MTL Manager Documentation

MTL Manager Documentation#

Overview#

MTL Manager Design

MTL Manager is a daemon server designed to operate with root privileges. Its primary role is to manage the lifecycle and configurations of MTL instances. It addresses a variety of administrative tasks, including:

  • Lcore Management: Ensures that MTL instances are aware of the lcores used by others, optimizing resource allocation.

  • eBPF/XDP Loader: Dynamically loads and manages eBPF/XDP programs for advanced packet processing and performance tuning.

  • NIC Configuration: Configures Network Interface Cards (NICs) with capabilities like adding or deleting flow and queue settings.

  • Instances Monitor: Continuously monitors MTL instances, providing status reporting and clearing mechanisms.

Build#

To build with XDP support, install the dependencies:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install make m4 clang llvm zlib1g-dev libelf-dev libpcap-dev libcap-ng-dev gcc-multilib

To compile and install the MTL Manager, use the following commands:

meson setup build
meson compile -C build
sudo meson install -C build

Besides MTL Manager, it will also install a built-in XDP program for udp port filtering.

Run#

To run the MTL Manager, execute:

sudo MtlManager

This command will start the MTL Manager with root privileges, which are necessary for the advanced eBPF and network configurations and management tasks it performs.

The XDP program for udp port filtering will be loaded along with the libxdp’s built-in xsk program when the AF_XDP socket is created. It utilizes the xdp-dispatcher program provided by libxdp which allows running of multiple XDP programs in chain on the same interface. You can check the loaded programs with xdp-loader:

sudo xdp-loader status

Interface        Prio  Program name      Mode     ID   Tag               Chain actions
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
lo                     <No XDP program loaded!>
ens787f0               <No XDP program loaded!>
ens787f1               <No XDP program loaded!>
ens785f0               xdp_dispatcher    native   23661 90f686eb86991928 
 =>              19     mtl_dp_filter             23670 02aea45cd16e8656  XDP_DROP
 =>              20     xsk_def_prog              23622 8f9c40757cb0a6a2  XDP_PASS
ens785f1               xdp_dispatcher    native   23675 90f686eb86991928 
 =>              19     mtl_dp_filter             23678 02aea45cd16e8656  XDP_DROP
 =>              20     xsk_def_prog              23639 8f9c40757cb0a6a2  XDP_PASS
virbr0                 <No XDP program loaded!>
docker0                <No XDP program loaded!>

Run in a Docker container#

Please note that the Dockerfile provided is intended for development use only. It has been tested for functionality, but not for security. Users are advised to review and modify it as necessary before using it in a production environment.

Build the Docker image:

docker build --build-arg VERSION=$(cat ../VERSION) -t mtl-manager:latest .
# docker build --build-arg VERSION=$(cat ../VERSION) -t mtl-manager:latest --build-arg HTTP_PROXY=$http_proxy --build-arg HTTPS_PROXY=$https_proxy .

Run the Docker container as a daemon:

docker run -d \
  --name mtl-manager \
  --privileged --net=host \
  -v /var/run/imtl:/var/run/imtl \
  -v /sys/fs/bpf:/sys/fs/bpf \
  mtl-manager:latest

Print the MTL Manager logs:

docker logs -f mtl-manager

Shutdown the Docker container with SIGINT:

docker kill -s SIGINT mtl-manager
# docker rm mtl-manager