Re: [RFC PATCH 0/2] network: add VPP (fd.io) as alternative dataplane

[Ryosuke Nakayama <ryosuke.nakayama@ryskn.com>]

On Mon, 2026-03-17, Alexandre wrote:
> Could it be possible to write a small Howto to install vpp
> software itself + bridge configuration ?

Sure! Also, I should clarify that the original two patches are not
sufficient on their own: a third patch for qemu-server is required to
make VMs actually connect to VPP via vhost-user. I have attached those
patches below (RFC, same caveats apply).

--- How to install VPP on Proxmox VE ---

1. Add the fd.io package repository:

   curl -fsSL https://packagecloud.io/fdio/release/gpgkey | \
     gpg --dearmor \
     -o /usr/share/keyrings/fdio-release.gpg

   echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/fdio-release.gpg \
     trusted=yes] \
     https://packagecloud.io/fdio/release/debian bookworm main" \
     > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/fdio.list

   apt update

2. Install VPP and required plugins:

   apt install vpp vpp-plugin-core vpp-plugin-dpdk vpp-drivers

3. Configure /etc/vpp/startup.conf. The critical sections are:

   unix {
     nodaemon
     log /var/log/vpp/vpp.log
     cli-listen /run/vpp/cli.sock
     exec /etc/vpp/vpp-pve.conf
   }

   cpu {
     main-core 0
     corelist-workers 1,2
     scheduler-policy fifo
     scheduler-priority 50
   }

   Note: adjust cpu core pinning to your hardware. VPP uses polling
   threads, so dedicated cores are strongly recommended.

4. Enable and start VPP:

   systemctl enable --now vpp

--- Bridge domain creation ---

With the pve-manager patch applied, VPP bridge domains can be created
and managed via the Proxmox WebUI (Node > Network > Create >
VPP Bridge) or via the API.

Manually via vppctl:

   vppctl create bridge-domain 1 learn 1 forward 1 flood 1
   vppctl show bridge-domain 1

Note: bridge-domain 0 is reserved by VPP; use ID >= 1. The WebUI
will expose the bridge as "vppbr<ID>" (e.g. vppbr1).

--- Connecting a VM ---

With the qemu-server patch applied, setting a VM's NIC to a VPP
bridge (e.g. bridge=vppbr1) is sufficient. On VM start, Proxmox
will automatically:

  - create a vhost-user server socket at
    /var/run/vpp/qemu-<vmid>-<netN>.sock
  - add the resulting VirtualEthernet interface to the bridge domain
  - pass the socket to QEMU as a vhost-user chardev

On VM stop, the vhost-user interface is removed from VPP.

Example VM config (/etc/pve/qemu-server/100.conf):

   net0: virtio=AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF,bridge=vppbr1

No additional configuration is needed.

---

ryskn (2):
  qemu: add VPP vhost-user dataplane support
  qemu: VPP: clean up vhost-user interfaces on stop, fix tx_queue_size

 src/PVE/QemuServer.pm        | 174 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 src/PVE/QemuServer/Memory.pm |  16 +++-
 2 files changed, 174 insertions(+), 39 deletions(-)