bnx2x + SR-IOV, no internal L2 switching

[Yoann Juet <yoann.juet@univ-nantes.fr>]

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Hi all,

I'm conducting experiments on SR-IOV with Broadcom and Intel cards on 
debian/unstable with KVM hypervisor. On Broadcom cards (bnx2x module, 
BCM57810 devices), Virtual Functions (VFs) get running, Virtual Machines 
attached to such VFs inherit network connectivity with excellent 
performance.

However, VMs attached to VFs on the Broadcom Physical Functions (PFs) 
behave like they were connected to an ancient hub, not a L2 switch. It 
is as if there was no internal L2 switching on the Broadcom card to 
process VF <-> VF or VF <-> PF communications. As a result, a VM sees 
all inbound/outbound traffic from/to others VMs as well as traffic 
destined to the PF (for instance, the physical ethX has an IP address).

On the other hand, everything works like a charm with Intel cards (ixgbe 
module, 82599EB devices). Traffic between VFs or VF/PF is switched 
internally by the card.

I found very little literature about SR-IOV on Broadcom devices. I 
wonder if it's a normal behaviour, a misconfiguration on my side or 
perhaps a firmware/driver bug.

Have you seen this issue before ?

---
Kernel 3.12.9 (same behaviour with kernels 3.10.x)
	driver: bnx2x
	firmware-version: 7.8.17
Debian/unstable
	libvirt 1.2.1
	QEMU 1.7.0
---

Best regards,
-- 
Université de Nantes - Direction des Systèmes d'Information



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