Re: [PATCH net-next v5 00/10] net: openvswitch: Add sample multicasting.

[Eelco Chaudron <echaudro@redhat.com>]

On 25 Jun 2024, at 22:51, Adrian Moreno wrote:

> ** Background **
> Currently, OVS supports several packet sampling mechanisms (sFlow,
> per-bridge IPFIX, per-flow IPFIX). These end up being translated into a
> userspace action that needs to be handled by ovs-vswitchd's handler
> threads only to be forwarded to some third party application that
> will somehow process the sample and provide observability on the
> datapath.
>
> A particularly interesting use-case is controller-driven
> per-flow IPFIX sampling where the OpenFlow controller can add metadata
> to samples (via two 32bit integers) and this metadata is then available
> to the sample-collecting system for correlation.
>
> ** Problem **
> The fact that sampled traffic share netlink sockets and handler thread
> time with upcalls, apart from being a performance bottleneck in the
> sample extraction itself, can severely compromise the datapath,
> yielding this solution unfit for highly loaded production systems.
>
> Users are left with little options other than guessing what sampling
> rate will be OK for their traffic pattern and system load and dealing
> with the lost accuracy.
>
> Looking at available infrastructure, an obvious candidated would be
> to use psample. However, it's current state does not help with the
> use-case at stake because sampled packets do not contain user-defined
> metadata.
>
> ** Proposal **
> This series is an attempt to fix this situation by extending the
> existing psample infrastructure to carry a variable length
> user-defined cookie.
>
> The main existing user of psample is tc's act_sample. It is also
> extended to forward the action's cookie to psample.
>
> Finally, a new OVS action (OVS_SAMPLE_ATTR_EMIT_SAMPLE) is created.
> It accepts a group and an optional cookie and uses psample to
> multicast the packet and the metadata.
Hi Adrian,

I reviewed the first part of this series to ensure it aligns with the userspace integration. I skipped the selftest patches, assuming Aaron is handling/reviewing those.

Thanks,

Eelco