bhyve VMs using netmap passthrough

From: Jonas Lopes <jonasbsd_at_gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 08 May 2023 17:27:58 UTC
Hello everybody,

Any predictions for ptnet support on bhyve? I tried to use it, but I
realized that we don't have support yet..

https://wiki.freebsd.org/SummerOfCode2016/PtnetDriverAndDeviceModel

I tested this command below:

# bhyve -c 2 -m 1G -A -H -P \        -s 31,lpc -l com1,stdio \
-s 0:0,hostbridge \        -s 1:0,virtio-net,tap1 \          #
virtio-net NIC + TAP backend        -s 2:0,virtio-net,vale0:2 \
# virtio-net NIC + netmap userspace backend        -s
3:0,ahci-hd,freebsdimg.raw \        -s 4:0,ptnet,vale1:1 \
# ptnet NIC + ptnetmap kernelspace backend        -s
5:0,ptnetmap-memdev \          # ptnetmap memory device, needed by the
ptnet NIC        vm1


But it returns this error:

*pci slot 0:4:1: unknown device "ptnet"*

*Motivation*: "A ptnet NIC which does the passthough of an host VALE port
inside the guest. The ptnetmap backend runs in a kernel thread, and it is
implemented as part of the netmap subsystem.

[image: image.png]


*References*:

   -
   https://conferences.sigcomm.org/sigcomm/2017/files/tutorial-netmap/02-virtualization.pdf
   - https://wiki.freebsd.org/SummerOfCode2016/PtnetDriverAndDeviceModel


Best,

-- 
Jonas Lopes