Re: [dpdk-users] Multiple DPDK application instances on the same machine?

["Templin (US), Fred L" <Fred.L.Templin@boeing.com>]

Many thanks, Keith and Fiona - we will test using your suggestions and see how we
progress from here, but it sounds promising.

Best regards - Fred

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Wiles, Keith [mailto:keith.wiles@intel.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, October 09, 2019 2:54 PM
> To: Trahe, Fiona <fiona.trahe@intel.com>
> Cc: Templin (US), Fred L <Fred.L.Templin@boeing.com>; users <users@dpdk.org>
> Subject: Re: [dpdk-users] Multiple DPDK application instances on the same machine?
> 
> 
> 
> > On Oct 9, 2019, at 12:49 PM, Trahe, Fiona <fiona.trahe@intel.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hi Fred,
> >
> > There may be other ways, but this is what I do:
> > I use --file-prefix <some_unique_name> and -m <some usubset of the total huge pages>
> > so I can run multiple instances of the tests in parallel.
> > e.g.
> > ./dpdk/app/test --file-prefix myProcess1 -m 128  (plus some other options)
> > ./dpdk/app/test --file-prefix myProcess2 -m 128
> >
> > The prefix is used to mark separate memory allocations and the -m limits the amount of memory used by the process so there's
> some available for other processes.
> > Hope this helps
> > Fiona
> 
> Three resources need to be segmented and assigned to each DPDK instance, memory, logical core and devices.
> 
> - With memory the —file-prefix is defining a different set of huge page files by prefixing myProcess1 instead of the default rte_ to
> each huge page file.
> The -m option limits the amount of memory the instance can use, which is the total amount of memory in huge pages divided by the
> number of instances (if each requires the same amount of memory).
> - Logical cores must also be split up among the instances use the -l option
> - If you are using resources like physical ports then you need to give each instance its own set of resources. You will need to --blacklist
> or --whitelist the physical devices for each instance.
> 
> Adding —blacklist (-b) or whitelist (-w) to the command line.
> 
> With ports at PCI address 83:00.0 and 83:00.1 and only those bound to DPDK (igb_uio, vfio, …) if you have more bound to DPDK and
> only using two than blacklist the extra devices.
> 
> Minimum amount of memory require for the two instances below is 256M
> 
> # use 83:00.0 with instance 1
> ./dpdk/app/test -l 1-4 —file-prefix foo1 -m 128 -b 83:00.1
> 
> # use 83:00.1 with instance 2
> ./dpdk/app/test -l 5-8 —file-prefix foo2 -m 128 -b 83:00.0
> 
> You can use whitelist also, just can't use both on the same command line.
> 
> HTH
> 
> >
> >
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: users [mailto:users-bounces@dpdk.org] On Behalf Of Templin (US), Fred L
> >> Sent: Wednesday, October 9, 2019 6:07 PM
> >> To: users <users@dpdk.org>
> >> Subject: [dpdk-users] Multiple DPDK application instances on the same machine?
> >>
> >> Hi, we have a need to run multiple instances of applications that use the DPDK library on the
> >> same machine. We are currently working with only two instances, but can't even get that to
> >> work because the two seem to interfere with each other in terms of mempool creation. In
> >> the future, we are going to want to have many more instances of the app all running in the
> >> same physical/virtual machine. Is there a way to run multiple DPDK-using applications on
> >> the same machine?
> >>
> >> We note that there is only one /sys/kernel/mm/hugepages/ area per machine, and our
> >> instructions were for *each application* to set the number of hugepages. Could it be that
> >> there needs to be a way for the application instances to cooperatively share this area
> >> instead of interfering with one another?
> >>
> >> Thanks - Fred
> 
> Regards,
> Keith