New virtualization deployments call out for high density virtual functions with more frequent lifetime recycling. Unfortunately, PCIe SR-IOV has limited function count and large instantiation overhead. A solution to these challenges is to take a PCIE device and "split" it into multiple subdevices. Each subdevice gets its own virtual port(s), queues as well as named resources; Combined with TC and switchdev offloads this approach overcomes the SR-IOV limitations.
In this talk Parav Pandit introduces devlink enhancements to manage such sub functions.
Parav first discusses how devlink is used to life cycle, configure and deploy accelerated sub functions with eswitch offloads support. He then discusses the plumbing done using virtbus to achieve persistence naming of netdevices and rdma devices. Parav will also cover how such model addresses smartnic use case where a sub-function NIC is hot plugged in host system in a secure manner.
More info: https://netdevconf.info/0x14/session.html?talk-devlink-enhancements-for-sub-...
Reminder, registration is now open and early bird is still in effect. https://netdevconf.info/0x14/registration.html
cheers, jamal