Tip

This is the documentation for the 24.06 version. Looking for the documentation of the latest version? Have a look here.

Setup NICs in Dataplane

Next, determine the device ID for the interfaces. Start the CLI (Entering the TNSR CLI) and run the following command to output the device IDs as seen by the dataplane:

tnsr# configure
tnsr(config)# dataplane dpdk dev ?
  0000:02:01.0           Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet
    Controller (Copper) (rev 01) ( Active Interface eth0 )
  0000:02:02.0           Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet
    Controller (Copper) (rev 01)
  0000:02:03.0           Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet
    Controller (Copper) (rev 01)

Interfaces under host control will be noted in the output with Active Interface. Other listed interfaces are usable by TNSR.

Note

The best practice is to always define every interface required for use in the dataplane, even if only changing their names.

Host Interface Name to Dataplane ID Mapping

The output of the dataplane dpdk dev ? command includes the device IDs in the first column. The device IDs will map to the network cards in a way that is typically easy to determine. For example:

Interface Identifiers

Interface

Identifier

enp0s20f0

0000:00:14.0

enp0s20f1

0000:00:14.1

enp0s20f2

0000:00:14.2

enp0s20f3

0000:00:14.3

enp3s0

0000:03:00.0

enp4s0

0000:04:00.0

The host OS interface name and VPP identifiers contain the same information represented in different ways. They both reference the PCI bus number, slot number, and function number. The Interface name contains the values in decimal while the identifier shown in VPP uses hexadecimal.

Deconstructing the first interface name, it contains the following:

Interface Name Components

Component

Interface Value

VPP ID Value

Device Type

en (Ethernet)

n/a

PCI Bus

p0

00

Bus Slot

s20

14 (Decimal 20 in Hex)

Function

f0

.0

Using this pattern, make a note of the VPP identifiers for the next step. In this example, since enp0s20f1 and enp0s20f2 are the interfaces to use, the corresponding VPP IDs are 0000:00:14.1 and 0000:00:14.2.

Configuring Interfaces for TNSR

Next, edit the dataplane configuration. Start the CLI (Entering the TNSR CLI) and enter configuration mode:

tnsr# configure
tnsr(config)#

There are two ways to proceed from here. First is to define only the interfaces TNSR will use individually. To do this, add the device IDs of the interfaces to be used by the VPP dataplane, determined previously:

tnsr(config)# dataplane dpdk dev 0000:00:14.1 network
tnsr(config)# dataplane dpdk dev 0000:00:14.2 network

Alternately, use the directive to automatically define entries for all interfaces not in use by the host OS:

tnsr(config)# dataplane dpdk dev all-inactive-network

This command will iterate over all available interfaces and add entries for unused interfaces automatically. When finished, the configuration is the same as if they had been individually defined manually.

tnsr(config)# dataplane dpdk dev all-inactive-network
dataplane dpdk dev 0000:00:14.0
dataplane dpdk dev 0000:00:14.1
dataplane dpdk dev 0000:00:14.2
dataplane dpdk dev 0000:00:14.3
        # skip     0000:03:00.0 - active host interface enp3s0
dataplane dpdk dev 0000:04:00.0
Changes to dataplane startup settings require a dataplane restart to take effect.
tnsr(config)# show configuration running cli cfgfile | match network
dataplane dpdk dev 0000:00:14.0 network
dataplane dpdk dev 0000:00:14.1 network
dataplane dpdk dev 0000:00:14.2 network
dataplane dpdk dev 0000:00:14.3 network
dataplane dpdk dev 0000:04:00.0 network

Note

While this option is faster for getting the interfaces into TNSR with minimal typing, if administrators will be using custom names for interfaces they must still be added individually. See Customizing Interface Names later in this document.

No matter which method added the interfaces to the configuration, activating the interfaces requires a restart of the dataplane:

tnsr(config)# service dataplane restart
tnsr(config)# exit

The interfaces will now be available for TNSR. Now run show interface and verify that the interfaces appear in the output.

The output example below has been shortened for brevity:

tnsr# show interface
Interface: GigabitEthernet0/14/1
[...]
Interface: GigabitEthernet0/14/2
[...]
Interface: local0
[...]

The TNSR interface name also reflects the type, followed by the PCI Bus/Slot/Function ID of each interface, using the same hexadecimal notation as VPP.

Note

The dataplane uses hexadecimal values by default but can use decimal values instead by setting dataplane dpdk decimal-interface-names. See DPDK Configuration for details.

Note

Once TNSR attaches to interfaces in this way, they will no longer be shown as devices in the host OS. To return a network interface back to host OS control, see Remove TNSR NIC for Host Use.

One exception to this behavior is Mellanox network interfaces as they use the same driver for both host OS and DPDK, they still appear in the host OS.

See also

The dataplane supports several additional per-device parameters which can fine-tune behavior. See DPDK Configuration for details.

Customizing Interface Names

The default interface names, such as GigabitEthernet0/14/1, may be customized by an administrator. To customize the names, the PCI ID of the device must be known. The custom names can be used anywhere that an interface name is necessary in TNSR.

Note

Only dataplane hardware interface names may be customized in this way. Interfaces from virtual sources such as loopback, IPsec, and GRE cannot be renamed.

The command to rename interfaces is dataplane dpdk dev <pci-id> network name <name>. To activate the change, the dataplane must be restarted after making the name change.

Warning

Custom interface names cannot conflict with reserved keywords in the dataplane. TNSR will return a warning and prevent use of a conflicting name. Conflicting names include items such as dataplane graph node names both directly and indirectly. New nodes are created based on interface names with suffixes such as <name>-tx and <name>-output so TNSR checks for potential collisions there as well.

This example changes the name of GigabitEthernet0/14/1, PCI ID 0000:00:14.1, to DMZ:

First, look at the list of interfaces. Note that the interface is in the list with its original name:

tnsr# show interface
Interface: GigabitEthernet0/14/1
[...]
Interface: GigabitEthernet0/14/2
[...]
Interface: local0
[...]

Next, remove any references to the interface from TNSR, and then remove the interface configuration entirely:

tnsr(config)# no interface GigabitEthernet0/14/1

Now set the name of the device, then restart the dataplane:

tnsr(config)# dataplane dpdk dev 0000:00:14.1 network name DMZ
tnsr(config)# service dataplane restart

After the dataplane restarts, the interface will appear in the list with its new name:

tnsr# show interface
Interface: DMZ
[...]
Interface: GigabitEthernet0/14/2
[...]
Interface: local0
[...]

To change the name back at a later time, all references to the interface must first be removed, and then the name can be reset:

tnsr(config)# no interface DMZ
tnsr(config)# no dataplane dpdk dev 0000:00:14.1 name
tnsr(config)# service dataplane restart

Interface Driver Management

Depending on the hardware, changing the interface driver may be necessary to either see the interfaces at all or to achieve better performance.

See also

For a description of the available drivers, see Interface Drivers.

Check Current Driver

To check the current driver, see what is present in the configuration:

tnsr(config)# show configuration running cli cfgfile
[...]
dataplane dpdk uio-driver igb_uio

If there is no dataplane dpdk uio-driver, then it would use the current default driver which is vfio-pci.

Check Driver List

To see a list of available drivers, use the following command from config mode:

tnsr(config)# dataplane dpdk uio-driver ?
  igb_uio               UIO igb driver
  uio_pci_generic       Generic UIO driver
  vfio-pci              VFIO driver

Change Interface Driver

To enable a different driver, complete the command using the chosen driver name, restart the dataplane.

tnsr(config)# dataplane dpdk uio-driver igb_uio
tnsr(config)# service dataplane restart
tnsr(config)# exit

Then attempt to view the interfaces with show interface again. If they are listed, then the correct driver is now active. If not, save the running configuration to the startup configuration and reboot so the driver can try attaching at startup. If the interfaces still do not appear, try another driver.

Warning

When using the vfio-pci driver, the DPDK IOVA mode must be explicitly set to pa. See vfio-pci.

tnsr(config)# dataplane dpdk iova-mode pa
tnsr(config)# dataplane dpdk uio-driver vfio-pci
tnsr(config)# service dataplane restart
tnsr(config)# exit

Troubleshooting

Dataplane Interface(s) Missing

If one or more expected interfaces do not appear in the show interface output, the current driver did not attach to those interfaces.

The two most common reasons this happens are:

Note

Mellanox devices use RDMA and not UIO, so changing the driver may not have any effect on their behavior. If a Mellanox device does not appear automatically, TNSR may not support that device.