Howto: DPDK with LKL

This wiki page describes how to prepare, setup, and use Intel DPDK software with LKL. Since DPDK support in LKL is still not stable, which means you may need a couple of manual instructions to use it, the wiki is for the record of a particular experience during the development of this feature.

• Tested Environment
• Fedora 23 64bits
• Intel DPDK v2.2.0 (from git)
• on VMware Fusion with vmxnet3 driver (ethernet0.virtualDev = "vmxnet3" in .vmx)

Limitation

• only tested dpdk-2.2.0, on vmxnet3 driver.
• e1000/e1000e weren't working (it gives Error reading from file descriptor Input/output error) on VMWare Fusion 6.0.x

Todo

• to implement RX interrupt mode PMD (but vmxnet3 doesn't support in 2.2.0, while e1000 supports) for efficient CPU usage

how to build it

• Build DPDK

cd tools/lkl
./scripts/dpdk-sdk-build.sh

• Build LKL

make dpdk=yes

How to configure dpdk

sudo modprobe uio
sudo insmod dpdk-2.2.0/build/kmod/igb_uio.ko

# setup hugepage (follow an instruction in the menu after setup.sh)
sudo ./dpdk-2.2.0/tools/setup.sh

# check your NIC's address
sudo ./dpdk-2.2.0/tools/dpdk_nic_bind.py --status
# disable your NIC
sudo ifconfig eth0 down
# Unbind your NIC driver
sudo ./dpdk-2.2.0/tools/dpdk_nic_bind.py -u 0000:03:00.0
# Bind your NIC driver for DPDK
sudo ./dpdk-2.2.0/tools/dpdk_nic_bind.py -b igb_uio 0000:03:00.0