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  1. OpenShift Request For Enhancement
  2. RFE-7587

Enable and Document DPDK Support for VMs on OpenShift Virtualization using VirtIO (Non-SRIOV)

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      Currently, the documented and officially supported method for using DPDK with VMs on OpenShift Virtualization relies on SRIOV [1]. This imposes a requirement for specific SRIOV-capable NIC hardware and can add complexity to the deployment and management of network-intensive VMs. Alternative virtualization platforms, such as VMware, support DPDK effectively using paravirtualized drivers like VMXNET3 without requiring SRIOV [2]. The VirtIO driver, used by OpenShift Virtualization, also has documented DPDK support [3], but it looks like this has not been formally tested, documented, or supported for OpenShift Virtualization.

      2. Motivation / User Benefits:
      Implementing and supporting DPDK via VirtIO would:

      • Increase Hardware Flexibility: Allow users to run DPDK workloads on hardware that does not support SRIOV or where SRIOV VFs are limited.
      • Reduce Complexity: Potentially simplify the setup and configuration of DPDK-enabled VMs compared to SRIOV.
      • Lower Potential Costs: Reduce the need for specialized SRIOV NICs.
      • Broaden Adoption: Make OpenShift Virtualization a more versatile platform for various Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and other high-performance packet processing applications.

      3. Proposed Solution: Investigate, implement, test, and document the use of the VirtIO Poll Mode Driver (PMD) for DPDK applications running within VMs on OpenShift Virtualization. This includes:

      • Ensuring necessary VirtIO drivers and features (e.g., vhost-user, multiqueue) are optimally configured and exposed by OpenShift Virtualization.
      • Validating performance and stability.

      4. Acceptance Criteria (Definition of Done):

      • DPDK applications can be successfully deployed and run in a VM on OpenShift Virtualization using VirtIO interfaces (without SRIOV).
      • Performance characteristics (throughput, latency, CPU utilization) are benchmarked and documented (even if the performance result is not ideal due to virtualized characteristics).
      • Documentation is available guiding users on how to configure OpenShift Virtualization and VMs for DPDK using VirtIO.
      • The configuration is officially supported by Red Hat.

      5. Supporting Information:
      [1] Current OpenShift Virtualization DPDK documentation (SRIOV only): https://docs.redhat.com/en/documentation/openshift_container_platform/4.18/html/virtualization/networking#virt-configuring-vm-dpdk_virt-using-dpdk-with-sriov
      [2] VMXnet3 driver DPDK support: https://doc.dpdk.org/guides/nics/vmxnet3.html
      [3] VirtIO driver DPDK support: https://doc.dpdk.org/guides/nics/virtio.html 

       

              rsdeor Ronen Sde-Or
              giofontana Giovanni Fontana
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