Re: [PATCH net-next v3 4/7] netfilter: flowtable: allow updating offloaded rules asynchronously

[Vlad Buslov <vladbu@nvidia.com>]

On Fri 20 Jan 2023 at 12:41, Pablo Neira Ayuso <pablo@netfilter.org> wrote:
> Hi Vlad,
>
> On Thu, Jan 19, 2023 at 08:51:01PM +0100, Vlad Buslov wrote:
>> Following patches in series need to update flowtable rule several times
>> during its lifetime in order to synchronize hardware offload with actual ct
>> status. However, reusing existing 'refresh' logic in act_ct would cause
>> data path to potentially schedule significant amount of spurious tasks in
>> 'add' workqueue since it is executed per-packet. Instead, introduce a new
>> flow 'update' flag and use it to schedule async flow refresh in flowtable
>> gc which will only be executed once per gc iteration.
>
> So the idea is to use a NF_FLOW_HW_UPDATE which triggers the update
> from the garbage collector. I understand the motivation here is to
> avoid adding more work to the workqueue, by simply letting the gc
> thread pick up for the update.
>
> I already proposed in the last year alternative approaches to improve
> the workqueue logic, including cancelation of useless work. For
> example, cancel a flying "add" work if "delete" just arrive and the
> work is still sitting in the queue. Same approach could be use for
> this update logic, ie. cancel an add UDP unidirectional or upgrade it
> to bidirectional if, by the time we see traffic in both directions,
> then work is still sitting in the queue.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll try to make this work over regular
workqueues without further extending the flow flags and/or putting more
stuff into gc.

>
> I am sorry to say but it seems to me this approach based on flags is
> pushing the existing design to the limit. The flag semantics is
> already overloaded that this just makes the state machine behind the
> flag logic more complicated. I really think we should explore for
> better strategies for the offload work to be processed.

Got it.