Onload®️ is a high performance user-level network stack, which accelerates TCP and UDP network I/O for applications using the BSD sockets on Linux.

• Low Application-to-application latency.
• Binary compatible with existing applications.
• Open Source (GPLv2.0 and BSD-2-Clause).

OpenOnload comprises a user-level shared library that intercepts network- related system calls and implements the protocol stack, and supporting kernel modules. It is compatible with the full system call API, including those aspects that are usually problematic for user-level networking, such as fork(), exec(), passing sockets through Unix domain sockets, and advancing the protocol when the application is not scheduled.

OpenOnload is distributed as source code. Instructions for building, packaging and installing may be found in DEVELOPING.md

For each interface on which Onload is to use AF_XDP, execute the following:

echo ens2f0 > /sys/module/sfc_resource/afxdp/register

Nota bene: for linux<5.11 you may need to run ulimit -l unlimited before the line above.

The application to be Onloaded should be launched by prefixing the command line with onload.

Please see CONTRIBUTING.md

OpenOnload can accelerate applications on operating systems with AF_XDP support. AF_XDP support needs Linux kernel version 5.3 or later. To support zero-copy, Onload needs AF_XDP network adapter drivers to implement the necessary AF_XDP primitives. Typically the latest drivers from the network adapter vendors will support these primitives.

The AF_XDP support is currently under development and is not yet at final release quality.

The following operating system distributions are the minimum versions known to provide an adequate level of AF_XDP support for Onload:

• Ubuntu LTS 20.04
• Debian 10 with Linux kernel 5.10
• Redhat Enterprise Linux 8.3
• Redhat Enterprise Linux 9.0
• kernel.org Linux kernels from version 5.4

If a netdriver does not support AF_XDP in native mode, Onload will try to use generic XDP mode when registering an interface. To make it work, one has to set up userland helper before registering the interface:

$ make -C ./src/tools/bpf_link_helper/
$ echo $(realpath ./src/tools/bpf_link_helper/bpf-link-helper) | sudo tee /sys/module/sfc_resource/parameters/bpf_link_helper

OpenOnload can be built without SFC driver:

• make: use HAVE_SFC=0 variable;
• onload_build & onload_install: use --no-sfc parameter;
• onload_tool reload: use --onload-only parameter.

Also, it can be built without EFCT and AUX support:

• make: use HAVE_EFCT=0 variable;
• onload_build: use --no-efct parameter.

Onload also works with the native ef_vi hardware interface, supported by Xilinx network adapters. In this mode of operation, AF_XDP kernel and driver support is not required. This allows Onload to be used on older operating systems and take advantage of additional features. A version of the 'sfc' net driver for Xilinx network adapters is included.

The following adapters at least are able to support OpenOnload without AF_XDP:

• X2541
• X2522, X2522-25G
• X3522
• SFN8042
• SFN8522, SFN8542

This source tree is known to work with AMD Solarflare network adapters on the following Linux distributions:

• Ubuntu LTS 20.04, LTS 22.04
• Debian 11, 12
• Redhat Enterprise Linux 8.1 - 8.9
• Redhat Enterprise Linux 9.0 - 9.3
• Linux kernel in the range 4.15 - 6.6

The publicly-hosted repository is a community-supported project.

Supported releases of OpenOnload are available from https://www.xilinx.com/support/download/nic-software-and-drivers.html#open

This file: (c) Copyright 2020-2024 Xilinx, Inc.