Chapter 6. Configuring IPoIB

By default, InfiniBand does not use the internet protocol (IP) for communication. However, IP over InfiniBand (IPoIB) provides an IP network emulation layer on top of InfiniBand remote direct memory access (RDMA) networks. This allows existing unmodified applications to transmit data over InfiniBand networks, but the performance is lower than if the application would use RDMA natively.

Note

The Mellanox devices, starting from ConnectX-4 and above, on RHEL 8 and later use Enhanced IPoIB mode by default (datagram only). Connected mode is not supported on these devices.

6.1. The IPoIB communication modes

An IPoIB device is configurable in either Datagram or Connected mode. The difference is the type of queue pair the IPoIB layer attempts to open with the machine at the other end of the communication:

  • In the Datagram mode, the system opens an unreliable, disconnected queue pair.

    This mode does not support packages larger than Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) of the InfiniBand link layer. During transmission of data, the IPoIB layer adds a 4-byte IPoIB header on top of the IP packet. As a result, the IPoIB MTU is 4 bytes less than the InfiniBand link-layer MTU. As 2048 is a common InfiniBand link-layer MTU, the common IPoIB device MTU in Datagram mode is 2044.

  • In the Connected mode, the system opens a reliable, connected queue pair.

    This mode allows messages larger than the InfiniBand link-layer MTU. The host adapter handles packet segmentation and reassembly. As a result, in the Connected mode, the messages sent from Infiniband adapters have no size limits. However, there are limited IP packets due to the data field and TCP/IP header field. For this reason, the IPoIB MTU in the Connected mode is 65520 bytes.

    The Connected mode has a higher performance but consumes more kernel memory.

Though a system is configured to use the Connected mode, a system still sends multicast traffic using the Datagram mode because InfiniBand switches and fabric cannot pass multicast traffic in the Connected mode. Also, when the host is not configured to use the Connected mode, the system falls back to the Datagram mode.

While running an application that sends multicast data up to MTU on the interface, configures the interface in Datagram mode or configure the application to cap the send size of a packet that will fit in datagram-sized packets.

6.2. Understanding IPoIB hardware addresses

IPoIB devices have a 20 byte hardware address that consists of the following parts:

  • The first 4 bytes are flags and queue pair numbers

  • The next 8 bytes are the subnet prefix

    The default subnet prefix is 0xfe:80:00:00:00:00:00:00. After the device connects to the subnet manager, the device changes this prefix to match with the configured subnet manager.

  • The last 8 bytes are the Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) of the InfiniBand port that attaches to the IPoIB device
Note

As the first 12 bytes can change, do not use them in the udev device manager rules.

6.3. Configuring an IPoIB connection using nmcli commands

The nmcli command-line utility controls the NetworkManager and reports network status using CLI.

Prerequisites

  • An InfiniBand device is installed on the server
  • The corresponding kernel module is loaded

Procedure

  1. Create the InfiniBand connection to use the mlx4_ib0 interface in the Connected transport mode and the maximum MTU of 65520 bytes: 

    # nmcli connection add type infiniband con-name mlx4_ib0 ifname mlx4_ib0 transport-mode Connected mtu 65520

  2. You can also set 0x8002 as a P_Key interface of the mlx4_ib0 connection: 

    # nmcli connection modify mlx4_ib0 infiniband.p-key 0x8002

  3. To configure the IPv4 settings set a static IPv4 address, network mask, default gateway, and DNS server of the mlx4_ib0 connection: 

    # nmcli connection modify mlx4_ib0 ipv4.addresses 192.0.2.1/24
# nmcli connection modify mlx4_ib0 ipv4.gateway 192.0.2.254
# nmcli connection modify mlx4_ib0 ipv4.dns 192.0.2.253
# nmcli connection modify mlx4_ib0 ipv4.method manual

  4. To configure the IPv6 settings set a static IPv6 address, network mask, default gateway, and DNS server of the mlx4_ib0 connection: 

    # nmcli connection modify mlx4_ib0 ipv6.addresses 2001:db8:1::1/32
# nmcli connection modify mlx4_ib0 ipv6.gateway 2001:db8:1::fffe
# nmcli connection modify mlx4_ib0 ipv6.dns 2001:db8:1::fffd
# nmcli connection modify mlx4_ib0 ipv6.method manual

  5. To activate the mlx4_ib0 connection: 

    # nmcli connection up mlx4_ib0

6.4. Configuring an IPoIB connection by using the network RHEL System Role

You can use the network RHEL System Role to remotely create NetworkManager connection profiles for IP over InfiniBand (IPoIB) devices. For example, remotely add an InfiniBand connection for the mlx4_ib0 interface with the following settings by running an Ansible Playbook:

  • An IPoIB device - mlx4_ib0.8002
  • A partition key p_key - 0x8002
  • A static IPv4 address - 192.0.2.1 with a /24 subnet mask
  • A static IPv6 address - 2001:db8:1::1 with a /64 subnet mask

Perform this procedure on the Ansible control node.

Prerequisites

  • You have prepared the control node and the managed nodes
  • You logged in to the control node as a user who can run playbooks on the managed nodes.
  • The account you use to connect to the managed nodes has sudo permissions on them.
  • The managed nodes or groups of managed nodes on which you want to run this playbook are listed in the Ansible inventory file.
  • An InfiniBand device named mlx4_ib0 is installed in the managed nodes.
  • The managed nodes use NetworkManager to configure the network.

Procedure

  1. Create a playbook file, for example ~/IPoIB.yml, with the following content: 

    ---
- name: Configure the network
  hosts: managed-node-01.example.com
  tasks:
  - name: Configure IPoIB
    include_role:
      name: rhel-system-roles.network

    vars:
      network_connections:

        # InfiniBand connection mlx4_ib0
        - name: mlx4_ib0
          interface_name: mlx4_ib0
          type: infiniband

        # IPoIB device mlx4_ib0.8002 on top of mlx4_ib0
        - name: mlx4_ib0.8002
          type: infiniband
          autoconnect: yes
          infiniband:
            p_key: 0x8002
            transport_mode: datagram
          parent: mlx4_ib0
          ip:
            address:
              - 192.0.2.1/24
              - 2001:db8:1::1/64
          state: up

    If you set a p_key parameter as in this example, do not set an interface_name parameter on the IPoIB device.

  2. Validate the playbook syntax: 

    # ansible-playbook ~/IPoIB.yml --syntax-check

    Note that this command only validates the syntax and does not protect against a wrong but valid configuration.

  3. Run the playbook: 

    # ansible-playbook ~/IPoIB.yml

Verification

  1. On the managed-node-01.example.com host, display the IP settings of the mlx4_ib0.8002 device: 

    # ip address show mlx4_ib0.8002
...
inet 192.0.2.1/24 brd 192.0.2.255 scope global noprefixroute ib0.8002
   valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
inet6 2001:db8:1::1/64 scope link tentative noprefixroute
   valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

  2. Display the partition key (P_Key) of the mlx4_ib0.8002 device: 

    # cat /sys/class/net/mlx4_ib0.8002/pkey
0x8002

  3. Display the mode of the mlx4_ib0.8002 device: 

    # cat /sys/class/net/mlx4_ib0.8002/mode
datagram

Additional resources

  • /usr/share/ansible/roles/rhel-system-roles.network/README.md file

6.5. Configuring an IPoIB connection using nm-connection-editor

The nmcli-connection-editor application configures and manages network connections stored by NetworkManager using the management console.

Prerequisites

  • An InfiniBand device is installed on the server.
  • Corresponding kernel module is loaded
  • The nm-connection-editor package is installed.

Procedure

  1. Enter the command: 

    $ nm-connection-editor
  2. Click the + button to add a new connection.
  3. Select the InfiniBand connection type and click Create.

  4. On the InfiniBand tab:

    1. Change the connection name if you want to.
    2. Select the transport mode.
    3. Select the device.
    4. Set an MTU if needed.
  5. On the IPv4 Settings tab, configure the IPv4 settings. For example, set a static IPv4 address, network mask, default gateway, and DNS server: infiniband IPv4 settings nm connection editor
  6. On the IPv6 Settings tab, configure the IPv6 settings. For example, set a static IPv6 address, network mask, default gateway, and DNS server: infiniband IPv6 settings nm connection editor
  7. Click Save to save the team connection.
  8. Close nm-connection-editor.

  9. You can set a P_Key interface. As this setting is not available in nm-connection-editor, you must set this parameter on the command line.

    For example, to set 0x8002 as P_Key interface of the mlx4_ib0 connection: 

    # nmcli connection modify mlx4_ib0 infiniband.p-key 0x8002