old
NICs and starts processing packets from the new NICs as well.

I have done some tests and the DPDK application sees the new NICs
after a call to rte_eal_pci_probe(). Though I'm having some question:

- Can I call rte_eal_pci_probe() whenever I want? Will it interfere
with existing NICs' operations? (the documentation doesn't say much
about that)
- Will it work with DPDK 1.7 and DPDK 1.8? I'm asking because I've
noticed that in DPDK 1.7 rte_eal_pci_probe() checks if a NIC is
already registered, while in DPDK 1.8 this check has been removed.

I've seen that there's some work towards proper hotplug support, but I
was hoping to get the above (just adding, no removals) working with
current DPDK releases.

Thanks,

Daniele Di Proietto