This directory contains a simple software implementation of FlowBlaze based on the Intel DPDK framework.
Before compiling and running FlowBlaze the DPDK platform must be installed in the system. Refer to DPDK build guide to correctly build DPDK on your system. We tested the program with DPDK v18.11 LTS.
The Makefile requires two environment variables to be exported. The RTE_SDK must contain the path in which dpdk is installed and RTE_TARGET must declare the DPDK target for which the application has to be built. For example:
export RTE_SDK="/opt/dpdk-18.11"
export RTE_TARGET="x86_64-native-linuxapp-gcc"
Then, just issue make to compile the application.
The above variables must be exported also for running the application. Moreover, before running the applications make sure that all the DPDK resource requirements are fulfilled:
- Hugepages setup is done.
- Any kernel driver being used is loaded.
- In case needed, ports being used by the application should be bound to the corresponding kernel driver.
Refer to DPDK linux user guide for more information on running requirements for DPDK.
FlowBlaze takes two different sets of input paramaters divided by the -- symbol:
./flowblaze [RTE_EAL parameters] -- [FlowBlaze parameters]
- RTE_EAL parameters are the ones related to the DPDK Environment Abstraction Layer and take the same options of DPDK sample applications. Refer to EAL parameters for more information.
- FlowBlaze parameters are the FlowBlaze specific parameters:
- -f takes the XLc produced JSON file describing the application to be loaded in the dataplane.
Follows a basic running example:
./flowblaze -m 64 -l 2 -w 03:00.0 -w 03:00.1 -- -f program.json
The command will run FlowBlaze on core 2 (-l 2) allocating 64 MBytes of hugepage memory (-m 64) and provides two PCI devices that will be used in the application (-w ...). Then, loads the program from the file program.json (-f file).
By now, the application runs on a single core, so more cores provided through the -l argument will be ignored.