Ansible Playbook to Build Open vSwitch with DPDK support

This playbook installs Open vSwitch with DPDK support.

Quick Start

Ensure that you have installed Ansible on the host where you want to run the playbook from.

This playbook has been tested against Fedora 22.

To run the playbook against a host 192.168.1.100 (note the comma following the host name/IP address must be included):

$ git clone https://github.com/mixja/ansible-ovs-dpdk.git 
...
...
$ cd ansible-ovs-dpdk
ansible-dpdk-seastar$ ansible-playbook -i "192.168.1.100," site.yml
SSH password: *******

PLAY [Provision Custom Facts] *************************************************
...
...

Changing Folder and Repo Settings

The group_vars/all file contains the following variables:

• dpdk_dir - root folder of the DPDK source
• dpdk_build - build folder for the DPDK source
• dpdk_repo - Git repo of the DPDK source
• ovs_dir - root folder of the OVS source
• ovs_repo - Git repo of the OVS source

Changing Build Settings

The following variables can be used to force a rebuild or build a different version:

• ovs_rebuild - if set to any value, forces OVS to be built.
• ovs_version - specifies the branch, tag or commit hash to build. If a change is detected from the current repo, OVS will be rebuilt.
• dpdk_rebuild - if set to any value, forces DPDK to be built.
• dpdk_version - specifies the branch, tag or commit hash to build. If a change is detected from the current repo, DPDK will be rebuilt.
• dpdk_device_name - defines the device name to use for DPDK UIO/VFIO scripts. The default value is eno1 if not specified.

The following example forces DPDK to be built:

$ ansible-playbook -i "192.168.1.100," site.yml --extra-vars "dpdk_rebuild=true"

The following example checks out OVS commit abc1234 to be checked out and forces a build of OVS:

$ ansible-playbook -i "192.168.1.100," site.yml --extra-vars "ovs_rebuild=true ovs_version=abc1234"

Testing OVS DPDK

After DPDK and OVS are built you can use the following helper scripts:

Load DPDK kernel module and bind network interface

Choose one of the following options:

• /root/dpdk_uio.sh - downs the network interface, inserts the UIO kernel module and binds DPDK to the network interface
• /root/dpdk_vfio.sh - downs the network interface, inserts the VFIO_PCI kernel module and binds DPDK to the network interface

Init and start OVS

• /root/start_ovsdb_server.sh - starts OVSDB server
• /root/start_ovs_vswitchd.sh - starts OVS vswitchd with DPDK support enabled

Create OVS bridges and ports

Create an OVS bridge with the datapath_type "netdev":

ovs-vsctl add-br br0 -- set bridge br0 datapath_type=netdev

Add DPDK devices:

ovs-vsctl add-port br0 dpdk0 -- set Interface dpdk0 type=dpdk

See the OVS DPDK README for further information.