[dpdk-dev] [RFC v2] net/mlx5: support new naming scheme for representors

[Dekel Peled]

Thanks, PSB.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Stephen Hemminger <stephen at networkplumber.org>
> Sent: Monday, March 4, 2019 9:14 PM
> To: Dekel Peled <dekelp at mellanox.com>
> Cc: Shahaf Shuler <shahafs at mellanox.com>; Yongseok Koh
> <yskoh at mellanox.com>; dev at dpdk.org; Ori Kam <orika at mellanox.com>;
> Matan Azrad <matan at mellanox.com>
> Subject: Re: [dpdk-dev] [RFC v2] net/mlx5: support new naming scheme for
> representors
> 
> On Sun, 3 Mar 2019 07:14:07 +0000
> Dekel Peled <dekelp at mellanox.com> wrote:
> 
> > In current kernel implementation, the physical port name for representors
> is a numeric string (i.e. '0', '1', etc.).
> >
> >
> >
> > Kernel patch [1] implements an updated scheme for naming of
> representors ports.
> >
> > The new scheme gives a unique name for each port using the PF ID and the
> VF ID.
> >
> > Uplink representors are named 'p0', 'p1', etc.
> >
> > VF representors are named 'pf0vf0', 'pf0vf1', 'pf1vf0', 'pf1vf1', etc.
> 
> 
> Depending on kernel to use any particular naming policy is going to be
> problematic.
> Users will want to run on older kernels, and many distributions rename
> interfaces through udev or other mechanism.

MLX5 PMD relies on specific kernel implementation, with known scheme for representor naming.
Users running older kernels are required to install MLNX OFED, which implements the naming scheme expected by MLX5 PMD.