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About RSS function of ixgben

MASATOSHI_T
Beginner
4,063 Views

I am using ESXi6.7Update3

I enabled the RSS function of the driver by using the following command.

***********************************************************************************

esxcli system module parameters set -m ixgben -p "RSS=1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1"

***********************************************************************************

 

After enabling the function, when checking the output result with the following command, there was a difference in the output result from ESXi for which the RSS function was enabled in the past.

******************************************************************
vsish -e cat /net/pNics/vmnic0/rxqueues/info rx queues info {
******************************************************************


Output result of ESXi enabled this time "ixgben  1.8.7-1OEM.670.0.0.8169922"

   Rx Queue features:features: 0x482 -> Pair Dynamic GenericRSS

 

Output result of ESXi enabled in the past "ixgben 1.7.20-1OEM.670.0.0.8169922"

      Rx Queue features:features: 0xa4 -> RSS DynamicRSS Dynamic

 

The type of RSS enabled is different. Is this the difference in the name depending on the driver version?

In that case, are they equivalent in function?

 

When I contacted VMware, I was asked to contact the hardware vendor, so I asked a question.

 

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23 Replies
Achilles_Intel
Moderator
3,613 Views

Hello MASATOSHI_T,


Thank you for posting in Intel Ethernet Communities.


Please allow us to check and confirm this internally. We will provide you with an update on this matter within 3 business days. If you have further questions, please don't hesitate to let us know.


Thank you and have a nice day.



Best regards,

Achilles M.

Intel Customer Support


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MASATOSHI_T
Beginner
3,610 Views

Hello Achilles M.

 

Thank you for your contact.

We will wait for the answer.

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Achilles_Intel
Moderator
3,596 Views

Hello MASATOSHI_T,


Good day.


Before we could proceed further in checking on this matter, we would just like to confirm where did you download the VIB from? Is it a custom image from 3rd party hardware vendor or directly from VMWare?


Let us know if you have further questions or need clarifications. We will reach out after 3 business days in case we do not receive a response from you.


Thank you and have a nice day.



Best regards,

Achilles M.

Intel Customer Support


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MASATOSHI_T
Beginner
3,589 Views

Hello Achilles M.

 

Thank you for your reply.

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Before we could proceed further in checking on this matter, we would just like to confirm where did you download the VIB from? Is it a custom image from 3rd party hardware vendor or directly from VMWare?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

This question is the version that was included in Custom ISO.

The Custom ISO is as follows.

ixgben --1.8.7
---------------------------
Dell EMC customized VMware ESXi 6.7 U3 A10 image
---------------------------

ixgben --1.7.20
---------------------------
Dell EMC customized VMware ESXi 6.7 U3 A04 image
--------------------------

Did you like it here?

 

*By the way, I also inquired about this to DELL, but there was a reply that I would like VMware to inquire about the device driver.

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Achilles_Intel
Moderator
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Hello MASATOSHI_T,


Thank you for providing us a quick update as well as the additional information on this concern. Please allow us to share this internally and we will provide you with an update on this one within 3 business days.


Thank you and have a nice day.



Best regards,

Achilles M.

Intel Customer Support


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Achilles_Intel
Moderator
3,568 Views

Hello MASATOSHI_T,


Good day,


Please be informed that we are still checking on your concern. We will provide you with an update on this query within 3 business days. Please accept our sincerest apologies for the delay on this matter.


Thank you for your patience and cooperation.



Best regards,

Achilles M.

Intel Customer Support


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Achilles_Intel
Moderator
3,537 Views

Hello MASATOSHI_T,


Hope you are doing well.


We are still coordinating your concern with our engineers. Please allow us more time to check this. Please be rest assured that we will send you an update as soon as it is available but no later than 3 business days.


Thank you and have a nice day.



Best regards,

Achilles M.

Intel Customer Support


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Achilles_Intel
Moderator
3,510 Views

Hello MASATOSHI_T,


How are you?


We are still waiting for an update from our engineering team about your concern. Please allow us more time to further check this inquiry with them. Please be rest assured that we will provide you with an update as soon as it is available but no later than 3 business days.


Thank you for your patience and cooperation.



Best regards,

Achilles M.

Intel Customer Support


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Achilles_Intel
Moderator
3,482 Views

Hello MASATOSHI_T,


We are still working with our engineers regarding your inquiry for this thread. Please accept our sincerest apologies for the delay on this matter. Please be rest assured that we will provide you with an update as soon as it is available but no later than 3 business days.


Thank you and have a nice day.



Best regards,

Achilles M.

Intel Customer Support


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Achilles_Intel
Moderator
3,441 Views

Hello MASATOSHI_T,


Hope you are doing well.


We are still checking on your inquiry with our engineers. Please accept our sincerest apologies for the delay on this matter. Please be rest assured that we will provide you an update once it is available to us but no later than 3 business days.


Thank you for your patience and cooperation.



Best regards,

Achilles M.

Intel Customer Support


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Achilles_Intel
Moderator
3,378 Views

Hello MASATOSHI_T,


Good day.


Please accept our apologies for the delay on our update. We are still checking on your request with our engineers. Please be rest assured that we will provide you with an update as soon as it is available to us but no later than 3 business days.


Thank you for your patience and understanding.



Best regards,

Achilles M.

Intel Customer Support


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Achilles_Intel
Moderator
3,346 Views

Hello MASATOSHI_T,


Please be informed that we are still waiting for an checking with our engineers regarding this request. Please be rest assured that we will provide you with an update as soon as it is available to us but no later than 3 business days.


Thank you and have a nice day.



Best regards,

Achilles M.

Intel Customer Support


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Achilles_Intel
Moderator
3,311 Views

Hello MASATOSHI_T,


We are still waiting for an update from our engineers regarding your inquiry. Please accept our apologies for the delay and the inconvenience this may have caused. Please be rest assured that we will provide you with an update as soon as it is available to us but no later than 3 business days.


Thank you and have a nice day.



Best regards,

Achilles M.

Intel Customer Support


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Achilles_Intel
Moderator
3,248 Views

Hello MASATOSHI_T,


How are you?


We are still closely coordinating your inquiry with our engineers. We sincerely apologize for the delay and inconvenience. Please be rest assured that we will provide you an update as soon as it is available but no later than 3 business days.


Thank you for your patience.



Best regards,

Achilles M.

Intel Customer Support


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Zigfreid_Intel
Moderator
3,184 Views

Hello MASATOSHI_T,


Firstly we do apologize for the delay in providing you an update since the case is still being further checked by our engineers. 


We would like to provide you an update so far based on the information that our Engineers have gather. From what we understand, the "RSS" module parameter is described as the following:


"NetQueue RSS" or "NetQ RSS"


Basically, it's not just RSS as we know it, but "NetQueue RSS" or "NetQ RSS" is somewhat defined differently in VMware ESXi's use case.


The reason for this is that many of Intel's NIC's have a separate and dedicated set of queues for virtualization called "VMDq."


Thus, often times, when we assign VMs to use the Intel NIC as an uplink port (i.e. the port to interface with the physical world), the VMware ESXi and NIC driver will utilize the VMDq queues to achieve better performance, latency, CPU usage, etc.


Essentially, "NetQueue" is the name adopted by VMware ESXi to define the SW mechanism of this specialized/dedicated queue while "VMDq" is the name adopted by Intel to define this similar queue in the HW. They're basically the same.


Finally, when we talk about "NetQueue RSS" or "NetQ RSS", it basically means that the RSS engine is being applied to the VMDqs.


Additionally, regarding your questions relating to the following ESXi CLI command:

vsish -e cat /net/pNics/vmnic0/rxqueues/info


Here's what we know so far about the outputs in regards to this line item:


 Rx Queue features:features: 0x482 -> Pair Dynamic GenericRSS

 Rx Queue features:features: 0xa4 -> RSS DynamicRSS Dynamic


From what we can tell, it seems as though the "Rx Queue features:features:" is some bitmap field indicating what Rx features are enabled.


Basically, every "bit" in that hexadecimal value indicates what features are enabled or not.


The strings that say "Pair Dynamic GenericRSS" or "RSS DynamicRSS Dynamic" are apparently translating the bitmap field to indicate what features are enabled.


For reference, please see section "8.5.4"  

Checking whether RSS is enabled" of "NSX-T Reference Design Guide 3-0

https://nsx.techzone.vmware.com/resource/nsx-t-reference-design-guide-3-0#_Toc12811581


In it, it details a similar step in obtaining the "info" for "rxqueues":


Use the “vsish” command to check whether RSS is enabled. The following example shows how to check whether RSS (marked blue) is enabled on NIC vmnic (marked in red).


[Host-1] # vsish

/> get /net/pNics/vmnic0/rxqueues/info

rx queues info {

# queues supported:5

# filters supported:126

# active filters:0

Rx Queue features:features: 0x1a0 -> Dynamic RSS Dynamic Preemptible

}



Further in section "8.5.6  Checking whether Rx Filters are enabled", we see a different example:


[Host-1] vsish

/> cat /net/pNics/vmnic5/rxqueues/info

rx queues info {

 # queues supported:8

 # filters supported:512

 # active filters:0

 # filters moved by load balancer:254

 # of Geneve OAM filters:2

 RX filter classes:Rx filter class: 0x1c -> VLAN_MAC VXLAN Geneve GenericEncap

 Rx Queue features:features: 0x82 -> Pair Dynamic

}



Thus, based on these entries, we can assume that the bits translate to the following:


0x482 (Pair Dynamic GenericRSS) - 0x082 (Pair Dynamic) = 0x400 => GenericRSS

0x400 => GenericRSS


0x1a0 (Dynamic RSS Dynamic Preemptible) and 0x082 (Pair Dynamic) seems to have a bit in common (0x080).

It's assumed it's related to "Dynamic"

Thus, we can deduce:


0x080 => Dynamic

0x002 => Pair


Since both 0x1a0 (Dynamic RSS Dynamic Preemptible) and 0xa4 (RSS DynamicRSS Dynamic) has "Dynamic" in it, we can substract "Dynamic" and "0x080" from both of them:


0x120 (Dynamic RSS Preemptible) and 0x024 (RSS DynamicRSS).


The remaining bit common to both of the above which is 0x020 and it would seem to map to Dynamic RSS:


0x020 => Dynamic RSS


Thus, the remaining bits map to the following:

0x004 => RSS

0x100 => Preemptible



As to why between different driver versions of ixgben has these Rx queue features are enabled, is still not clear.


Please allow us more time to further check on your concern. Is it okay if we can ask for another 2-3 business days to provide you an update? We thank you for your patience and understanding and we hope you have a nice day!

 

Best regards,

Zigfreid I.

Intel® Customer Support



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Zigfreid_Intel
Moderator
3,137 Views

Hello MASATOSHI_T,


Good day! We hope that you are having a great one so far.


We are still closely coordinating your inquiry with our engineers. We sincerely apologize for the delay and inconvenience. Please be rest assured that we will provide you an update as soon as it is available but no later than 3 business days.


Thank you for your patience.


Best regards,

Zigfreid I.

Intel® Customer Support



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Zigfreid_Intel
Moderator
3,126 Views

Hello MASATOSHI_T,


Good day! We hope that you are having a great one so far.


We are still closely coordinating your inquiry with our engineers. We sincerely apologize for the delay and inconvenience. Please rest assure that we will provide you an update as soon as it is available but no later than 3 business days.


Thank you for your patience.


Best regards,

Zigfreid I.

Intel® Customer Support


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Zigfreid_Intel
Moderator
3,099 Views

Hello MASATOSHI_T,


Good day! We hope that you are having a great one so far.


We are still closely coordinating your inquiry with our engineers. We sincerely apologize for the delay and inconvenience. Please rest assure that we will provide you an update as soon as it is available but no later than 3 business days.


Thank you for your patience.


Best regards,

Zigfreid I.

Intel® Customer Support


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MASATOSHI_T
Beginner
3,092 Views

Hello Zigfreid_Intel

I understand that it will take time.
Thank you.

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Zigfreid_Intel
Moderator
3,051 Views

Hello MASATOSHI_T,


Good day! We hope that you are having a great one so far.


We are still closely coordinating your inquiry with our engineers. We sincerely apologize for the delay and inconvenience. Please rest assure that we will provide you an update as soon as it is available but no later than 3 business days.


Thank you for your patience.


Best regards,

Zigfreid I.

Intel® Customer Support


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