[dpdk-users] Unable to launch testpmd with Mellanox ConnectX-3 Pro NIC

[Adrien Mazarguil]

On Thu, Jan 18, 2018 at 03:11:16PM +0300, Timur Bogdanov wrote:
> Yes, the problem was in this parameter and after changing it to "-1"
> testpmd application has been started successfully.
> 
> BUT, it started successfully only on server where Mellanox OFED is installed.
> 
> On  another server a rdma-core was installed from sources. (rpm's were
> built and installed)
> I also changed the value of log_num_mgm_entry_size parameter to "-1"
> and restarted a server (since where is no openibd service on this
> server) and got the same error.
> Maybe mlx4_core kernel module parameter should be changed in some
> other config file?

In case MLNX_OFED is *not* installed, do both rdma-core and kernel version
meet the minimum requirements?

- rdma-core v15
- Linux 4.14

Note while the above versions are fine for mlx5 (ConnectX-4, ConnectX-5),
they provide reduced performance and RSS capabilities for mlx4 (ConnectX-3),
for which I recommend to use at least:

- rdma-core v16
- Linux 4.15 (not released yet, 4.15-rc8 will do in the meantime)

> Anyway, I can also install and use OFED instead of RDMA but the RDMA
> is pointed as recommended on instructions page
> "http://dpdk.org/doc/guides/nics/mlx4.html" and it is interesting to
> bring it to working state.
> /Regards, Timur

rdma-core requires an up-to-date kernel. If this can't be satisfied,
MLNX_OFED is the only alternative (the mlnx-ofa_kernel package).

> On Thu, Jan 18, 2018 at 11:48 AM, Adrien Mazarguil
> <adrien.mazarguil at 6wind.com> wrote:
> > On Tue, Jan 16, 2018 at 06:59:31PM +0300, Timur Bogdanov wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> I'm trying to use dpdk with Mellanox ConnectX-3 Pro NIC.
> >> I built PMD for it according to instructions on
> >> "http://dpdk.org/doc/guides/nics/mlx4.html" and tried to launch
> >> testpmd app but got following error:
> > <snip>
> >> PMD: net_mlx4: 0xda13c0: cannot attach flow rules (code 95, "Operation
> >> not supported"), flow error type 2, cause 0x7f2869cdab80, message:
> >> flow rule rejected by device
> >>
> >> Fail to start port 0
> > <snip>
> >> What can be the reason of testpmd does not start correctly?
> >
> > Did you provide by any chance -7 instead of -1 as a value for mlx4_core.ko's
> > log_num_mgm_entry_size parameter (as recommended by the above
> > documentation)?
> >
> > Timothy (CC'ed) reported that -7 does not quite work with the default flow
> > rules (too many limitations) and results in the above error message. -1
> > should be used, -7 is only for specific use cases and should probably not
> > even be documented in this file.
> >
> > --
> > Adrien Mazarguil
> > 6WIND

-- 
Adrien Mazarguil
6WIND