Re: [net-next 01/15] i40e: Introduce VF port representor/control netdevs

On Wed, Sep 21, 2016 at 6:43 AM, Jeff Kirsher
[off-list ref] wrote:

From: Sridhar Samudrala <sridhar.samudrala@intel.com>

This patch enables creation of a VF Port representor/Control netdev
associated with each VF. These netdevs can be used to control and configure
VFs from PFs namespace. They enable exposing VF statistics, configuring
link state, mtu, fdb/vlan entries etc.

What happens if someone does a xmit on the VF representor, does the
packet show up @ the VF?
and what happens of the VF xmits and there's no HW steering rule that
matches this, does
the frame show up @ the VF rep on the host?

In other words, can these VF reps serve for setting up host SW based
switching which you
can later offload (through TC, bridge, netfilter, etc)?

I am posing these questions because in downstream patch you are adding
devlink support
for set/get the e-switch mode and you declare the default mode to be switchdev.

When the switchdev mode was introduced in 4.8 these RX/TX
characteristics were defined
to be an essential (== requirement) part for a driver to support that mode.

Or

    # echo 2 > /sys/class/net/enp5s0f0/device/sriov_numvfs
    # ip l show
    297: enp5s0f0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop portid 6805ca2e7268 state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 68:05:ca:2e:72:68 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    vf 0 MAC 00:00:00:00:00:00, spoof checking on, link-state auto, trust off
    vf 1 MAC 00:00:00:00:00:00, spoof checking on, link-state auto, trust off
    299: enp5s0f0-vf0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    300: enp5s0f0-vf1: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN mode DEFAULT group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff