Pktgen Commandline Options

The Pktgen commandline usage is:

./app/app/``$(target}``/pktgen [EAL options] -- \
                             [-h] [-P] [-G] [-T] [-f cmd_file] \
                             [-l log_file] [-s P:PCAP_file] [-m <string>]

The EAL Commandline Options were shown in the previous section.

The pktgen arguments are:

Usage: pktgen [EAL options] – [-h] [-P] [-G] [-T] [-f cmd_file] [-l log_file] [-s P:PCAP_file] [-m <string>]

-s P:file PCAP packet stream file, ‘P’ is the port number -f filename Command file (.pkt) to execute or a Lua script (.lua) file -l filename Write log to filename -I use CLI -P Enable PROMISCUOUS mode on all ports -g address Optional IP address and port number default is (localhost:0x5606)

If -g is used that enable socket support as a server application

-G

Enable socket support using default server values localhost:0x5606

-N

Enable NUMA support

-T

Enable the color output

-h

Display the help information

Where the options are:

  • -h: Display the usage/help information shown above:

    lspci | grep Ethernet

    This shows a list of all ports in the system. Some ports may not be usable by DPDK/Pktgen. The first port listed is bit 0 or least signification bit in the -c EAL coremask. Another method is to compile and run the DPDK sample application testpmd to list out the ports DPDK is able to use:

    ./test_pmd -c 0x3 -n 2

  • -s P:file: The PCAP packet file to stream. P is the port number.

  • -f filename: The script command file (.pkt) to execute or a Lua script (.lua) file. See Running Script Files.

  • -l filename: The filename to write a log to.

  • -P: Enable PROMISCUOUS mode on all ports.

  • -G: Enable socket support using default server values of localhost:0x5606. See Socket Support for Pktgen.

  • -g address: Same as -G but with an optional IP address and port number. See Socket Support for Pktgen.

  • -T: Enable color terminal output in VT100

  • -N: Enable NUMA support.

  • -m <string>: Matrix for mapping ports to logical cores. The format of the port mapping string is defined with a BNF-like grammar as follows:

    BNF: (or kind of BNF)
<matrix-string>   := """ <lcore-port> { "," <lcore-port>} """
<lcore-port>      := <lcore-list> "." <port-list>
<lcore-list>      := "[" <rx-list> ":" <tx-list> "]"
<port-list>       := "[" <rx-list> ":" <tx-list>"]"
<rx-list>         := <num> { "/" (<num> | <list>) }
<tx-list>         := <num> { "/" (<num> | <list>) }
<list>            := <num> { "/" (<range> | <list>) }
<range>           := <num> "-" <num> { "/" <range> }
<num>             := <digit>+
<digit>           := 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

    For example:

    1.0, 2.1, 3.2                 - core 1 handles port 0 rx/tx,
                                core 2 handles port 1 rx/tx
                                core 3 handles port 2 rx/tx
1.[0-2], 2.3, ...             - core 1 handle ports 0,1,2 rx/tx,
                                core 2 handle port 3 rx/tx
[0-1].0, [2/4-5].1, ...       - cores 0-1 handle port 0 rx/tx,
                                cores 2,4,5 handle port 1 rx/tx
[1:2].0, [4:6].1, ...         - core 1 handles port 0 rx,
                                core 2 handles port 0 tx,
[1:2].[0-1], [4:6].[2/3], ... - core 1 handles port 0 & 1 rx,
                                core 2 handles port  0 & 1 tx
[1:2-3].0, [4:5-6].1, ...     - core 1 handles port 0 rx, cores 2,3 handle port 0 tx
                                core 4 handles port 1 rx & core 5,6 handles port 1 tx
[1-2:3].0, [4-5:6].1, ...     - core 1,2 handles port 0 rx, core 3 handles port 0 tx
                                core 4,5 handles port 1 rx & core 6 handles port 1 tx
[1-2:3-5].0, [4-5:6/8].1, ... - core 1,2 handles port 0 rx, core 3,4,5 handles port 0 tx
                                core 4,5 handles port 1 rx & core 6,8 handles port 1 tx
[1:2].[0:0-7], [3:4].[1:0-7], - core 1 handles port 0 rx, core 2 handles ports 0-7 tx
                                core 3 handles port 1 rx & core 4 handles port 0-7 tx
BTW: you can use "{}" instead of "[]" as it does not matter to the syntax.

Grouping can use {} instead of [] if required.

Multiple Instances of Pktgen or other application

One possible solution I use and if you have enough ports available to use. Lets say you need two ports for your application, but you have 4 ports in your system. I physically loop back the cables to have port 0 connect to port 2 and port 1 connected to port 3. Now I can give two ports to my application and two ports to Pktgen.

Setup if pktgen and your application you have to startup each one a bit differently to make sure they share the resources like memory and the ports. I will use two Pktgen running on the same machine, which just means you have to setup your application as one of the applications.

In my machine I have 8 10G ports and 72 lcores between 2 sockets. Plus I have 1024 hugepages per socket for a total of 2048.

Example commands:

# lspci | grep Ether
06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X520-Q1 (rev 01)
06:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X520-Q1 (rev 01)
08:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X520-Q1 (rev 01)
08:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X520-Q1 (rev 01)
09:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation I350 Gigabit Network Connection (rev 01)
09:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation I350 Gigabit Network Connection (rev 01)
83:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation DH8900CC Null Device (rev 21)
87:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X520-Q1 (rev 01)
87:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X520-Q1 (rev 01)
89:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X520-Q1 (rev 01)
89:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation Ethernet Converged Network Adapter X520-Q1 (rev 01)

./app/app/${target}/pktgen -l 2-11 -n 3 --proc-type auto \
           --socket-mem 512,512 --file-prefix pg1 \
           -b 09:00.0 -b 09:00.1 -b 83:00.1 -b 06:00.0 \
           -b 06:00.1 -b 08:00.0 -b 08:00.1 -- \
           -T -P -m "[4:6].0, [5:7].1, [8:10].2, [9:11].3" \
           -f themes/black-yellow.theme

./app/app/${target}/pktgen -l 2,4-11 -n 3 --proc-type auto \
           --socket-mem 512,512 --file-prefix pg2 \
           -b 09:00.0 -b 09:00.1 -b 83:00.1 -b 87:00.0 \
           -b 87:00.1 -b 89:00.0 -b 89:00.1 -- \
           -T -P -m "[12:16].0, [13:17].1, [14:18].2, [15:19].3" \
           -f themes/black-yellow.theme

Notice I block list the three onboard devices and then block list the other 4 ports I will not be using for each of the pktgen instances.

I need 8+1 lcores for each instance for Pktgen use. The -c option of ff2 and FF004 lcores, the ff value are used for port handling and the 2/4 is used because pktgen needs the first lcore for display and timers.

The -m option then assigns lcores to the ports.

The information from above is taken from two new files pktgen-initial.sh and pktgen-worker.sh, have a look at them and adjust as you need.

Pktgen can also be configured using the commands.