does an Intel SR-IOV PF forward an Eth packet whose MAC address is different with the VF's to a VF ?

[tfang4]

some of our engineers assigned a VF to a centos VM through VFIO-PCI driver.In That VM,they setup an OVS bridge connected with the VF,and they created a new internal port on the bridge.they tried to communicate the outside router with that Internal port whose MAC address is different with the VF mac.the problem is :after set the VF mac spoofchk to off, the DHCP packet can be sent through the PF nic and the response is seen,but the VF nic in the centos VM didn't see that response.if we change the Internal port's MAC to the VF's,it works.but we can't do that because of secuirty issues.

seems that the PF send packet out ,but didn't forward the response to the VF ,is it correct ?

PS:we are using an intel I350 NIC.

thanks if any response.

tian

[Caguicla_Intel]

Hello tfang4,

Thank you for posting in Intel Ethernet Communities. 

Can you share the PF and VF driver version used as well as the exact Operating System for us to check your query.

We look forward to your response.

In case we don't hear from you, we will follow up after 3 business days.

Best regards,

Crisselle C

Intel® Customer Support

[tfang4]

[root@localhost ~]# more /etc/redhat-release 

CentOS Linux release 7.7.1908 (Core)

[root@localhost ~]# uname -a

Linux localhost.localdomain 3.10.0-1062.18.1.el7.x86_64 #1 SMP Tue Mar 17 23:49:17 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[root@localhost ~]# ethtool -i ens1f1

driver: igb

version: 5.6.0-k

firmware-version: 1.63, 0x800009fa

expansion-rom-version: 

bus-info: 0000:04:00.1

supports-statistics: yes

supports-test: yes

supports-eeprom-access: yes

supports-register-dump: yes

supports-priv-flags: yes

[root@localhost ~]# modinfo igb

filename:    /lib/modules/3.10.0-1062.18.1.el7.x86_64/kernel/drivers/net/ethernet/intel/igb/igb.ko.xz

version:    5.6.0-k

[root@localhost ~]# modinfo vfio-pci

filename:    /lib/modules/3.10.0-1062.18.1.el7.x86_64/kernel/drivers/vfio/pci/vfio-pci.ko.xz

description:  VFIO PCI - User Level meta-driver

author:     Alex Williamson <alex.williamson@redhat.com>

license:    GPL v2

version:    0.2

retpoline:   Y

rhelversion:  7.7

srcversion:   291C0B81FD4945286F66DAE

depends:    vfio,irqbypass

intree:     Y

vermagic:    3.10.0-1062.18.1.el7.x86_64 SMP mod_unload modversions 

signer:     CentOS Linux kernel signing key

[Caguicla_Intel]

Hello tfang4,

Thank you for providing the requested details.

Please allow us to check on this query. Rest assured that we will give you an update as soon as possible but no later than 3 business days.

Hoping for your patience.

Best regards,

Crisselle C

Intel® Customer Support

[Caguicla_Intel]

Hello tfang4,

Thank you for the patience on this matter.

For the PF and VF communication details, you will be able to find more details in the SR-IOV primer white paper Section 6 - Master Driver (MD) from the link below.

https://www.intel.com/content/dam/doc/application-note/pci-sig-sr-iov-primer-sr-iov-technology-paper.pdf?asset=12539

Let us know if you have additional questions and clarifications.

We hope to hear from you soon. 

We will follow up after 3 business days in case we don't receive a reply.

Best regards,

Crisselle C

Intel® Customer Support

[tfang4]

Hi Crisslelle，

Thanks for your reply!

So the answer is NO ,which means the PF doesn't have the features named 'Mac learning' . 'Mac learning ' can remember the incoming packet's source Mac address then forward the response packet accordingly, which is an common feature of all kindly of LAN switches .

Best regards,

Tian.​

[Caguicla_Intel]

Hello tian,

You're welcome.

We hope that the provided documentation was of help on your query. May we know if you still have additional questions and clarifications on this matter?

Awaiting to hear from you.

We will follow up after 3 business days in case we don't receive a reply.

Best regards,

Crisselle C

Intel® Customer Support

[tfang4]

Crisselle ，

thanks for your kindly help！

this document did help,and there is no more question.

Best regards

Tian

[Caguicla_Intel]

Hello tian,

Appreciate your prompt reply.

We are glad to hear that the documentation did help. With this, please be informed that we will now close this request. Just feel free to post a new question if you may have any other inquiry in the future.

May you have an amazing day ahead.

Best regards,

Crisselle C

Intel® Customer Support