Subject: Re: [PATCH] bnx2x: tx-switching module parameter

From: John Fastabend <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 15 Apr 2012 22:11:26 -0700

On 2/16/2012 11:57 AM, Eilon Greenstein wrote:
>>>> "Ariel Elior" <[email-masked]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> In 57712 and 578xx the tx-switching module parameter allows the user to control
>>>>> whether outgoing traffic can be loopbacked into the device in case there is a
>>>>> relevant client for the data using the same device for rx.

[...]

>>> But netdev is a great place to ask - are there other vendors out there
>>> that requires this control over internal switching? If so, we can define
>>> a new ethtool command. The alternative of using the ethtool private
>>> flags seems just as inconvenient from administrators point of view and
>>> also seem less appropriate since this configuration is more likely to be
>>> the same for all PFs on the same machine.
>>>

[...]

> OK, thanks John. Dave - please do not apply this patch. We need to look
> at the alternatives suggested by John.
> 
> Thanks,
> Eilon
> 

Eilon, any progress with this? We need this to support VEPA modes in
macvlan running over SR-IOV devices or other embedded switches. The
problem being if the stacked device expects the packet to be sent
to the reflexive relay on the switch in the SR-IOV case the embedded
switch may not actually do this.

Thanks,
John