Container DPDK Support

[infinitydon]

Hi,

Just want to ask if DPDK is supported using containers?

If yes, kindly point me to a sample config..

As far as I know VPP requires the DPDK PCI address to be set up in the respective startup conf before it starts, I am asking this because I saw the following snippet:

https://github.com/veesix-networks/osvbng/blob/main/docs/configuration/dataplane.md#example

dataplane:
  dpdk:
    devices:
      - pci: "0000:05:00.0"
        name: eth1
      - pci: "0000:06:00.0"
        name: eth2
    socket_mem: "1024,1024"

Does this mean you are somehow generating the VPP startup conf from this yaml before the VPP process starts?

Thanks

[BSpendlove]

Yes osvbng handles the vpp configuration (along with FRR and other processes)

I've not had the chance to test DPDK based containers yet but if you can pass in the pci address then osvbng should auto discover them (however I've not fully tested this feature with containers)

So while theoretically possible, it may need some testing/bug fixes

[infinitydon]

Ok, I tried using with intel based SRIOV VFs, VPP started up but the osvbng process failed when it tried to create VLAN interface on the access interface:

CPUs allowed by cgroup: 6-9
Total cores allocated to pod: 4
Available core IDs: 6 7 8 9
Core allocation: Total=4 DP_MAIN=6 DP_WORKERS=7-9 CP=6
Copying FRR configuration templates...
Copied frr.conf to /etc/osvbng/
Copied routing-daemons to /etc/osvbng/
Generating osvbng.yaml from template...
Generated osvbng.yaml with interface: net1
Generating dataplane.conf from template...
Generated dataplane.conf with CPU cores - Main: 6, Workers: 7-9
====== CPU Configuration ======
cpu {
  main-core 6
  corelist-workers 7-9
}
Using access interface: net1
Device "net1" does not exist.
WARNING: Interface net1 not found yet
Creating runtime directories...
====== Linux Interfaces Below ======
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: eth0@if23: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1450 qdisc noqueue state UP mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 82:ce:ce:4c:a4:50 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff link-netnsid 0
====== Linux Interfaces Above ======
Generating external configurations...
2026/02/06 19:43:43 Warning: DPDK device discovery failed: lspci failed: exec: "lspci": executable file not found in $PATH
2026/02/06 19:43:43 Generated /etc/osvbng/dataplane.conf
2026/02/06 19:43:43 Skipping /etc/osvbng/routing-daemons (already exists)
2026/02/06 19:43:43 Skipping /etc/osvbng/frr.conf (already exists)
Restored processed dataplane.conf with correct CPU allocations
Final dataplane.conf CPU configuration:
cpu {
  main-core 6
  corelist-workers 7-9
}
Starting dataplane...
Checking dataplane process status...
Dataplane process running (PID 32)
====== Checking if dataplane API is responsive ======
connect: No such file or directory
Dataplane API not responding yet
Waiting for dataplane interfaces to be ready...
nl/nl              [notice]: Added file 2
nl/nl              [notice]: Opened netlink socket 9
fib_control        [info  ]: initializing...
fib_control        [notice]: initialized successfully
osvbng_pppoe       [info  ]: initializing...
osvbng_pppoe       [notice]: initialized successfully
osvbng_punt        [info  ]: initializing...
osvbng_punt        [info  ]: registering ethertypes...
osvbng_punt        [notice]: ethertypes registered: ARP, PPPoE-Discovery, PPPoE-Session
osvbng_punt        [notice]: initialized successfully
sflow/all          [notice]: linux-cp found - using LIP vif_index, where available
dpdk               [notice]: EAL init args: --in-memory --no-telemetry --file-prefix vpp -a 0000:00:1b.0 -a 0000:00:1c.0
dma                [info  ]: vlib_dma_register_backend: backend 'Intel DSA' registered
vlib/file          [error ]: vlib_file_update: epoll_ctl() failed, errno 1
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: stn_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: ioam_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [error ]: vat_plugin_register: idpf plugin not loaded...
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: http_static_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: dhcp_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: avf_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: af_xdp_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: vpp_api_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: ikev2_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: lisp_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: nsim_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: vnet_arp_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: rdma_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: flowprobe_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: geneve_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: nsh_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: vrrp_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: cdp_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: ct6_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: acl_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: vnet_ip6_nd_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: memif_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: tlsopenssl_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: vnet_ipsec_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: dns_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: lb_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: gtpu_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: adl_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: vnet_session_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: ip_session_redirect_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: srmpls_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: lacp_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: l2tp_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: pppoe_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: mactime_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: arping_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: vnet_l2_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: vmxnet3_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: vnet_ip_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: vlib_vlibapi_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: vnet_interface_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: mdata_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: lldp_test_plugin.so
vat-plug/load      [notice]: Loaded plugin: sflow_test_plugin.so
dpdk               [notice]: EAL: Detected CPU lcores: 20
dpdk               [notice]: EAL: Detected NUMA nodes: 1
dpdk               [notice]: EAL: Detected static linkage of DPDK
dpdk               [notice]: EAL: Selected IOVA mode 'PA'
dpdk               [notice]: EAL: No free 1048576 kB hugepages reported on node 0
dpdk               [notice]: EAL: VFIO support initialized
dpdk               [notice]: EAL: Using IOMMU type 8 (No-IOMMU)
dpdk               [notice]: EAL: No more space for user mem maps
              Name               Idx    State  MTU (L3/IP4/IP6/MPLS)     Counter          Count
local0                            0     down          0/0/0/0
net1                              1     down         9000/0/0/0
net2                              2     down         9000/0/0/0
Setting dataplane API socket permissions...
Linking FRR configs from /etc/osvbng to /etc/frr...
Starting routing daemons...
Starting watchfrr with command: '  /usr/lib/frr/watchfrr  -d   mgmtd zebra bfdd bgpd ospfd ospf6d ldpd staticd'.
2026/02/06 19:43:49 ZEBRA: [KGY44-D47GD][EC 4043309111] Disabling MPLS support (no kernel support)
[102|mgmtd] sending configuration
[103|zebra] sending configuration
[106|ospfd] sending configuration
[108|ldpd] sending configuration
[109|bgpd] sending configuration
[103|zebra] done
[107|ospf6d] sending configuration
[106|ospfd] done
[107|ospf6d] done
[109|bgpd] done
[108|ldpd] done
[120|bfdd] sending configuration
Waiting for children to finish applying config...
[117|watchfrr] sending configuration
[119|staticd] sending configuration
[117|watchfrr] done
[119|staticd] done
[120|bfdd] done
[102|mgmtd] done
Started watchfrr.
Making zebra API socket accessible...
Routing daemon status:
Status of watchfrr: running.
Status of mgmtd: running.
Status of zebra: running.
Status of bfdd: running.
Status of bgpd: running.
Status of ospfd: running.
Status of ospf6d: running.
Status of ldpd: running.
Status of staticd: running.
Starting osvbng...
2026/02/06 19:43:51.542 [1] [main] Starting osvbng
2026/02/06 19:43:51.545 [1] [main] Applying startup configuration (interfaces)
2026/02/06 19:43:51.546 [1] [configd] Committing configuration session=session-1 changes=7
2026/02/06 19:43:51.548 [1] [dpd] Created VPP loopback config_name=loop100 vpp_name=loop100 sw_if_index=3
linux-cp/itf       [info  ]: pair create: {loop100, tap4096, loop100}
linux-cp/itf       [info  ]: add: host:tap4096 phy:loop100, host_if:loop100 vif:3 ns:(nil)
0: clib_c11_violation: s1 NULL
0: clib_c11_violation: s2 NULL
linux-cp/itf       [info  ]: pair create: itf-pair: [0] loop100 tap4096 loop100 3 type tap sw-flags 0 hw-flags 1
2026/02/06 19:43:51.557 [1] [dpd] Created LCP pair vpp_iface=loop100 linux_iface=loop100 host_type=LCP_API_ITF_HOST_TAP
linux-cp/router    [notice]: Early message received for loop100
linux-cp/router    [notice]: Early message received for loop100
linux-cp/router    [notice]: Early message received for loop100
linux-cp/router    [notice]: Early message received for loop100
linux-cp/itf       [info  ]: admin_state_change: itf-pair: [0] loop100 tap4096 loop100 3 type tap flags 1
linux-cp/itf       [info  ]: sync_state: itf-pair: [0] loop100 tap4096 loop100 3 type tap flags 1 sup-flags 1 mtu 9000 sup-mtu 9000
2026/02/06 19:43:51.659 [1] [dpd] Set interface state interface=loop100 enabled=true
2026/02/06 19:43:51.660 [1] [dpd] Interface already exists in VPP, skipping creation interface=net1
dpdk               [info  ]: Interface net1 started
2026/02/06 19:43:52.326 [1] [dpd] Set interface state interface=net1 enabled=true
dpdk               [notice]: IAVF_DRIVER: iavf_set_rx_function(): request RXDID[1] in Queue[0] is legacy, set rx_pkt_burst as legacy for all queues
2026/02/06 19:43:52.382 [1] [dpd] Created VPP host-interface vpp_iface=eth0 sw_if_index=5 linux_iface=eth0
2026/02/06 19:43:52.382 [1] [dpd] Set interface state interface=eth0 enabled=true
2026/02/06 19:43:52.383 [1] [dpd] Added IPv4 address interface=loop100 address=10.255.0.1/32
2026/02/06 19:43:52.383 [1] [configd] Reloading FRR configuration
linux-cp/router    [notice]: ignore link add: veth - eth0
ip6/link           [notice]: enable: loop100
ip6/link           [notice]: set-ll: loop100 -> fe80::dcad:ff:fe00:64
2026/02/06 19:43:53.024 [1] [routerd] FRR reload completed output=[161|mgmtd] sending configuration
[162|zebra] sending configuration
[165|ospfd] sending configuration
[166|ospf6d] sending configuration
[167|ldpd] sending configuration
[168|bgpd] sending configuration
[165|ospfd] done
[166|ospf6d] done
[162|zebra] done
[167|ldpd] done
[161|mgmtd] done
[176|watchfrr] sending configuration
[178|staticd] sending configuration
[179|bfdd] sending configuration
Waiting for children to finish applying config...
[176|watchfrr] done
[178|staticd] done
[179|bfdd] done
[168|bgpd] done
[186|mgmtd] sending configuration
[187|zebra] sending configuration
[190|ospfd] sending configuration
[191|ospf6d] sending configuration
[192|ldpd] sending configuration
[193|bgpd] sending configuration
[201|watchfrr] sending configuration
[203|staticd] sending configuration
[190|ospfd] done
[187|zebra] done
[191|ospf6d] done
[186|mgmtd] done
[201|watchfrr] done
[192|ldpd] done
[203|staticd] done
[204|bfdd] sending configuration
Waiting for children to finish applying config...
[193|bgpd] done
[204|bfdd] done

2026/02/06 19:43:53.025 [1] [configd] FRR configuration reloaded successfully
2026/02/06 19:43:53.026 [1] [configd] Configuration committed successfully deleted=0 version=1 added=6 modified=1
2026/02/06 19:43:53.027 [1] [main] Startup configuration applied
2026/02/06 19:43:53.027 [1] [main] Waiting for VPP LCP to sync interfaces...
2026/02/06 19:43:58.031 [1] [vpp-async] VPP async worker started
2026/02/06 19:43:58.031 [1] [main] Loading dataplane state
2026/02/06 19:43:58.035 [1] [configd] Loaded dataplane state punt_registrations=0 interfaces=6 unnumbered=0 ipv6_enabled=1
2026/02/06 19:43:58.083 [1] [main] Memif dataplane configured
2026/02/06 19:43:58.083 [1] [main] Added broadcast route for DHCP
2026/02/06 19:43:58.085 [1] [dpd] Using access interface MAC for ARP replies interface=net1 mac=92:a4:ce:bc:91:ef
2026/02/06 19:43:58.091 [1] [memif] Connecting to VPP via memif socket=/run/osvbng/memif.sock
2026/02/06 19:43:58.091 [1] [dataplane] Creating punt socket path=/run/osvbng/punt.sock
2026/02/06 19:43:58.091 [1] [dataplane] Punt socket created, waiting for packets from VPP path=/run/osvbng/punt.sock
2026/02/06 19:43:58.091 [1] [main] Applying infrastructure configuration
2026/02/06 19:43:58.092 [1] [configd] Committing configuration session=session-1 changes=9
2026/02/06 19:43:58.098 [1] [memif] Memif connected to VPP
2026/02/06 19:43:58.108 [1] [memif] Started memif RX loop
2026/02/06 19:43:58 Failed to commit infrastructure config: failed to apply change to interfaces.net1.subinterfaces.100: create vlan sub-interface: VPPApiError: Unspecified Error (-1)
memif_plugin       [error ]: memif1/0: default_socket_recvmsg: disconnected

This is not urgent, I can wait till you have more time to check this..

Thanks

[infinitydon]

dataplane (vpp startup conf):

  dataplane.conf.template: |
    unix {
      interactive
      log /var/log/osvbng/dataplane.log
      full-coredump
      cli-listen /run/osvbng/cli.sock
      cli-prompt osvbng#
      cli-no-pager
      poll-sleep-usec 100
    }
    socksvr {
      socket-name /run/osvbng/dataplane_api.sock
    }
    api-trace {
      on
    }
    memory {
      main-heap-size 512M
      main-heap-page-size 4k
    }
    api-segment {
      gid osvbng
    }
    cpu {
      main-core 6
      corelist-workers 7-9
    }
    dpdk {
     dev 0000:00:1b.0 {name net1}
     dev 0000:00:1c.0 {name net2}
    }
    buffers {
      buffers-per-numa 65536
      default data-size 2048
      page-size 4k
    }
    plugins {
      plugin default { enable }
      plugin dpdk_plugin.so { enable }
      plugin linux_cp_plugin.so { enable }
      plugin linux_nl_plugin.so { enable }
      plugin arp_plugin.so { disable }
      plugin rd_cp_plugin.so { disable }
      plugin igmp_plugin.so { disable }
      plugin osvbng_punt_plugin.so { enable }
      plugin fib_control_plugin.so { enable }
      plugin osvbng_accounting_plugin.so { enable }
    }
    logging {
      default-log-level info
      default-syslog-log-level info
    }
    linux-cp {
      lcp-sync
      lcp-auto-subint
      del-static-on-link-down
      del-dynamic-on-link-down
    }
    statseg {
      default
      per-node-counters on
    }

[infinitydon]

I tested creating the vlan sub-interface manually in the VPP (before starting the osvbg process) and it works

vppctl -s /run/osvbng/cli.sock
    _______    _        _   _____  ___
 __/ __/ _ \  (_)__    | | / / _ \/ _ \
 _/ _// // / / / _ \   | |/ / ___/ ___/
 /_/ /____(_)_/\___/   |___/_/  /_/

osvbng#
osvbng#
osvbng# show hardware-interfaces
              Name                Idx   Link  Hardware
local0                             0    down  local0
  Link speed: unknown
  local
net1                               1     up   net1
  Link speed: 25 Gbps
  RX Queues:
    queue thread         mode
    0     vpp_wk_0 (1)   polling
  TX Queues:
    TX Hash: [name: hash-eth-l34 priority: 50 description: Hash ethernet L34 headers]
    queue shared thread(s)
    0     no     0
    1     no     1
    2     no     2
    3     no     3
  Ethernet address 92:a4:ce:bc:91:ef
  Intel iAVF
    carrier up full duplex max-frame-size 9022
    flags: maybe-multiseg tx-offload intel-phdr-cksum rx-ip4-cksum int-unmaskable
    Devargs:
    rx: queues 1 (max 256), desc 1024 (min 64 max 4096 align 32)
    tx: queues 4 (max 256), desc 1024 (min 64 max 4096 align 32)
    pci: device 8086:154c subsystem 8086:0000 address 0000:00:1b.00 numa 0
    max rx packet len: 9728
    promiscuous: unicast off all-multicast off
    vlan offload: strip off filter off qinq off
    rx offload avail:  vlan-strip ipv4-cksum udp-cksum tcp-cksum qinq-strip
                       outer-ipv4-cksum vlan-filter vlan-extend scatter rss-hash
    rx offload active: ipv4-cksum scatter
    tx offload avail:  vlan-insert ipv4-cksum udp-cksum tcp-cksum sctp-cksum
                       tcp-tso outer-ipv4-cksum qinq-insert vxlan-tnl-tso
                       gre-tnl-tso ipip-tnl-tso geneve-tnl-tso multi-segs
                       mbuf-fast-free
    tx offload active: ipv4-cksum udp-cksum tcp-cksum outer-ipv4-cksum multi-segs
    rss avail:         ipv4-frag ipv4-tcp ipv4-udp ipv4-sctp ipv4-other ipv4
                       ipv6-frag ipv6-tcp ipv6-udp ipv6-sctp ipv6-other ipv6
    rss active:        none
    tx burst mode: Scalar
    tx burst function: (not available)
    rx burst mode: Scalar
    rx burst function: (not available)

net2                               2     up   net2
  Link speed: 25 Gbps
  RX Queues:
    queue thread         mode
    0     vpp_wk_1 (2)   polling
  TX Queues:
    TX Hash: [name: hash-eth-l34 priority: 50 description: Hash ethernet L34 headers]
    queue shared thread(s)
    0     no     0
    1     no     1
    2     no     2
    3     no     3
  Ethernet address 82:19:75:b1:bc:c1
  Intel iAVF
    carrier up full duplex max-frame-size 9022
    flags: maybe-multiseg tx-offload intel-phdr-cksum rx-ip4-cksum int-unmaskable
    Devargs:
    rx: queues 1 (max 256), desc 1024 (min 64 max 4096 align 32)
    tx: queues 4 (max 256), desc 1024 (min 64 max 4096 align 32)
    pci: device 8086:154c subsystem 8086:0000 address 0000:00:1c.00 numa 0
    max rx packet len: 9728
    promiscuous: unicast off all-multicast off
    vlan offload: strip off filter off qinq off
    rx offload avail:  vlan-strip ipv4-cksum udp-cksum tcp-cksum qinq-strip
                       outer-ipv4-cksum vlan-filter vlan-extend scatter rss-hash
    rx offload active: ipv4-cksum scatter
    tx offload avail:  vlan-insert ipv4-cksum udp-cksum tcp-cksum sctp-cksum
                       tcp-tso outer-ipv4-cksum qinq-insert vxlan-tnl-tso
                       gre-tnl-tso ipip-tnl-tso geneve-tnl-tso multi-segs
                       mbuf-fast-free
    tx offload active: ipv4-cksum udp-cksum tcp-cksum outer-ipv4-cksum multi-segs
    rss avail:         ipv4-frag ipv4-tcp ipv4-udp ipv4-sctp ipv4-other ipv4
                       ipv6-frag ipv6-tcp ipv6-udp ipv6-sctp ipv6-other ipv6
    rss active:        none
    tx burst mode: Scalar
    tx burst function: (not available)
    rx burst mode: Scalar
    rx burst function: (not available)

osvbng#
osvbng#
osvbng# show int
              Name               Idx    State  MTU (L3/IP4/IP6/MPLS)     Counter          Count
local0                            0     down          0/0/0/0
net1                              1     down         9000/0/0/0
net2                              2     down         9000/0/0/0
osvbng#
osvbng# create sub-interface net1 100
net1.100
osvbng#
osvbng# show int
              Name               Idx    State  MTU (L3/IP4/IP6/MPLS)     Counter          Count
local0                            0     down          0/0/0/0
net1                              1     down         9000/0/0/0
net1.100                          3     down          0/0/0/0
net2                              2     down         9000/0/0/0
osvbng#
osvbng#
osvbng#
osvbng#
osvbng# set interface state net1 up
osvbng#
osvbng#
osvbng# set interface state net1.100 up
osvbng#
osvbng#
osvbng# show int
              Name               Idx    State  MTU (L3/IP4/IP6/MPLS)     Counter          Count
local0                            0     down          0/0/0/0
net1                              1      up          9000/0/0/0
net1.100                          3      up           0/0/0/0
net2                              2     down         9000/0/0/0

[BSpendlove]

I am reworking quite a lot of the sub-interface/vlan/memif stuff in the most recent build so I won't fix this directly, but I'll let you know when I have a v0.1.0 build over the weekend (loads of stable fixes I've introduced) if that's ok to test that version instead?

[infinitydon]

Sure no problem, I will wait.. Thanks