[dpdk-users] XL710 KVM SR-IOV 4ms/8ms Latency

[Stefan Baranoff <sbaranoff@gmail.com>]

All,

We're seeing an odd 8ms latency under low load through a virtualized DPDK
application. Even a very simple, basic, l2fwd style application exhibits
this behavior. Our environment is:

Host:
  CentOS 7.4 - fully updated
  2 x Intel Gold 6148 CPU
  384 GB of RAM in 12 x 32GB configuration
  Intel XL710 NIC configured for SR-IOV using host PF (driver is CentOS
default version)

Guest:
  KVM (libvirt) based - cpu mode = host-model, features = acpi, apic, pae
  CentOS 7.4 - full updated
  8 logic cores
  32 GB of RAM
  2 DPDK NICs are SR-IOV XL710 VFs passed through

Running a single ICMP echo request/response (ping) through an l2fwd
equivalent on the VM results in mostly 8ms RTTs with a few sub-1ms RTTs.
Switching to a Linux bridge we see sub-1ms latencies.

Using the physical function on the physical host with the same application
we do not see such latency.

Any ideas?


Thanks,
Stefan