numam-dpdk/doc/guides/sample_app_ug/l2_forward_cat.rst
Keith Wiles 35b09d76f8 doc: use corelist instead of coremask
The coremask option in DPDK is difficult to use and we should be
promoting the use of the corelist (-l) option. The patch
adjusts the docs to use -l EAL option instead of the -c option.

The patch only changes the docs and not the code as the -c option
will continue to exist unless it is removed in the future. The -c
option should be kept to maintain backward compatibility.

Signed-off-by: Keith Wiles <keith.wiles@intel.com>
Acked-by: John McNamara <john.mcnamara@intel.com>
2017-03-01 20:39:58 +01:00

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.. BSD LICENSE
Copyright(c) 2016 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved.
All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
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* Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
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distribution.
* Neither the name of Intel Corporation nor the names of its
contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived
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L2 Forwarding Sample Application with Cache Allocation Technology (CAT)
=======================================================================
Basic Forwarding sample application is a simple *skeleton* example of
a forwarding application. It has been extended to make use of CAT via extended
command line options and linking against the libpqos library.
It is intended as a demonstration of the basic components of a DPDK forwarding
application and use of the libpqos library to program CAT.
For more detailed implementations see the L2 and L3 forwarding
sample applications.
CAT and Code Data Prioritization (CDP) features allow management of the CPU's
last level cache. CAT introduces classes of service (COS) that are essentially
bitmasks. In current CAT implementations, a bit in a COS bitmask corresponds to
one cache way in last level cache.
A CPU core is always assigned to one of the CAT classes.
By programming CPU core assignment and COS bitmasks, applications can be given
exclusive, shared, or mixed access to the CPU's last level cache.
CDP extends CAT so that there are two bitmasks per COS,
one for data and one for code.
The number of classes and number of valid bits in a COS bitmask is CPU model
specific and COS bitmasks need to be contiguous. Sample code calls this bitmask
``cbm`` or capacity bitmask.
By default, after reset, all CPU cores are assigned to COS 0 and all classes
are programmed to allow fill into all cache ways.
CDP is off by default.
For more information about CAT please see:
* https://github.com/01org/intel-cmt-cat
White paper demonstrating example use case:
* `Increasing Platform Determinism with Platform Quality of Service for the Data Plane Development Kit <http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/communications/increasing-platform-determinism-pqos-dpdk-white-paper.html>`_
Compiling the Application
-------------------------
Requires ``libpqos`` from Intel's
`intel-cmt-cat software package <https://github.com/01org/intel-cmt-cat>`_
hosted on GitHub repository. For installation notes, please see ``README`` file.
GIT:
* https://github.com/01org/intel-cmt-cat
To compile the application export the path to PQoS lib
and the DPDK source tree and go to the example directory:
.. code-block:: console
export PQOS_INSTALL_PATH=/path/to/libpqos
export RTE_SDK=/path/to/rte_sdk
cd ${RTE_SDK}/examples/l2fwd-cat
Set the target, for example:
.. code-block:: console
export RTE_TARGET=x86_64-native-linuxapp-gcc
See the *DPDK Getting Started* Guide for possible ``RTE_TARGET`` values.
Build the application as follows:
.. code-block:: console
make
Running the Application
-----------------------
To run the example in a ``linuxapp`` environment and enable CAT on cpus 0-2:
.. code-block:: console
./build/l2fwd-cat -l 1 -n 4 -- --l3ca="0x3@(0-2)"
or to enable CAT and CDP on cpus 1,3:
.. code-block:: console
./build/l2fwd-cat -l 1 -n 4 -- --l3ca="(0x00C00,0x00300)@(1,3)"
If CDP is not supported it will fail with following error message:
.. code-block:: console
PQOS: CDP requested but not supported.
PQOS: Requested CAT configuration is not valid!
PQOS: Shutting down PQoS library...
EAL: Error - exiting with code: 1
Cause: PQOS: L3CA init failed!
The option to enable CAT is:
* ``--l3ca='<common_cbm@cpus>[,<(code_cbm,data_cbm)@cpus>...]'``:
where ``cbm`` stands for capacity bitmask and must be expressed in
hexadecimal form.
``common_cbm`` is a single mask, for a CDP enabled system, a group of two
masks (``code_cbm`` and ``data_cbm``) is used.
``(`` and ``)`` are necessary if it's a group.
``cpus`` could be a single digit/range or a group and must be expressed in
decimal form.
``(`` and ``)`` are necessary if it's a group.
e.g. ``--l3ca='0x00F00@(1,3),0x0FF00@(4-6),0xF0000@7'``
* cpus 1 and 3 share its 4 ways with cpus 4, 5 and 6;
* cpus 4, 5 and 6 share half (4 out of 8 ways) of its L3 with cpus 1 and 3;
* cpus 4, 5 and 6 have exclusive access to 4 out of 8 ways;
* cpu 7 has exclusive access to all of its 4 ways;
e.g. ``--l3ca='(0x00C00,0x00300)@(1,3)'`` for CDP enabled system
* cpus 1 and 3 have access to 2 ways for code and 2 ways for data, code and
data ways are not overlapping.
Refer to *DPDK Getting Started Guide* for general information on running
applications and the Environment Abstraction Layer (EAL) options.
To reset or list CAT configuration and control CDP please use ``pqos`` tool
from Intel's
`intel-cmt-cat software package <https://github.com/01org/intel-cmt-cat>`_.
To enabled or disable CDP:
.. code-block:: console
sudo ./pqos -S cdp-on
sudo ./pqos -S cdp-off
to reset CAT configuration:
.. code-block:: console
sudo ./pqos -R
to list CAT config:
.. code-block:: console
sudo ./pqos -s
For more info about ``pqos`` tool please see its man page or
`intel-cmt-cat wiki <https://github.com/01org/intel-cmt-cat/wiki>`_.
Explanation
-----------
The following sections provide an explanation of the main components of the
code.
All DPDK library functions used in the sample code are prefixed with ``rte_``
and are explained in detail in the *DPDK API Documentation*.
The Main Function
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The ``main()`` function performs the initialization and calls the execution
threads for each lcore.
The first task is to initialize the Environment Abstraction Layer (EAL). The
``argc`` and ``argv`` arguments are provided to the ``rte_eal_init()``
function. The value returned is the number of parsed arguments:
.. code-block:: c
int ret = rte_eal_init(argc, argv);
if (ret < 0)
rte_exit(EXIT_FAILURE, "Error with EAL initialization\n");
The next task is to initialize the PQoS library and configure CAT. The
``argc`` and ``argv`` arguments are provided to the ``cat_init()``
function. The value returned is the number of parsed arguments:
.. code-block:: c
int ret = cat_init(argc, argv);
if (ret < 0)
rte_exit(EXIT_FAILURE, "PQOS: L3CA init failed!\n");
``cat_init()`` is a wrapper function which parses the command, validates
the requested parameters and configures CAT accordingly.
Parsing of command line arguments is done in ``parse_args(...)``.
libpqos is then initialized with the ``pqos_init(...)`` call. Next, libpqos is
queried for system CPU information and L3CA capabilities via
``pqos_cap_get(...)`` and ``pqos_cap_get_type(..., PQOS_CAP_TYPE_L3CA, ...)``
calls. When all capability and topology information is collected, the requested
CAT configuration is validated. A check is then performed (on per socket basis)
for a sufficient number of un-associated COS. COS are selected and
configured via the ``pqos_l3ca_set(...)`` call. Finally, COS are associated to
relevant CPUs via ``pqos_l3ca_assoc_set(...)`` calls.
``atexit(...)`` is used to register ``cat_exit(...)`` to be called on
a clean exit. ``cat_exit(...)`` performs a simple CAT clean-up, by associating
COS 0 to all involved CPUs via ``pqos_l3ca_assoc_set(...)`` calls.