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Configuring network functions virtualization
Chapter 3. Hardware requirements for NFV

Chapter 3. Hardware requirements for NFV

This section describes the hardware requirements for NFV.

Red Hat certifies hardware for use with Red Hat OpenStack Platform. For more information, see Certified hardware.

3.1. Tested NICs for NFV

For a list of tested NICs for NFV, see the Red Hat Knowledgebase solution Network Adapter Fast Datapath Feature Support Matrix.

Use the default driver for the supported NIC, unless you are configuring OVS-DPDK on NVIDIA (Mellanox) network interfaces. For NVIDIA network interfaces, you must set the corresponding kernel driver in the j2 network configuration template.

Example

In this example, the mlx5_core driver is set for the Mellanox ConnectX-5 network interface:

members
 - type: ovs_dpdk_port
    name: dpdk0
    driver: mlx5_core
    members:
    - type: interface
      name: enp3s0f0

members
 - type: ovs_dpdk_port
    name: dpdk0
    driver: mlx5_core
    members:
    - type: interface
      name: enp3s0f0

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3.2. Troubleshooting hardware offload

In a Red Hat OpenStack Platform(RHOSP) 17.1 deployment, OVS Hardware Offload might not offload flows for VMs with switchdev-capable ports and Mellanox ConnectX5 NICs. To troubleshoot and configure offload flows in this scenario, disable the ESWITCH_IPV4_TTL_MODIFY_ENABLE Mellanox firmware parameter. For more troubleshooting information about OVS Hardware Offload in RHOSP 17.1, see the Red Hat Knowledgebase solution OVS Hardware Offload with Mellanox NIC in OpenStack Platform 16.2.

Procedure

Use the mstflint utility to query the ESWITCH_IPV4_TTL_MODIFY_ENABLE Mellanox firmware parameter .

yum install -y mstflint
mstconfig -d <PF PCI BDF> q ESWITCH_IPV4_TTL_MODIFY_ENABLE

[root@compute-1 ~]# yum install -y mstflint
[root@compute-1 ~]# mstconfig -d <PF PCI BDF> q ESWITCH_IPV4_TTL_MODIFY_ENABLE

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If the ESWITCH_IPV4_TTL_MODIFY_ENABLE parameter is enabled and set to 1, then set the value to 0 to disable it.

mstconfig -d <PF PCI BDF> s ESWITCH_IPV4_TTL_MODIFY_ENABLE=0`

[root@compute-1 ~]# mstconfig -d <PF PCI BDF> s ESWITCH_IPV4_TTL_MODIFY_ENABLE=0`

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Reboot the node.

3.3. Discovering your NUMA node topology

When you plan your deployment, you must understand the NUMA topology of your Compute node to partition the CPU and memory resources for optimum performance. To determine the NUMA information, perform one of the following tasks:

Enable hardware introspection to retrieve this information from bare-metal nodes.
Log on to each bare-metal node to manually collect the information.

Note

You must install and configure the undercloud before you can retrieve NUMA information through hardware introspection. For more information about undercloud configuration, see Installing and managing Red Hat OpenStack Platform with director Guide.

3.4. Retrieving hardware introspection details

The Bare Metal service hardware-inspection-extras feature is enabled by default, and you can use it to retrieve hardware details for overcloud configuration. For more information about the inspection_extras parameter in the undercloud.conf file, see Director configuration parameters.

For example, the numa_topology collector is part of the hardware-inspection extras and includes the following information for each NUMA node:

RAM (in kilobytes)
Physical CPU cores and their sibling threads
NICs associated with the NUMA node

Procedure

To retrieve the information listed above, substitute <UUID> with the UUID of the bare-metal node to complete the following command:

openstack baremetal introspection data save <UUID> | jq .numa_topology

# openstack baremetal introspection data save <UUID> | jq .numa_topology

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The following example shows the retrieved NUMA information for a bare-metal node:

{
  "cpus": [
    {
      "cpu": 1,
      "thread_siblings": [
        1,
        17
      ],
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "cpu": 2,
      "thread_siblings": [
        10,
        26
      ],
      "numa_node": 1
    },
    {
      "cpu": 0,
      "thread_siblings": [
        0,
        16
      ],
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "cpu": 5,
      "thread_siblings": [
        13,
        29
      ],
      "numa_node": 1
    },
    {
      "cpu": 7,
      "thread_siblings": [
        15,
        31
      ],
      "numa_node": 1
    },
    {
      "cpu": 7,
      "thread_siblings": [
        7,
        23
      ],
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "cpu": 1,
      "thread_siblings": [
        9,
        25
      ],
      "numa_node": 1
    },
    {
      "cpu": 6,
      "thread_siblings": [
        6,
        22
      ],
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "cpu": 3,
      "thread_siblings": [
        11,
        27
      ],
      "numa_node": 1
    },
    {
      "cpu": 5,
      "thread_siblings": [
        5,
        21
      ],
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "cpu": 4,
      "thread_siblings": [
        12,
        28
      ],
      "numa_node": 1
    },
    {
      "cpu": 4,
      "thread_siblings": [
        4,
        20
      ],
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "cpu": 0,
      "thread_siblings": [
        8,
        24
      ],
      "numa_node": 1
    },
    {
      "cpu": 6,
      "thread_siblings": [
        14,
        30
      ],
      "numa_node": 1
    },
    {
      "cpu": 3,
      "thread_siblings": [
        3,
        19
      ],
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "cpu": 2,
      "thread_siblings": [
        2,
        18
      ],
      "numa_node": 0
    }
  ],
  "ram": [
    {
      "size_kb": 66980172,
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "size_kb": 67108864,
      "numa_node": 1
    }
  ],
  "nics": [
    {
      "name": "ens3f1",
      "numa_node": 1
    },
    {
      "name": "ens3f0",
      "numa_node": 1
    },
    {
      "name": "ens2f0",
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "name": "ens2f1",
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "name": "ens1f1",
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "name": "ens1f0",
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "name": "eno4",
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "name": "eno1",
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "name": "eno3",
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "name": "eno2",
      "numa_node": 0
    }
  ]
}

{
  "cpus": [
    {
      "cpu": 1,
      "thread_siblings": [
        1,
        17
      ],
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "cpu": 2,
      "thread_siblings": [
        10,
        26
      ],
      "numa_node": 1
    },
    {
      "cpu": 0,
      "thread_siblings": [
        0,
        16
      ],
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "cpu": 5,
      "thread_siblings": [
        13,
        29
      ],
      "numa_node": 1
    },
    {
      "cpu": 7,
      "thread_siblings": [
        15,
        31
      ],
      "numa_node": 1
    },
    {
      "cpu": 7,
      "thread_siblings": [
        7,
        23
      ],
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "cpu": 1,
      "thread_siblings": [
        9,
        25
      ],
      "numa_node": 1
    },
    {
      "cpu": 6,
      "thread_siblings": [
        6,
        22
      ],
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "cpu": 3,
      "thread_siblings": [
        11,
        27
      ],
      "numa_node": 1
    },
    {
      "cpu": 5,
      "thread_siblings": [
        5,
        21
      ],
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "cpu": 4,
      "thread_siblings": [
        12,
        28
      ],
      "numa_node": 1
    },
    {
      "cpu": 4,
      "thread_siblings": [
        4,
        20
      ],
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "cpu": 0,
      "thread_siblings": [
        8,
        24
      ],
      "numa_node": 1
    },
    {
      "cpu": 6,
      "thread_siblings": [
        14,
        30
      ],
      "numa_node": 1
    },
    {
      "cpu": 3,
      "thread_siblings": [
        3,
        19
      ],
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "cpu": 2,
      "thread_siblings": [
        2,
        18
      ],
      "numa_node": 0
    }
  ],
  "ram": [
    {
      "size_kb": 66980172,
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "size_kb": 67108864,
      "numa_node": 1
    }
  ],
  "nics": [
    {
      "name": "ens3f1",
      "numa_node": 1
    },
    {
      "name": "ens3f0",
      "numa_node": 1
    },
    {
      "name": "ens2f0",
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "name": "ens2f1",
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "name": "ens1f1",
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "name": "ens1f0",
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "name": "eno4",
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "name": "eno1",
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "name": "eno3",
      "numa_node": 0
    },
    {
      "name": "eno2",
      "numa_node": 0
    }
  ]
}

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3.5. NFV BIOS settings

The following table describes the required BIOS settings for NFV:

Note

You must enable SR-IOV global and NIC settings in the BIOS, or your Red Hat OpenStack Platform (RHOSP) deployment with SR-IOV Compute nodes will fail.

Table 3.1. BIOS Settings
Parameter	Setting	Description
`C3 Power State`	Disabled.
`C6 Power State`	Disabled.
`MLC Streamer`	Enabled.
`MLC Spatial Prefetcher`	Enabled.
`DCU Data Prefetcher`	Enabled.
`DCA`	Enabled.
`CPU Power and Performance`	Performance.
`Memory RAS and Performance Config NUMA Optimized`	Enabled.
`Turbo Boost`	Disabled in NFV deployments that require deterministic performance. Enabled in all other scenarios.
`VT-d`	Enabled for Intel cards if VFIO functionality is needed.
`NUMA memory interleave`	Disabled.
`Sub-NUMA Clustering`	Disabled.	When enabled, Sub-NUMA Clustering divides the processor cores, cache, and memory into multiple NUMA domains. Enabling this feature can increase performance for workloads that are NUMA-aware and optimized. When this option is enabled, up to 1GB of system memory can become unavailable.
`Intel Turbo Boost Technology`	Disabled.	Turbo Boost Technology enables the processor to transition to a higher frequency than the processor rated speed if the processor has available power and is within temperature specifications. Disabling this option reduces power usage and also reduces the maximum achievable performance of the system under some workloads.
`NUMA Group Size Optimization`	Clustered.	Use the NUMA Group Size Optimization option to configure how the system ROM reports the number of logical processors in a NUMA node. The resulting information helps the operating system group processors for application use. The `Clustered` setting optimizes groups along NUMA boundaries. This provides better performance.

On processors that use the intel_idle driver, Red Hat Enterprise Linux can ignore BIOS settings and re-enable the processor C-state.

You can disable intel_idle and instead use the acpi_idle driver by specifying the key-value pair intel_idle.max_cstate=0 on the kernel boot command line.

Confirm that the processor is using the acpi_idle driver by checking the contents of current_driver:

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpuidle/current_driver
acpi_idle

# cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpuidle/current_driver
acpi_idle

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Note

You will experience some latency after changing drivers, because it takes time for the Tuned daemon to start. However, after Tuned loads, the processor does not use the deeper C-state.

Chapter 3. Hardware requirements for NFV

3.1. Tested NICs for NFV

3.2. Troubleshooting hardware offload

3.3. Discovering your NUMA node topology

3.4. Retrieving hardware introspection details

3.5. NFV BIOS settings

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