suricata/doc/userguide/capture-hardware/ebpf-xdp.rst

eBPF and XDP
============

Introduction
------------

eBPF stands for extended BPF. This is an extended version of Berkeley Packet Filter available in recent
Linux kernel versions.

It provides more advanced features with eBPF programs developed in C and able to use structured data shared
between kernel and userspace.

eBPF is used for three things in Suricata:

- eBPF filter: any BPF like filter can be developed. An example of filter accepting only packet for some VLANs is provided.
- eBPF load balancing: provide programmable load balancing. A simple ippair load balancing is provided.
- XDP programs: suricata can load XDP programs. A bypass program is provided.

Bypass can be implemented in eBPF and XDP. The advantage of XDP is that the packets are dropped at the earliest stage
possible. So performance is better. But bypassed packets don't reach the network so you can't use this on regular
traffic but only on duplicated/sniffed traffic.

XDP
~~~

XDP provides another Linux native way of optimising Suricata's performance on sniffing high speed networks.

::

 XDP or eXpress Data Path provides a high performance, programmable network data path in the Linux kernel as part of the IO Visor Project. XDP provides bare metal packet processing at the lowest point in the software stack which makes it ideal for speed without compromising programmability. Furthermore, new functions can be implemented dynamically with the integrated fast path without kernel modification.

`More info about XDP <https://www.iovisor.org/technology/xdp>`__

Requirements
------------

You will need a kernel that supports XDP and, for real performance improvement, a network
card that support XDP in the driver.

Suricata XDP code has been tested with 4.13.10 but 4.15 or later is necessary to have all
features like the CPU redirect map.

If yu are using an Intel netword card, you will need to stay with in tree kernel NIC drivers.
The out of tree drivers do not contain the XDP support.

Having a network card with support for RSS symmetric hashing is a good point or you will have to
use the XDP CPU redirect map feature.

Prerequisites
-------------

This guide has been confirmed on Debian/Ubuntu "LTS" Linux.

Disable irqbalance
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

::

 systemctl stop irqbalance
 systemctl disable irqbalance

Kernel
~~~~~~

Install kernel 4.13.+ and reboot.

Clang
~~~~~

Make sure you have clang (>=3.9) installed on the system  ::

 sudo apt-get install clang

The version 3.9 is recommended as it seems some more recent versions of clang
generate invalid eBPF code that fail to load.

BPF
~~~

Suricata uses libbpf to interact with eBPF and XDP. This library is available
in the Linux tree. Before Linux 4.16, a patched libbpf library is also needed::

 git clone -b libbpf-v14  https://github.com/regit/linux.git

If you have a recent enough kernel, you can skip this part.

Now, you can build and install the library ::

 cd linux/tools/lib/bpf/
 make && sudo make install

 sudo make install_headers
 sudo ldconfig


Compile and install Suricata
----------------------------

If ever you don't have the source ::

 git clone  https://github.com/OISF/suricata.git
 cd suricata && git clone https://github.com/OISF/libhtp.git -b 0.5.x

 ./autogen.sh

Then you need to add the ebpf flags to configure ::

 CC=clang ./configure --prefix=/usr/ --sysconfdir=/etc/ --localstatedir=/var/ \
 --enable-ebpf --enable-ebpf-build

 make clean && make
 sudo  make install-full
 sudo ldconfig
 sudo mkdir /etc/suricata/ebpf/

Setup bypass
------------

If you plan to use eBPF or XDP for a kernel/hardware level bypass, you need to do
the following:

First, enable `bypass` in the `stream` section ::

 stream:
   bypass: true

If you want, you can also bypass encrypted flow by setting `no-reassemble` to `yes`
in the app-layer tls section ::

  app-layer:
    protocols:
      tls:
        enabled: yes
        detection-ports:
          dp: 443
  
        # Completely stop processing TLS/SSL session after the handshake
        # completed. If bypass is enabled this will also trigger flow
        # bypass. If disabled (the default), TLS/SSL session is still
        # tracked for Heartbleed and other anomalies.
        no-reassemble: yes


Setup eBPF filter
-----------------

Copy the resulting ebpf fiter as needed ::

 cp src/ebpf/vlan_filter.bpf /etc/suricata/ebpf/

Then setup the `ebpf-filter-file` variable in af-packet section ::

  - interface: eth3
    threads: 16
    cluster-id: 97
    cluster-type: cluster_flow # choose any type suitable
    defrag: yes
    # eBPF file containing a 'loadbalancer' function that will be inserted into the
    # kernel and used as load balancing function
    ebpf-filter-file:  /etc/suricata/ebpf/vlan_filter.bpf
    use-mmap: yes
    ring-size: 200000

You can then run suricata normally ::

 /usr/bin/suricata --pidfile /var/run/suricata.pid  --af-packet=eth3 -vvv 

You can also use eBPF bypass. To do that load the `bypass_filter.bpf` file and
update af-packet configuration to set bypass to yes ::

  - interface: eth3
    threads: 16
    cluster-id: 97
    cluster-type: cluster_qm # symmetric hashing is a must!
    defrag: yes
    # eBPF file containing a 'loadbalancer' function that will be inserted into the
    # kernel and used as load balancing function
    #ebpf-lb-file:  /etc/suricata/ebpf/lb.bpf
    # eBPF file containing a 'filter' function that will be inserted into the
    # kernel and used as packet filter function
    # eBPF file containing a 'xdp' function that will be inserted into the
    # kernel and used as XDP packet filter function
    ebpf-filter-file:  /etc/suricata/ebpf/bypass_filter.bpf
    bypass: yes
    use-mmap: yes
    ring-size: 200000


Setup eBPF load balancing
-------------------------

Copy the resulting ebpf fiter as needed ::

 cp src/ebpf/lb.bpf /etc/suricata/

We will use ``cluster_ebpf`` in the interface section of af-packet ::

  - interface: eth3
    threads: 16
    cluster-id: 97
    cluster-type: cluster_ebpf
    defrag: yes
    # eBPF file containing a 'loadbalancer' function that will be inserted into the
    # kernel and used as load balancing function
    ebpf-lb-file:  /etc/suricata/ebpf/lb.bpf
    use-mmap: yes
    ring-size: 200000

Setup XDP
---------

Copy the resulting xdp fiter as needed::

 cp src/ebpf/xdp_filter.bpf /etc/suricata/ebpf/

Setup af-packet section/interface in ``suricata.yaml``.

We will use ``cluster_qm`` as we have symmetric hashing on the NIC, ``xdp-mode: driver`` and we will
also use the ``/etc/suricata/ebpf/xdp_filter.bpf`` (in our example TCP offloading/bypass) ::

  - interface: eth3
    threads: 16
    cluster-id: 97
    cluster-type: cluster_qm # symmetric hashing is a must!
    defrag: yes
    # eBPF file containing a 'loadbalancer' function that will be inserted into the
    # kernel and used as load balancing function
    #ebpf-lb-file:  /etc/suricata/ebpf/lb.bpf
    # eBPF file containing a 'filter' function that will be inserted into the
    # kernel and used as packet filter function
    # eBPF file containing a 'xdp' function that will be inserted into the
    # kernel and used as XDP packet filter function
    #ebpf-filter-file:  /etc/suricata/ebpf/filter.bpf
    # Xdp mode, "soft" for skb based version, "driver" for network card based
    # and "hw" for card supporting eBPF.
    xdp-mode: driver
    xdp-filter-file:  /etc/suricata/ebpf/xdp_filter.bpf
    # if the ebpf filter implements a bypass function, you can set 'bypass' to
    # yes and benefit from these feature
    bypass: yes
    use-mmap: yes
    ring-size: 200000


Setup symmetric hashing on the NIC
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Intel network card don't support symmetric hashing but it is possible to emulate
it by using a specific hashing function.

Follow these instructions closely for desired result::

 ifconfig eth3 down

Use in tree kernel drivers: XDP support is not available in Intel drivers available on Intel website.

Enable symmetric hashing::

 ifconfig eth3 down 
 ethtool -L eth3 combined 16
 ethtool -K eth3 rxhash on 
 ethtool -K eth3 ntuple on
 ifconfig eth3 up
 ./set_irq_affinity 0-15 eth3
 ethtool -X eth3 hkey 6D:5A:6D:5A:6D:5A:6D:5A:6D:5A:6D:5A:6D:5A:6D:5A:6D:5A:6D:5A:6D:5A:6D:5A:6D:5A:6D:5A:6D:5A:6D:5A:6D:5A:6D:5A:6D:5A:6D:5A equal 16
 ethtool -x eth3
 ethtool -n eth3

In the above setup you are free to use any recent ``set_irq_affinity`` script. It is available in any Intel x520/710 NIC sources driver download.

**NOTE:**
We use a special low entropy key for the symmetric hashing. `More info about the research for symmetric hashing set up <http://www.ndsl.kaist.edu/~kyoungsoo/papers/TR-symRSS.pdf>`_

Disable any NIC offloading
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Run the following command to disable offloading ::

 for i in rx tx tso ufo gso gro lro tx nocache copy sg txvlan rxvlan; do
 	/sbin/ethtool -K eth3 $i off 2>&1 > /dev/null;
 done

Balance as much as you can
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Try to use the network's card balancing as much as possible ::
 
 for proto in tcp4 udp4 ah4 esp4 sctp4 tcp6 udp6 ah6 esp6 sctp6; do 
 	/sbin/ethtool -N eth3 rx-flow-hash $proto sdfn
 done

The XDP CPU redirect case
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If ever your hardware is not able to do a symetric load balancing but support XDP in driver mode, you
can then use the CPU redirect map support available in the xdp_filter.bpf file. In this mode, the load
balancinf will be done by the XDP filter and each CPU will handle the whole packet treatment including
the creation of the skb structure in kernel.

To do so set the `xdp-cpu-redirect` variable in af-packet interface configuration to a set of CPUs.
Then use the `cluster_cpu` as load balancing function. You will also need to set the affinity
accordingly.

It is possible to use `xdp_monitor` to have information about the behavior of CPU redirect. This
program is available in Linux tree under the `samples/bpf` directory and will be build by the
make command. Sample output is the following ::

 sudo ./xdp_monitor --stats
 XDP-event       CPU:to  pps          drop-pps     extra-info
 XDP_REDIRECT    11      2,880,212    0            Success
 XDP_REDIRECT    total   2,880,212    0            Success
 XDP_REDIRECT    total   0            0            Error
 cpumap-enqueue   11:0   575,954      0            5.27       bulk-average
 cpumap-enqueue  sum:0   575,954      0            5.27       bulk-average
 cpumap-kthread  0       575,990      0            56,409     sched
 cpumap-kthread  1       576,090      0            54,897     sched

Start Suricata with XDP
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You can now start Suricata with XDP bypass activated ::

 /usr/bin/suricata -c /etc/suricata/xdp-suricata.yaml --pidfile /var/run/suricata.pid  --af-packet=eth3 -vvv 

Confirm you have the XDP filter engaged in the output (example)::

 ...
 ...
 (runmode-af-packet.c:220) <Config> (ParseAFPConfig) -- Enabling locked memory for mmap on iface eth3
 (runmode-af-packet.c:231) <Config> (ParseAFPConfig) -- Enabling tpacket v3 capture on iface eth3
 (runmode-af-packet.c:326) <Config> (ParseAFPConfig) -- Using queue based cluster mode for AF_PACKET (iface eth3)
 (runmode-af-packet.c:424) <Info> (ParseAFPConfig) -- af-packet will use '/etc/suricata/ebpf/xdp_filter.bpf' as XDP filter file
 (runmode-af-packet.c:429) <Config> (ParseAFPConfig) -- Using bypass kernel functionality for AF_PACKET (iface eth3)
 (runmode-af-packet.c:609) <Config> (ParseAFPConfig) -- eth3: enabling zero copy mode by using data release call
 (util-runmodes.c:296) <Info> (RunModeSetLiveCaptureWorkersForDevice) -- Going to use 8 thread(s)
 ...
 ...