DPDK Project: Setting Up and Running the helloworld Example

This repository contains the setup and execution of the helloworld example using the Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) within a VPP (Vector Packet Processing) environment. This report outlines the steps, challenges faced, solutions applied, results achieved, and system specifications.

Prerequisites

To replicate this project, the following tools and dependencies were installed:

• Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (or compatible Linux distribution)
• DPDK (integrated within VPP source code)
• Meson (version 1.8.0 or higher)
• Ninja (version 1.10.0 or higher)
• Dependencies: libnuma-dev, libpcap-dev, python3-pyelftools, ninja-build, python3-pip

These were installed using:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install libnuma-dev libpcap-dev python3-pyelftools ninja-build python3-pip

System Specifications

The project was executed on the following system:

Architecture: x86_64
CPU op-mode(s): 32-bit, 64-bit
Byte Order: Little Endian
Address sizes: 39 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
CPU(s): 4
On-line CPU(s) list: 0-3
Thread(s) per core: 2
Core(s) per socket: 2
Socket(s): 1
NUMA node(s): 1
Vendor ID: GenuineIntel
Model name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4500U CPU @ 1.80GHz
CPU MHz: 1000.000
CPU max MHz: 3000.0000
...

Steps to Set Up and Run helloworld

1. Configuring HugePages

HugePages were allocated to provide large, contiguous memory pages for DPDK. A total of 1024 HugePages (2 GB) were configured.

sudo sysctl -w vm.nr_hugepages=1024

Result: The system successfully allocated 1024 HugePages, verified using:

cat /proc/meminfo | grep HugePages

2. Setting Up the DPDK Build Environment

The DPDK source code was located at /home/eagle/vpp/build-root/build-vpp-native/external/src-dpdk. The helloworld example was built using Meson and Ninja:

cd /home/eagle/vpp/build-root/build-vpp-native/external/src-dpdk
rm -rf build
meson setup build
cd build
meson configure -Dexamples=helloworld
ninja

Result: The build process created the dpdk-helloworld executable in build/examples/.

3. Running the helloworld Example

The example was executed on CPU cores 0-3:

sudo ./build/examples/dpdk-helloworld -l 0-3 -n 4

Result: The example ran successfully, printing "hello" from each core (0 to 3).

Challenges and Solutions

1. Outdated Meson Version

• Issue: The initial Meson version (0.53.2) was incompatible.

• Solution:

  pip3 install --user meson --upgrade
  echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
  source ~/.bashrc

• Outcome: Compatibility issue resolved.

2. Missing helloworld Executable

• Issue: After running ninja, the executable was missing.

• Solution:

  cd /home/eagle/vpp/build-root/build-vpp-native/external/src-dpdk
  rm -rf build
  meson setup build
  cd build
  meson configure -Dexamples=helloworld
  ninja

• Outcome: Rebuild successfully generated the executable.

3. PATH Configuration for Meson

• Issue: Installed Meson was not in system's PATH.
• Solution: Added $HOME/.local/bin to PATH (see Solution above).
• Outcome: Correct version of Meson used.

Conclusion

This project successfully configured HugePages and ran the DPDK helloworld example on CPU cores 0-3. Challenges were resolved through version upgrades and rebuilds. The DPDK environment is confirmed operational.

References

• DPDK Documentation
• Memif Guide
• VPP Source Code: /home/eagle/vpp