[dpdk-users] Low TX performance on Mellanox ConnectX-3 NIC

[Olga Shern]

Hi Jesper, 

Several suggestions, 
1.	Any chance you can install latest FW from Mellanox web site or the one that is included in OFED 3.1 version that you have downloaded?  The latest version is  2.35.5100.
2.	Please configure SGE_NUM=1 in DPDK config file  in case you don't need jumbo frames. This will improve performance.
3. 	Not clear from your description, if you are running DPDK on VM ? Are you suing SRIOV ?
4. 	I suggest you  to run  first,  testpmd application. The traffic generator can be raw_ethernet_bw application that coming with MLNX_OFED, it can generate L2, IPV4 and TCP/UDP packets
	For example:  taskset -c 10 raw_ethernet_bw --client -d mlx4_0 -i 1 -l 3 --duration 10 -s 64 --dest_mac F4:52:14:7A:59:80 &
	This will send L2 packets via mlx4_0 NIC port 1 , packet size = 64, for 10 sec, batch = 3 (-l)  
	You can see according to testpmd counters the performance.

Please check Mellanox community  posts, I think they can help you. 
https://community.mellanox.com/docs/DOC-1502

We also have performance suggestions in our QSG: 
http://www.mellanox.com/related-docs/prod_software/MLNX_DPDK_Quick_Start_Guide_v2%201_1%201.pdf

Best Regards,
Olga 


Objet : [dpdk-users] Low TX performance on Mellanox ConnectX-3 NIC Date : samedi 31 octobre 2015, 09:54:04 De : Jesper Wramberg <jesper.wramberg at gmail.com>  À : users at dpdk.org

Hi all,



I am experiencing some performance issues in a somewhat custom setup with two Mellanox ConnectX-3 NICs. I realize these issues might be due to the setup, but I was hoping someone might be able to pinpoint some possible problems/bottlenecks.




The server:

I have a Dell PowerEdge R630 with two Mellanox ConnectX-3 NICs (one on each socket). I have a minimal Centos 7.1.1503 installed with kernel-3.10.0-229.
Note that this kernel is re-build with most things disabled to minimize size, etc. It has infiniband enabled, however, and mlx4_core as a module (since nothing works otherwise). Finally, I have connected the two NICs from port 2 to port 2.



The firmware:

I have installed the latest firmware for the NICs from dell which is 2.34.5060.



The drivers, modules, etc.:

I have downloaded the Mellanox OFED package 3.1 for Centos 7.1 and used its rebuild feature to build it against the custom kernel. I have installed it using the --basic option since I just want libibverbs, libmlx4, kernel modules and openibd service stuff. The mlx4_core.conf is set for ethernet on all ports. Moreover, it is configured for flow steering mode -7 and a few VFs. I can restart the openibd service successfully and everything seems to be working. ibdev2netdev reports the NICs and its VFs, etc. The only problems I have encountered at this stage is that the links doesn't always seem to come up unless I unplug and re-plug the cables.



DPDK setup:

I have built DPDK with the mlx4 pmd using the .h/.a files from the OFED package. I build it using the default values for everything. Running the simple hello world example I can see that everything is initialized correctly, etc.



Test setup:

To test the performance of the NICs I have the following setup. Two processes, P1 and P2, running on NIC A. Two other processes, P3 and P4, running on NIC B. All processes use virtual functions on their respective NICs. Depending on the test, the processes can either transmit or receive data. To transmit, I use a simple DPDK program which generates 32000 packets and transmits them over and over until it has sent 640 million packets. Similarly, I use a simple DPDK program to receive which is basically the layer 2 forwarding example without re-transmission.



First test:

In my first test, P1 transmits data to P3 while the other processes are idle.

Packet size: 1480 byte packets

Flow control: On/Off, doesn’t matter I get same result.

Result: P3 receive all packets but it takes 192.52 seconds ~ 3.32 Mpps ~ 4.9Gbit/s



Second test:

I my second test, I attempt to increase the amount of data transmitted over NIC A. As such, P1 transmits data to P3 while P2 transmits data to P4.

Packet size: 1480 byte packets

Flow control: On/Off, doesn’t matter I get same result.

Results: P3 and P4 receive all packets but it takes 364.40 seconds ~ 1.75 Mpps ~ 2.6Gbit/s for a single process to get its data transmitted.





Does anyone has any idea what I am doing wrong here ? In the second test I would expect P1 to transmit with the same speed as in the first test. It seems that there is a bottleneck somewhere, however. I have left most things to their default values but have also tried tweaking queue sizes, number of queues, interrupts, etc. with no luck





Best Regards,

Jesper