[libvirt] [PATCH 0/5 v3] Interface pools and passthrough mode

[Shradha Shah]

Hello All,

I had posted this latest version of my patch series a month ago. Since I did not receive any feedback I think this post got missed amidst the volume of mail on libvir-list.

Since I am new to libvirt I would be happy to receive review comments and advice on my patches. 

Many thanks,

Regards,
Shradha Shah



On 12/14/2011 10:47 AM, Shradha Shah wrote:
> Interface Pools and Passthrough mode:
> 
> Current Method:
> The passthrough mode uses a macvtap direct connection to connect each
> guest to the network. The physical interface to be used is picked from
> among those listed in <interface> sub elements of the <forward> element.
> 
> The current specification for <forward> extends to allow 0 or more
> <interface> sub-elements:
> Example:
> <forward mode='passthrough' dev='eth10'/>
> <interface dev='eth10'/>
> <interface dev='eth12'/>
> <interface dev='eth18'/>
> <interface dev='eth20'/>
> </forward>
> 
> However with an ethernet card with 64 VF's or more, the above method
> gets tedious on the system.
> 
> On the other hand, just parameterizing a string (eth%d) is inadequate,
> eg, when there are multiple non-contiguous ranges.
> 
> Proposed Method:
> The 4 patches provided:
> 
> i) Introduce a new element 'pf' to implicitly create an interface pool
> of all the Virtual Functions attached to the specified Physical
> Function.  
> ii) Modify the networkAllocateActualDevice, networkNotifyActualDevice
> and networkReleaseActualDevice API to use the above mentioned interface
> pool in the passthrough mode.
> iii) Allow virsh net-dumpxml to use an option --inactive to
> differentiate between explicit and implicit interface pools
> 
> Hence Libvirt will now support both the methods mentioned below:
> 
> * Explicit interface list. App inputs:
> 
>     <forward mode='passthrough'>
>      <interface dev='eth10'/>
>      <interface dev='eth11'/>
>      <interface dev='eth12'/>
>      <interface dev='eth13'/>
>     </forward>
> 
>    libvirt does not change XML
> 
> * Automatically interface list from PF. App inputs:
> 
>      <forward mode='passthrough'>
>       <pf dev='eth0'/>
>      </forward>
> 
>    libvirt expands XML to be
> 
>     <forward mode='passthrough'>
>       <pf dev='eth0'/>
>       <interface dev='eth10'/>
>       <interface dev='eth11'/>
>       <interface dev='eth12'/>
>       <interface dev='eth13'/>
>      </forward>
> 
> In the above case we need to differentiate between the implicit and
> explicit interface pool, which can be done by comparing the dumpxml from
> active and inactive domains. 
> This will need the addition of the flag VIR_NETWORK_XML_INACTIVE to
> virNetworkGetXMLDesc().
> 
> This patch series supports the use of option --inactive with virsh
> net-dumpxml.
> 
> 
> Shradha Shah (5):
>   Added function pciSysfsFile to enable access to the PCI SYSFS files.
>   Added Function virNetDevGetVirtualFunctions
>   Adding the element pf to network xml.
>   Functionality to implicitly get interface pool from SR-IOV PF.
>   Added new option to virsh net-dumpxml called --inactive
> 
>  docs/schemas/network.rng     |    7 +++
>  include/libvirt/libvirt.h.in |    4 ++
>  src/conf/network_conf.c      |   79 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---
>  src/conf/network_conf.h      |    5 ++-
>  src/network/bridge_driver.c  |   97 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---------
>  src/test/test_driver.c       |    2 +-
>  src/util/pci.c               |   39 +++++++++++++++++
>  src/util/pci.h               |    7 +++
>  src/util/virnetdev.c         |   83 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  src/util/virnetdev.h         |    6 +++
>  src/vbox/vbox_tmpl.c         |    2 +-
>  tests/networkxml2xmltest.c   |    2 +-
>  tools/virsh.c                |   13 +++++-
>  13 files changed, 311 insertions(+), 35 deletions(-)
>