Re: [PATCH net-next 4/7] devlink: Add E-Switch inline mode control

[Jiri Pirko <jiri@resnulli.us>]

Sun, Jan 08, 2017 at 11:49:20AM CET, ogerlitz@mellanox.com wrote:
>On 1/8/2017 12:29 PM, Jiri Pirko wrote:
>> Mon, Nov 21, 2016 at 02:05:58PM CET, saeedm@mellanox.com wrote:
>> > From: Roi Dayan <roid@mellanox.com>
>> > 
>> > Some HWs need the VF driver to put part of the packet headers on the
>> > TX descriptor so the e-switch can do proper matching and steering.
>> Could you please elaborate a bit about possible use-cases for different
>> modes? Thanks.
>
>As written in the change log, some HW models have this requirement that the
>header set you want eswitch matching on (e.g L2/L3) is present as MD on the
>xmit DMA descriptor.
>
>To address these requirements, following the admin devlink directive the FW
>advertizes that
>to the VF, they are doing so in their xmit logic and the host driver enforces
>that the VF has the proper inline mode before we are willing to offload
>eswitch matching rules. If the VF doesn't obey to the requirement the packets
>are dropped by HW.

Okay, makes sense. Do you expect this will ever have to be needed
per-vf? In general, not only for mlx* drivers. I believe that this is
an e-switch requirement so it should be same for all connected VFs,
right?

Thanks!