View source for VPP/Build, install, and test images

This page explains how to build, install, and smoke-test a VPP package. 

These procedures assume that you have a working development environment available. If you are not sure, see [[VPP/Pulling,_Building,_Running,_Hacking_and_Pushing_VPP_Code| Pulling, Building, Hacking, and Pushing VPP Code]].

__FORCETOC__

== Running  Vagrant ==

For more information about using Vagrant on a command-line interface (CLI), see: https://docs.vagrantup.com/v2/cli/index.html

=== cd to the vagrant directory ===

In the command-line interface, navigate to the directory that has the pre-configured Vagrantfile. (In the following sample command, <install_dir> is the directory where you unzipped or cloned the VPP software.)

 cd <install_dir>/build-root/vagrant/

<blockquote>
NOTE: The .../build-root directory contains the files that make up most of the build
system. It contains all of the generic targets, including: xxx-build, xxx-rebuild, xxx-install, xxx-clean, xxx-wipe, xxx-configure, and xxx-find-source.
</blockquote>

=== Adding network interfaces to Vagrant ===
By default, Virtual Machine will have access to only private networks, specifically local0 and pg interfaces. But they won't be useful for tutorial. To make Gigabit*(public network) interfaces appear, find comment  in the Vagrant file.

 # Define some physical ports for your VMs to be used by DPDK

Set nics to the number of Gigabit interfaces needed and config.vm.network to  "private_network". <br>
Code should look like following : 
<syntaxhighlight lang="ruby">
  nics = 1
  if ENV.key?('VPP_VAGRANT_NICS')
    nics = ENV['VPP_VAGRANT_NICS'].to_i(10)
  end
  for i in 1..nics
    config.vm.network "private_network", type: "dhcp"
  end
</syntaxhighlight> 

=== Build the VM with Vagrant ===

By default this will build an Ubuntu 14.0.4 VM.

If you wish instead to build a Centos7 VM instead:
 (export VPP_VAGRANT_DISTRO=centos7;vagrant up)

If you wish to use VMWareFusion as your provider, use:
 (export VAGRANT_DEFAULT_PROVIDER=vmware_fusion;vagrant up)
'''Note:''' If you use vmware please see [https://www.vagrantup.com/docs/vmware/ Vagrant VMWare Provider] 

When you first start Vagrant, it is normal for it to run for several minutes, building the VM, building VPP, and then a README will be displayed telling you how to run VPP.

Use the Vagrant up command to cause Vagrant to start. Vagrant uses the Vagrantfile in the current working directory.

 vagrant up

=== Access the shell ===

Use the Vagrant SSH command to access the running Vagrant machine and give you access to a shell.

 vagrant ssh

If you wish to forward X-windows server requests, use this variation: 

 vagrant ssh -- -X

=== Build A VPP Package ===

The following steps explain how to build a package. Steps 1 through 3 show how to build from the build-root directory. 

For an alternative method, use the top level make command. Steps 1A through 3A show this method.

==== Step 1: Navigate to the build-root directory ====

After connecting vagrant through ssh 

 cd /vpp/build-root

==== Step 2: (Optional) Update the tree and clean up the build directories ====

You can execute a git pull command to obtain the latest updates from the repository. It's also a good idea to execute a "make distclean" command after you do this. Execute the bootstrap script to make sure that build paths and build tools are in a clean state.

 git pull
 <s>make distclean
 ./bootstrap.sh</s>
 git clean {-x|-X}

==== Step 3: Build Debian or RPM Packages ====

Execute the make command to start the build process. You can review the makefile (located in the build-root directory) to examine the build parameters.

<b>To build a Debian package:</b>

 make V=0 PLATFORM=vpp TAG=vpp install-deb

<b>To build an RPM package:</b>

 make V=0 PLATFORM=vpp TAG=vpp install-rpm

On Ubuntu 15.10 I needed to execute the line above using 'sudo' as the dh_install failed with errors.

==== Step 1A: Navigate to the top level directory. ====

After connecting vagrant through ssh 

 cd /vpp

For list of commands, execute

 make

==== Step 2A: (Optional) Clean up build directories and execute fresh release build. ====

You can execute a git pull command to obtain the latest updates from the repository. It's also a good idea to execute a "make distclean" command after you do this. Execute the bootstrap script to make sure that build paths and build tools are in a clean state.

 git pull
 make wipe-release
 make install-dep
 make build-release

Make also allows for multiple targets.

 git pull
 make wipe-release install-dep build-release

==== Step 3A: Build Debian or RPM Packages ====

Execute the make command to start the build process. You can review the makefile (located in the build-root directory) to examine the build parameters.

<b>To build a Debian package:</b>

 make pkg-deb

<b>To build an RPM package:</b>

 make pkg-rpm

=== Install A VPP Package ===

After you have successfully built the VPP packages, you need to install them in order to run.

==== Step 1: Install the packages ====

Install the packages. You can install packages with standard package installation tools (dpkg -i on debian/ubuntu, rpm on RedHat/CentOS).
 
NOTE: You will need root privileges.

<b>To install the package(s) on a Debian operating system:</b>
# Login with root privileges
# Type the dpkg installation command:<br />

 sudo dpkg -i /vpp/build-root/*.deb

<b>To install the package(s) using Redhat Package Manager (RPM):</b>
# Login with root privileges
# Type the RPM installation command:<br />

 sudo rpm -i /vpp/build-root/*.rpm

<blockquote>
NOTE:  On Ubuntu/Debian and RedHat/CentOS systems, the vpp engine consists of multiple installation packages: 

*'''vpp''' - main VPP process 
*'''vpp-lib''' - dynamically linked libraries 
*'''vpp-dev''' - development support files and examples 
*'''vpp-dpdk-dkms''' - DKMS based DPDK kernel module package (only on Debian/Ubuntu)
</blockquote>

==== Step 2: Examine the startup configuration ====

After successful installation, vpp installs a startup config file named startup.conf in the /etc/vpp directory. You can modify that file if appropriate. 

Here is a sample: 
<pre>unix {
  nodaemon
  log /var/log/vpp/vpp.log
  cli-listen localhost:5002
  full-coredump
}
api-trace {
  on
}

dpdk {
  socket-mem 1024
}
</pre>

'''Note:''' In VPP 18.04, the default log file location was moved from '' '/tmp/vpp.log' '' to '' '/var/log/vpp/vpp.log' ''.  The VPP code is indifferent to the file location. However, if SELinux is enabled, then the new location is required for the file to be properly labelled. Check your local startup.conf file for the log file location on your system.

==== Step 3: Start vpp ====

To start the data plane:

# Login with root privileges
# Type the start vpp command:<br />
=== (Debian / Ubuntu) ===

 sudo start vpp

On Ubuntu 15.10 you need to have Upstart installed as they switched to systemd. Use 'sudo apt-get install upstart-sysv' then reboot.<br />
=== (Centos) ===

 sudo service vpp start<br />
# <li value="3">Wait for a few seconds</li>
# Check the interface list.<br />It's a good idea to check the interface list to see which interfaces vpp has been discovered.<br />To show the interface list, execute the show command:<br />

 sudo vppctl show interface  # The interface set varies depending on the system configuration.<b><i>
               Name               Idx       State          Counter          Count
 GigabitEthernet2/2/0              5        down
 GigabitEthernet2/3/0              6        down
 GigabitEthernet2/4/0              7        down
 GigabitEthernet2/5/0              8        down
 GigabitEthernet2/6/0              9        down
 GigabitEthernet2/7/0              10       down
 local0                            0        down
 pg/stream-0                       1        down
 pg/stream-1                       2        down
 pg/stream-2                       3        down
 pg/stream-3                       4        down
</i></b>

==== Step 4: Change blacklist behavior ====

If vpp seems not to have discovered an interface that you expected to see, it's likely that the data-plane blacklisted it. The VPP process blacklists interfaces whose corresponding Linux interfaces are up. 

You can change this blacklist behavior. For example, if you want vpp to take over an interface <font face="monospace">eth1</font> which has been blacklisted, execute the following commands.

<b>To remove <font face="monospace">eth1</font> from the running VPP blacklist:</b>

 sudo ifconfig  
 # Save eth1 IP
 sudo ifconfig eth1 down
 sudo ip addr flush dev ethX
 sudo stop vpp
 sudo start vpp

=== Test The VPP Package ===

It's a good idea to perform a few basic smoke-tests. In other words, it's a good idea to perform some basic tasks to make sure that vpp is running as expected.

==== Step 1: Configure and enable an interface ====

Use the set int command to configure an interface. For this test, configure an ipv4 address on an interface, and enable the interface. Use the sudo command in combination with the vpp engine's vppctl command to execute the command with root privilege:

Replace X.X.X.X with saved IP.

 sudo vppctl set int ip address GigabitEthernet2/2/0 X.X.X.X/24
 sudo vppctl set int state GigabitEthernet2/2/0 up

You can also use the vppctl command in combination with native Linux commands such as grep:

 sudo vppctl show int | grep State

Use the ip probe command to probe an adjacent system, by sending an ipv4 icmp echo-request:

 sudo vppctl ip probe 192.168.1.2 GigabitEthernet2/2/0<b><i>
 Resolved 192.168.1.2
</i></b>

Use the sh ip command to check the ARP and ipv4 FIB tables:

 sudo vppctl  sh ip arp<b><i>
  Time      FIB        IP4      Stat      Ethernet              Interface     
 2782.7392   0     192.168.1.2        00:50:56:b7:05:bb    GigabitEthernet2/2/0
</i></b>
 
 sudo vppctl sh ip fib<b><i>
 Table 0, fib_index 0, flow hash: src dst sport dport proto
      Destination         Packets          Bytes         Adjacency
 192.168.1.0/24                     0               0 weight 1, index 5
                                                      arp GigabitEthernet2/2/0 192.168.1.1/24
 192.168.1.1/32                     0               0 weight 1, index 4
                                                      local 192.168.1.1/24
 192.168.1.2/32                     0               0 weight 1, index 3
                                                      GigabitEthernet2/2/0
                                                      IP4: 00:50:56:b7:05:bc -> 00:50:56:b7:05:bb
</i></b>
==== Step 2: Check the error counters ====

After pinging the vpp engine from 192.168.1.2, use the show error command to check the error counters. 

In this case, all of the counters represent normal events:

 sudo vppctl show error<b><i>
          Count                     Node               Reason
              1                 ip4-arp                ARP requests sent
           9810             ip4-icmp-input             echo replies sent
              2                arp-input               ARP replies receive
</i></b>

==== Step 3: Reset the statistics ====

Use the clear run command to reset the per-node runtime statistics:

 sudo vppctl clear run

==== Step 4: Check for new statistics ====

Send a small number of ipv4 icmp echo replies from the adjacent Linux system. Note that the vpp data plane is capable of answering several MPPS worth of ipv4 icmp echo replies; as the vector size increases, the clocks/pkt statistics will improve drastically.

Use the show run command to see the new statistics.

 sudo vppctl show run<b><i>
 Time 18.1, average vectors/node 1.00, last 128 main loops 0.00 per node 0.00
   vector rates in 2.2068e-1, out 2.2068e-1, drop 0.0000e0, punt 0.0000e0
              Name                 State         Calls          Vectors        Suspends         Clocks       Vectors/Call
 GigabitEthernet2/2/0-output      active                  4               4               0          1.71e3            1.00
 GigabitEthernet2/2/0-tx          active                  4               4               0          7.49e3            1.00
 api-rx-from-ring                any wait                 0               0               1          9.90e3            0.00
 cnat-db-scanner                 any wait                 0               0            1813          1.17e3            0.00
 dpdk-input                       polling          60666120               4               0          4.04e9            0.00
 dpdk-process                    any wait                 0               0               4          1.29e7            0.00
 ethernet-input                   active                  4               4               0          5.51e3            1.00
 gmon-process                    time wait                0               0               3          5.59e3            0.00
 ip4-icmp-echo-request            active                  4               4               0          1.85e3            1.00
 ip4-icmp-input                   active                  4               4               0          1.51e3            1.00
 ip4-input                        active                  4               4               0          3.49e3            1.00
 ip4-local                        active                  4               4               0          3.23e3            1.00
 ip4-lookup                       active                  4               4               0          4.49e3            1.00
 ip4-rewrite-local                active                  4               4               0          3.72e3            1.00
 ip6-icmp-neighbor-discovery-ev  any wait                 0               0              18          6.74e3            0.00
 unix-cli-127.0.0.1:48387         active                  0               0               9          7.15e4            0.00
 unix-epoll-input                 polling          60666120               0               0          5.15e2            0.00
 vpe-oam-process                 any wait                 0               0               9          6.45e3            0.00
</i></b>
==== Step 5: Start a packet trace ====
 
Use the trace add command to start a packet-tracer capture:

 sudo vppctl trace add dpdk-input 10

==== Step 6: Verify test packets ====

Ping 192.168.1.1 from 192.168.1.2, AKA send ipv4 icmp echo request packets. If the ping succeeds, you should be all set. 

Use the show trace command to display the packet trace.

<b>To show trace information:</b>
 sudo vppctl show trace

The packet trace will look something like this:

 <b><i>------------------- Start of thread 0 vpp_main -------------------
 Packet 1
 
 01:10:14:046893: dpdk-input
  GigabitEthernet2/2/0 rx queue 0
  buffer 0x631e: current data 0, length 102, free-list 0, totlen-nifb 0, trace 0x0
  PKT MBUF: port 0, nb_segs 1, pkt_len 102
    buf_len 2304, data_len 102, ol_flags 0x0,
    packet_type 0x0
  IP4: 00:50:56:b7:05:bb -> 00:50:56:b7:05:bc
  ICMP: 192.168.1.2 -> 192.168.1.1
    tos 0x00, ttl 64, length 84, checksum 0x7c1f
    fragment id 0x3b36, flags DONT_FRAGMENT
  ICMP echo_request checksum 0x7cd1
 01:10:14:046989: ethernet-input
  IP4: 00:50:56:b7:05:bb -> 00:50:56:b7:05:bc
 01:10:14:047010: ip4-input
  ICMP: 192.168.1.2 -> 192.168.1.1
    tos 0x00, ttl 64, length 84, checksum 0x7c1f
    fragment id 0x3b36, flags DONT_FRAGMENT
  ICMP echo_request checksum 0x7cd1
 01:10:14:047013: ip4-local
  fib: 0 adjacency: local 192.168.1.1/24 flow hash: 0x00000000
 01:10:14:047017: ip4-icmp-input
  ICMP: 192.168.1.2 -> 192.168.1.1
    tos 0x00, ttl 64, length 84, checksum 0x7c1f
    fragment id 0x3b36, flags DONT_FRAGMENT
  ICMP echo_request checksum 0x7cd1
 01:10:14:047019: ip4-icmp-echo-request
  ICMP: 192.168.1.2 -> 192.168.1.1
    tos 0x00, ttl 64, length 84, checksum 0x7c1f
    fragment id 0x3b36, flags DONT_FRAGMENT
  ICMP echo_request checksum 0x7cd1
 01:10:14:047019: ip4-rewrite-local
  fib: 0 adjacency: GigabitEthernet2/2/0
                    IP4: 00:50:56:b7:05:bc -> 00:50:56:b7:05:bb flow hash: 0x00000000
  IP4: 00:50:56:b7:05:bc -> 00:50:56:b7:05:bb
  ICMP: 192.168.1.1 -> 192.168.1.2
    tos 0x00, ttl 64, length 84, checksum 0x6383
    fragment id 0x53d2, flags DONT_FRAGMENT
  ICMP echo_reply checksum 0x84d1
 01:10:14:047021: GigabitEthernet2/2/0-output
  GigabitEthernet2/2/0
  IP4: 00:50:56:b7:05:bc -> 00:50:56:b7:05:bb
  ICMP: 192.168.1.1 -> 192.168.1.2
    tos 0x00, ttl 64, length 84, checksum 0x6383
    fragment id 0x53d2, flags DONT_FRAGMENT
  ICMP echo_reply checksum 0x84d1
 01:10:14:047022: GigabitEthernet2/2/0-tx
  GigabitEthernet2/2/0 tx queue 0
  buffer 0x631e: current data 0, length 102, free-list 0, totlen-nifb 0, trace 0x0
  IP4: 00:50:56:b7:05:bc -> 00:50:56:b7:05:bb
  ICMP: 192.168.1.1 -> 192.168.1.2
    tos 0x00, ttl 64, length 84, checksum 0x6383
    fragment id 0x53d2, flags DONT_FRAGMENT
  ICMP echo_reply checksum 0x84d1
 
 Packet 2
 
 01:10:15:044487: dpdk-input
  GigabitEthernet2/2/0 rx queue 0
  buffer 0x6345: current data 0, length 102, free-list 0, totlen-nifb 0, trace 0x1
  PKT MBUF: port 0, nb_segs 1, pkt_len 102
    buf_len 2304, data_len 102, ol_flags 0x0,
    packet_type 0x0
  IP4: 00:50:56:b7:05:bb -> 00:50:56:b7:05:bc
  ICMP: 192.168.1.2 -> 192.168.1.1
    tos 0x00, ttl 64, length 84, checksum 0x7bc7
    fragment id 0x3b8e, flags DONT_FRAGMENT
  ICMP echo_request checksum 0x64d4
 01:10:15:044496: ethernet-input
  IP4: 00:50:56:b7:05:bb -> 00:50:56:b7:05:bc
 01:10:15:044500: ip4-input
  ICMP: 192.168.1.2 -> 192.168.1.1
    tos 0x00, ttl 64, length 84, checksum 0x7bc7
    fragment id 0x3b8e, flags DONT_FRAGMENT
  ICMP echo_request checksum 0x64d4
 01:10:15:044504: ip4-local
  fib: 0 adjacency: local 192.168.1.1/24 flow hash: 0x00000000
 01:10:15:044506: ip4-icmp-input
  ICMP: 192.168.1.2 -> 192.168.1.1
    tos 0x00, ttl 64, length 84, checksum 0x7bc7
    fragment id 0x3b8e, flags DONT_FRAGMENT
  ICMP echo_request checksum 0x64d4
 01:10:15:044507: ip4-icmp-echo-request
  ICMP: 192.168.1.2 -> 192.168.1.1
    tos 0x00, ttl 64, length 84, checksum 0x7bc7
    fragment id 0x3b8e, flags DONT_FRAGMENT
  ICMP echo_request checksum 0x64d4
 01:10:15:044507: ip4-rewrite-local
  fib: 0 adjacency: GigabitEthernet2/2/0
                    IP4: 00:50:56:b7:05:bc -> 00:50:56:b7:05:bb flow hash: 0x00000000
  IP4: 00:50:56:b7:05:bc -> 00:50:56:b7:05:bb
  ICMP: 192.168.1.1 -> 192.168.1.2
    tos 0x00, ttl 64, length 84, checksum 0x82be
    fragment id 0x3497, flags DONT_FRAGMENT
  ICMP echo_reply checksum 0x6cd4
 01:10:15:044509: GigabitEthernet2/2/0-output
  GigabitEthernet2/2/0
  IP4: 00:50:56:b7:05:bc -> 00:50:56:b7:05:bb
  ICMP: 192.168.1.1 -> 192.168.1.2
    tos 0x00, ttl 64, length 84, checksum 0x82be
    fragment id 0x3497, flags DONT_FRAGMENT
  ICMP echo_reply checksum 0x6cd4
 01:10:15:044510: GigabitEthernet2/2/0-tx
  GigabitEthernet2/2/0 tx queue 0
  buffer 0x6345: current data 0, length 102, free-list 0, totlen-nifb 0, trace 0x1
  IP4: 00:50:56:b7:05:bc -> 00:50:56:b7:05:bb
  ICMP: 192.168.1.1 -> 192.168.1.2
    tos 0x00, ttl 64, length 84, checksum 0x82be
    fragment id 0x3497, flags DONT_FRAGMENT
  ICMP echo_reply checksum 0x6cd4
</i></b>
If you see packet information from <font face="monospace">ICMP: 192.168.1.2</font>, then you know that vpp is successfully processing packets.


==== Update ====
If debian packages should be updated.
See all VPP packages installed.
 dpkg -l | grep vpp
You should get something like <b><i>
 # ii  vpp                                 1.0.0-190~g9f50b0b-dirty            amd64        Vector Packet Processing--executables
 # ii  vpp-dbg                             1.0.0-190~g9f50b0b-dirty            amd64        Vector Packet Processing--debug symbols
 # ii  vpp-dev                             1.0.0-190~g9f50b0b-dirty            amd64        Vector Packet Processing--development support
 # ii  vpp-dpdk-dev                        1.0.0-190~g9f50b0b-dirty            amd64        Vector Packet Processing--development support
 # ii  vpp-dpdk-dkms                       1.0.0-190~g9f50b0b-dirty            amd64        DPDK 2.1 igb_uio_driver
 # ii  vpp-lib                             1.0.0-190~g9f50b0b-dirty            amd64        Vector Packet Processing--runtime libraries
</i></b>
Remove all of them
 sudo dpkg --purge vpp vpp-dbg vpp-dev vpp-dpdk-dev vpp-dpdk-dkms vpp-lib

== Build, Install, and Test VPP without using Packages ==

The following steps explain how to build, install, and test the code without building and installing packages. This is useful for doing development. Assume that <top> is the top directory of the tree that you cloned (e.g., git clone https://gerrit.fd.io/r/vpp) and should be spelled out appropriately.

==== Step 1: Navigate to the top level directory. ====
 

 cd <top>

For list of commands, execute

 make

==== Step 2: Clean up build directories and execute fresh release build. ====

You can execute a git pull command to obtain the latest updates from the repository. It's also possible, though typically not necessary, to execute a "make wipe-release" command after you do this. Execute the bootstrap script during the initial build sequence to make sure that build paths and build tools are in a clean state; this is a no-op on subsequent builds.

 git pull
 make wipe-release # rarely required
 make install-dep  # extremely rarely required after the initial build sequence
 make bootstrap    # only for first time build
 make build-release

You can substitute "make wipe" and "make "build" for "make wipe-release" and "make build-release" respectively, to build debug versions. If that is done, references to "install-vpp-native" below should be changed to "install-vpp_debug-native".

==== Step 3: Copy and Examine the startup configuration ====

I am recommending that configuration files be kept under /etc, and that we do a one time copy of the default versions from our source tree. This way, we can modify configuration without worrying that our modifications are overwritten. Thus, copying the configuration files is a one time operation:

 cd <top>/src/vpp/conf
 sudo mkdir -p /etc/vpp
 sudo cp startup.conf /etc/vpp/
 sudo cp 80-vpp.conf /etc/sysctl.d

Here is a sample of startup.conf: 
<pre>unix {
  nodaemon
  log /var/log/vpp/vpp.log
  cli-listen localhost:5002
  full-coredump
}
api-trace {
  on
}

dpdk {
  socket-mem 1024
}
# Alternate syntax to choose plugin path
 plugin_path <top>/build-root/install-vpp-native/vpp/lib64/vpp_plugins
</pre>

Note in particular that the plugin_path must be set for this inline development mode.

You need to reboot after copying 80-vpp.conf to /etc/sysctl.d/ to pickup that configuration. Alternatively, you could accomplish the same thing using the sysctl command. I believe that a minimum of 3.5 to 4 GB system memory is required, but I do not know the precise number. You can probably figure it out if you read 80-vpp.conf correctly.

'''Note:''' In VPP 18.04, the default log file location was moved from '' '/tmp/vpp.log' '' to '' '/var/log/vpp/vpp.log' ''.  The VPP code is indifferent to the file location. However, if SELinux is enabled, then the new location is required for the file to be properly labelled. Check your local startup.conf file for the log file location on your system.

==== Step 4: Start vpp ====

To start the data plane I use this script that I save in ~/vpp.sh and then I run "source ~/vpp.sh":

 T=~/vpp/build-root/install-vpp-native/vpp
 sudo /bin/rm -f /dev/shm/db /dev/shm/global_vm /dev/shm/vpe-api || return
 sudo /sbin/modprobe uio_pci_generic || return
 sudo $T/bin/vpp -c /etc/vpp/startup.conf

Next, we need some preparation to use the vppctl command. It calls the vpp_api_test command; both commands are in directory $T/bin. Because vpp_api_test is called with sudo access, the sudo secure_path must be set correctly. Using the command

 sudoedit /etc/sudoers 

modify the definition of secure_path to read

 Defaults    secure_path = /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:<top>/build-root/install-vpp-native/vpp/bin