[openib-general] [PATCH v2 0/11] [RFC] Support for QLogic Virtual Ethernet I/O Controller (VEx)

[Michael S. Tsirkin]

> Quoting r. Madhu Lakshmanan <madhu.lakshmanan at qlogic.com>:
> > Is the VEx wire protocol documented somewhere? For example, what is a viport?
> > What is a netpath?  It's somewhat hard to understand the code without the
> > protocol spec it is trying to implement.
> 
> The VNIC software is a device driver for a remote device on the IB fabric, the VEx. 
> We have followed the convention and standard set by previous submitters of device driver
> code to either OpenFabrics or the Linux kernel, in that the code is the documentation. 
> The device drivers for mthca, ehca, ipath, or for that matter, Ethernet NICs like the 
> Intel Pro 1000, do not document the "protocol" they implement when managing their device
> over PCI or PCI-X. The VNIC manages the VEx over the IB bus and as such it is a device 
> driver in the same class as those mentioned above.

I looked at the code a bit.  So you seem to have something that gets IP packets
and rdma's them across infiniband.  Good. But where in code is the "manages the
VEx" part?  How is the management done? What makes it device-specific?

All I found is some code to maintain IB connections with a remote HCA.
So from this reading it seems VEx is an embedded system that really manages itself - you
just connect to it to rdma the eth packets around. Is that right?

-- 
MST