vpp

Pre-Alpha. This page describes behavior that may change.

Ze optionally integrates with VPP (the FD.io Vector Packet Processor) to forward packets at DPDK speed. When vpp.enabled is true, ze takes ownership of the whole VPP lifecycle: startup, DPDK NIC binding, GoVPP connection, crash recovery, and clean teardown.

How it fits together

BGP reactor -> protocol RIB -> sysRIB
                                 |
                          +------+------+
                          |             |
                     fib-kernel     fib-vpp
                     (netlink)      (GoVPP)
                          |             |
                          v             v
                    Linux FIB       VPP FIB
                     (local)        (transit)

Ze keeps two FIB backends side by side. fib-kernel programs the Linux route table for local services (SSH, web UI, BGP TCP sessions). fib-vpp pushes the same routes into VPP's FIB for DPDK-speed transit forwarding.

Configuration

Minimal example:

vpp {
    enabled true;
    dpdk {
        interface 0000:03:00.0 { name xe0; }
        interface 0000:03:00.1 { name xe1; }
    }
}

Full reference:

Path	Type	Default	Description
vpp.enabled	boolean	false	Master switch.
vpp.external	boolean	false	Connect to an existing VPP (skip startup.conf, NIC bind, exec).
vpp.api-socket	string	/run/vpp/api.sock	GoVPP Unix socket path.
vpp.cpu.main-core	uint8	auto	CPU core for VPP main thread.
vpp.cpu.workers	uint8	auto	Number of worker threads.
vpp.memory.main-heap	size	1G	VPP main heap. 1536M for full DFZ.
vpp.memory.hugepage-size	2M or 1G	2M	Hugepage size.
vpp.memory.buffers	uint32	128000	Buffers per NUMA node.
vpp.dpdk.interface[pci].name	string	required	Short interface name (e.g. xe0).
vpp.stats.poll-interval	uint16	30	Seconds between stats reads.
vpp.lcp.enabled	boolean	true	Linux Control Plane plugin.
vpp.lcp.netns	string	dataplane	Network namespace for LCP TAPs.

FIB programming

fib {
    vpp {
        enabled true;
        table-id 0;
    }
}

External mode

When something else owns VPP (systemd, container sidecar):

vpp {
    enabled true;
    external true;
    api-socket /run/vpp/api.sock;
}

Ze connects to the API socket, runs telemetry, and programs the FIB, but does not start VPP or bind NICs.

What ze manages

When VPP is ze-owned (not external):

1. Parses vpp { } YANG config.
2. Renders startup.conf.
3. Loads vfio, vfio_pci, vfio_iommu_type1 kernel modules.
4. Unbinds NICs from current driver, binds to vfio-pci.
5. Execs the VPP binary.
6. Connects GoVPP to the API socket.
7. Starts the stats poller.
8. On crash: backoff (1s to 30s), restart, replay RIB.
9. On shutdown: SIGTERM VPP, PCI rescan, restore original NIC drivers.

System prerequisites

Requirement	How to provide it
Hugepages (~6 GB production, 2 GB lab)	/sys/kernel/mm/hugepages/ or /etc/sysctl.d/
IOMMU enabled	BIOS: VT-d / AMD-Vi. Kernel: intel_iommu=on iommu=pt
CPU isolation for workers	isolcpus=<cores>
DPDK-compatible NIC	Intel i210/i350, X520/X540, X710/XL710, E810, VirtIO

Observability

• Prometheus metrics: per-interface rx/tx packets/bytes/drops/errors, per-node clocks, system vector rates.
• fib-vpp show: JSON dump of routes fib-vpp believes it has installed.
• vppctl: Direct VPP introspection via /run/vpp/cli.sock.

MPLS label programming

The fib-vpp plugin programs MPLS labels from BGP labeled unicast routes. When a best-path route carries MPLS labels, fib-vpp installs the corresponding label push operation in VPP's FIB. Labels flow from the BGP wire through the RIB to VPP without manual configuration.

Firewall VPP backend

The firewall plugin supports a VPP backend (backend vpp) that uses VPP's ACL classify pipeline for packet filtering and NAT44-ED for SNAT/DNAT/masquerade. See the firewall page for details.

What is not yet wired

Phase	What it adds
vpp-4	Native VPP interface backend (create, delete, address, bridge, monitor via GoVPP).
vpp-5	L2 cross-connect, bridge domains, VXLAN, SRv6, sFlow.

See also

• In-tree VPP guide for the full reference.
• Traffic Control for the VPP traffic control backend.
• FIB for how routes reach the forwarding table.

Adapted from main/docs/guide/vpp.md.