NAME¶

cxgbe — Chelsio T4 and T5 based 40Gb, 10Gb, and 1Gb Ethernet adapter driver

SYNOPSIS¶

To compile this driver into the kernel, place the following lines in your kernel configuration file:

To load the driver as a module at boot time, place the following lines in loader.conf(5):

t4fw_cfg_load="YES"
t5fw_cfg_load="YES"
if_cxgbe_load="YES"

DESCRIPTION¶

The cxgbe driver provides support for PCI Express Ethernet adapters based on the Chelsio Terminator 4 and Terminator 5 ASICs (T4 and T5). The driver supports Jumbo Frames, Transmit/Receive checksum offload, TCP segmentation offload (TSO), Large Receive Offload (LRO), VLAN tag insertion/extraction, VLAN checksum offload, VLAN TSO, and Receive Side Steering (RSS). For further hardware information and questions related to hardware requirements, see http://www.chelsio.com/.

Note that ports of T5 cards are named cxl and attach to a t5nex parent device (in contrast to ports named cxgbe that attach to a t4nex parent for a T4 card). Loader tunables with the hw.cxgbe prefix apply to both T4 and T5 cards. The sysctl MIBs are at dev.t5nex and dev.cxl for T5 cards and at dev.t4nex and dev.cxgbe for T4 cards.

For more information on configuring this device, see ifconfig(8).

HARDWARE¶

The cxgbe driver supports 40Gb, 10Gb and 1Gb Ethernet adapters based on the T5 ASIC (ports will be named cxl):

• Chelsio T580-CR
• Chelsio T580-LP-CR
• Chelsio T580-LP-SO-CR
• Chelsio T560-CR
• Chelsio T540-CR
• Chelsio T540-LP-CR
• Chelsio T522-CR
• Chelsio T520-LL-CR
• Chelsio T520-CR
• Chelsio T520-SO
• Chelsio T520-BT
• Chelsio T504-BT

The cxgbe driver supports 10Gb and 1Gb Ethernet adapters based on the T4 ASIC:

• Chelsio T420-CR
• Chelsio T422-CR
• Chelsio T440-CR
• Chelsio T420-BCH
• Chelsio T440-BCH
• Chelsio T440-CH
• Chelsio T420-SO
• Chelsio T420-CX
• Chelsio T420-BT
• Chelsio T404-BT

LOADER TUNABLES¶

Tunables can be set at the loader(8) prompt before booting the kernel or stored in loader.conf(5).

hw.cxgbe.ntxq10g

The number of tx queues to use for a 10Gb or 40Gb port. The default is 16 or the number of CPU cores in the system, whichever is less.

hw.cxgbe.nrxq10g

The number of rx queues to use for a 10Gb or 40Gb port. The default is 8 or the number of CPU cores in the system, whichever is less.

hw.cxgbe.ntxq1g

The number of tx queues to use for a 1Gb port. The default is 4 or the number of CPU cores in the system, whichever is less.

hw.cxgbe.nrxq1g

The number of rx queues to use for a 1Gb port. The default is 2 or the number of CPU cores in the system, whichever is less.

hw.cxgbe.nofldtxq10g

The number of TOE tx queues to use for a 10Gb or 40Gb port. The default is 8 or the number of CPU cores in the system, whichever is less.

hw.cxgbe.nofldrxq10g

The number of TOE rx queues to use for a 10Gb or 40Gb port. The default is 2 or the number of CPU cores in the system, whichever is less.

hw.cxgbe.nofldtxq1g

The number of TOE tx queues to use for a 1Gb port. The default is 2 or the number of CPU cores in the system, whichever is less.

hw.cxgbe.nofldrxq1g

The number of TOE rx queues to use for a 1Gb port. The default is 1.

hw.cxgbe.num_vis

The number of virtual interfaces (VIs) created for each port. Each virtual interface creates a separate network interface. The first virtual interface on each port is required and represents the primary network interface on the port. Additional virtual interfaces on a port are named vcxgbe (T4) or vcxl (T5) and only use a single rx and tx queue. Additional virtual interfaces use a single pair of queues for rx and tx as well an additional pair of queues for TOE rx and tx. The default is 1.

hw.cxgbe.holdoff_timer_idx_10G

 

hw.cxgbe.holdoff_timer_idx_1G

The timer index value to use to delay interrupts. The holdoff timer list has the values 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, and 200 by default (all values are in microseconds) and the index selects a value from this list. The default value is 1 which means the timer value is 5us. Different interfaces can be assigned different values at any time via the dev.cxgbe.X.holdoff_tmr_idx or dev.cxl.X.holdoff_tmr_idx sysctl.

hw.cxgbe.holdoff_pktc_idx_10G

 

hw.cxgbe.holdoff_pktc_idx_1G

The packet-count index value to use to delay interrupts. The packet-count list has the values 1, 8, 16, and 32 by default and the index selects a value from this list. The default value is -1 which means packet counting is disabled and interrupts are generated based solely on the holdoff timer value. Different interfaces can be assigned different values via the dev.cxgbe.X.holdoff_pktc_idx or dev.cxl.X.holdoff_pktc_idx sysctl. This sysctl works only when the interface has never been marked up (as done by ifconfig up).

hw.cxgbe.qsize_txq

The size, in number of entries, of the descriptor ring used for a tx queue. A buf_ring of the same size is also allocated for additional software queuing. See ifnet(9). The default value is 1024. Different interfaces can be assigned different values via the dev.cxgbe.X.qsize_txq sysctl or dev.cxl.X.qsize_txq sysctl. This sysctl works only when the interface has never been marked up (as done by ifconfig up).

hw.cxgbe.qsize_rxq

The size, in number of entries, of the descriptor ring used for an rx queue. The default value is 1024. Different interfaces can be assigned different values via the dev.cxgbe.X.qsize_rxq or dev.cxl.X.qsize_rxq sysctl. This sysctl works only when the interface has never been marked up (as done by ifconfig up).

hw.cxgbe.interrupt_types

The interrupt types that the driver is allowed to use. Bit 0 represents INTx (line interrupts), bit 1 MSI, bit 2 MSI-X. The default is 7 (all allowed). The driver will select the best possible type out of the allowed types by itself.

hw.cxgbe.fw_install

0 prohibits the driver from installing a firmware on the card. 1 allows the driver to install a new firmware if internal driver heuristics indicate that the new firmware is preferable to the one already on the card. 2 instructs the driver to always install the new firmware on the card as long as it is compatible with the driver and is a different version than the one already on the card. The default is 1.

hw.cxgbe.fl_pktshift

The number of bytes of padding inserted before the beginning of an Ethernet frame in the receive buffer. The default value of 2 ensures that the Ethernet payload (usually the IP header) is at a 4 byte aligned address. 0-7 are all valid values.

hw.cxgbe.fl_pad

A non-zero value ensures that writes from the hardware to a receive buffer are padded up to the specified boundary. The default is -1 which lets the driver pick a pad boundary. 0 disables trailer padding completely.

hw.cxgbe.cong_drop

Controls the hardware response to congestion. -1 disables congestion feedback and is not recommended. 0 instructs the hardware to backpressure its pipeline on congestion. This usually results in the port emitting PAUSE frames. 1 instructs the hardware to drop frames destined for congested queues.

hw.cxgbe.pause_settings

PAUSE frame settings. Bit 0 is rx_pause, bit 1 is tx_pause. rx_pause = 1 instructs the hardware to heed incoming PAUSE frames, 0 instructs it to ignore them. tx_pause = 1 allows the hardware to emit PAUSE frames when its receive FIFO reaches a high threshold, 0 prohibits the hardware from emitting PAUSE frames. The default is 3 (both rx_pause and tx_pause = 1). This tunable establishes the default PAUSE settings for all ports. Settings can be displayed and controlled on a per-port basis via the dev.cxgbe.X.pause_settings (dev.cxl.X.pause_settings for T5 cards) sysctl.

hw.cxgbe.buffer_packing

Allow the hardware to deliver multiple frames in the same receive buffer opportunistically. The default is -1 which lets the driver decide. 0 or 1 explicitly disable or enable this feature.

hw.cxgbe.allow_mbufs_in_cluster

1 allows the driver to lay down one or more mbufs within the receive buffer opportunistically. This is the default. 0 prohibits the driver from doing so.

hw.cxgbe.largest_rx_cluster

 

hw.cxgbe.safest_rx_cluster

Sizes of rx clusters. Each of these must be set to one of the sizes available (usually 2048, 4096, 9216, and 16384) and largest_rx_cluster must be greater than or equal to safest_rx_cluster. The defaults are 16384 and 4096 respectively. The driver will never attempt to allocate a receive buffer larger than largest_rx_cluster and will fall back to allocating buffers of safest_rx_cluster size if an allocation larger than safest_rx_cluster fails. Note that largest_rx_cluster merely establishes a ceiling -- the driver is allowed to allocate buffers of smaller sizes.

hw.cxgbe.config_file

Select a pre-packaged device configuration file. A configuration file contains a recipe for partitioning and configuring the hardware resources on the card. This tunable is for specialized applications only and should not be used in normal operation. The configuration profile currently in use is available in the dev.t4nex.X.cf and dev.t4nex.X.cfcsum (dev.t5nex for T5 cards) sysctls.

hw.cxgbe.linkcaps_allowed

 

hw.cxgbe.niccaps_allowed

 

hw.cxgbe.toecaps_allowed

 

hw.cxgbe.rdmacaps_allowed

 

hw.cxgbe.iscsicaps_allowed

 

hw.cxgbe.fcoecaps_allowed

Disallowing capabilities provides a hint to the driver and firmware to not reserve hardware resources for that feature. Each of these is a bit field with a bit for each sub-capability within the capability. This tunable is for specialized applications only and should not be used in normal operation. The capabilities for which hardware resources have been reserved are listed in dev.t4nex.X.*caps or dev.t5nex.X.*caps sysctls.

SUPPORT¶

For general information and support, go to the Chelsio support website at: http://www.chelsio.com/.

If an issue is identified with this driver with a supported adapter, email all the specific information related to the issue to <support@chelsio.com>.

SEE ALSO¶

altq(4), arp(4), cxgb(4), netintro(4), ng_ether(4), ifconfig(8)

HISTORY¶

The cxgbe device driver first appeared in FreeBSD 9.0. Support for T5 cards first appeared in FreeBSD 9.2 and FreeBSD 10.0.

AUTHORS¶

The cxgbe driver was written by Navdeep Parhar <np@FreeBSD.org>.