Date:	Wed, 15 Feb 2012 09:10:57 -0500
From:	Jamal Hadi Salim <jhs@...atatu.com>
To:	John Fastabend <john.r.fastabend@...el.com>
Cc:	Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@...tta.com>,
	bhutchings@...arflare.com, roprabhu@...co.com,
	netdev@...r.kernel.org, mst@...hat.com, chrisw@...hat.com,
	davem@...emloft.net, gregory.v.rose@...el.com, kvm@...r.kernel.org,
	sri@...ibm.com
Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH v0 1/2] net: bridge: propagate FDB table into
 hardware

On Tue, 2012-02-14 at 10:57 -0800, John Fastabend wrote:

> Roopa was likely on the right track here,
> 
> http://patchwork.ozlabs.org/patch/123064/

Doesnt seem related to the bridging stuff - the modeling looks
reasonable however.

> But I think the proper syntax is to use the existing PF_BRIDGE:RTM_XXX
> netlink messages. And if possible drive this without extending ndo_ops.
> 
> An ideal user space interaction IMHO would look like,
> 
> [root@...dev1-dcblab iproute2]# ./br/br fdb add 52:e5:62:7b:57:88 dev veth10
> [root@...dev1-dcblab iproute2]# ./br/br fdb
> port    mac addr                flags
> veth2   36:a6:35:9b:96:c4       local
> veth4   aa:54:b0:7b:42:ef       local
> veth0   2a:e8:5c:95:6c:1b       local
> veth6   6e:26:d5:43:a3:36       local
> veth0   f2:c1:39:76:6a:fb
> veth8   4e:35:16:af:87:13       local
> veth10  52:e5:62:7b:57:88       static
> veth10  aa:a9:35:21:15:c4       local

Looks nice, where is the targeted bridge(eg br0) in that syntax?

> Using Stephen's br tool. First command adds FDB entry to SW bridge and
> if the same tool could be used to add entries to embedded bridge I think
> that would be the best case. 

That would be nice (although adds dependency on the presence of the
s/ware bridge). Would be nicer to have either a knob in the kernel to
say "synchronize with h/w bridge foo" which can be turned off.  

> So no RTNETLINK error on the second cmd. Then
> embedded FDB entries could be dumped this way also so I get a complete view
> of my FDB setup across multiple sw bridges and embedded bridges.

So if you had multiple h/ware bridges - which one is tied to br0? 


> Yes. The hardware has a bit to support this which is currently not exposed
> to user space. That's a case where we have 'yet another knob' that needs
> a clean solution. This causes real bugs today when users try to use the
> macvlan devices in VEPA mode on top of SR-IOV. By the way these modes are
> all part of the 802.1Qbg spec which people actually want to use with Linux
> so a good clean solution is probably needed.


I think the knobs to "flood" and "learn" are important. The hardware
seems to have the "flood" but not the "learn/discover". I think the
s/ware bridge needs to have both. At the moment - as pointed out in that
*NEIGH* notification, s/w bridge assumes a policy that could be
considered a security flaw in some circles - just because you are my
neighbor does not mean i trust you to come into my house; i may trust
you partially and allow you only to come through the front door. Even in
Canada with a default policy of not locking your door we sometimes lock
our doors ;->


> I have no problem with drawing the line here and trying to implement something
> over PF_BRIDGE:RTM_xxx nlmsgs. 


My comment/concern was in regard to the bridge built-in policy of
reading from the neighbor updates (refer to above comments)

cheers,
jamal


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