A Linux bridge standing in for a cable does not forward the IEEE 802.1D
reserved range (01:80:c2:00:00:00-0f) by default, so LACP/LLDP/802.1X never
crossed a kernel-datapath link while the UDP relay carried them fine. uBridge
now opens every enslave'd port's IFLA_BRPORT_GROUP_FWD_MASK to 0xfffd at
brctl addif time (branch feature/bridge-tap-l2only, commits 0284500/03a18f1/
cf4e494), which the six kernel-datapath feature docs now document as a
section: STP, LACP, 802.1X and LLDP/DCBX cross; 802.3x PAUSE / PFC stays
dropped — br_handle_frame()'s case 0x01 discards it unconditionally, no mask
can enable it, and PFC labs must use a relay link. The full contract, kernel
references and requirements live in the new design spec, marked landed.
The L2-anchor spec's behavioral guarantee — an idle link stays silent for
5 s once the enslavement burst settles — only ran in the Dynamips and
Docker suites. It now also runs in QEMU, IOU, the IOL container, the
switch fast path and the switch cascade, which covers every host-device
creation path:
* tap create (Dynamips/QEMU/IOU anchors), docker create_veth (Docker host
ends; the cascade's race-loser end is hardened after create by the
server), bridge add_nio_tap (the IOL container anchor, the fifth
creator), and the brctl switch bridges, whose multicast snooping is off
precisely so the bridge role can reach silence;
* each scenario silences its guests first (IOS interfaces shut through
the console; Docker guests' links down) and re-verifies the ping after;
* the cascade measures 8 devices at once (four absorbed router anchors,
both cascade ends, both switch bridges).
IOL 158 s, cascade 293 s, ESW fast path 378 s, QEMU 428 s, IOU 308 s —
all green.
The feature doc covers the architecture (one irreducible userspace hop
on the unix-socket leg; the link segment kernelized through the port
bridge's swappable TAP leg), the capability gate, the anchor lifecycle,
the swap flow, the inherited capture/markers/filters, the relay
fallback and the live verification — including the ensure-then-add
lesson (tap create is strictly create-only).
The other datapath docs' roadmaps catch up: the IOL runner container
has landed (and the ethernet-switch doc's stale 'cascade deferred'
exclusion from d2f8aba58 is corrected while there); the docker doc's
adapter table no longer rejects IOLDockerVM.
QEMU is the guest side of every adapter TAP, and uBridge's tap delete
refuses a device another process holds open ('Device or resource busy') —
a best-effort delete whose failure is suppressed. QEMU's stop did the
delete first and stopped the process after, so every node stop or project
delete leaked the persistent TAPs: found by inspecting the host after a
project delete (16 taps left behind, carrier down, no holder), and the
held-tap behaviour reproduced against uBridge directly.
Stop the QEMU process first, then remove the TAPs and the per-link kernel
bridges — process side first, then the devices, the same lesson as IOU's
reverse stop order. Verified live: node stop and project delete now leave
no taps and no processes behind, while a restart recreates the TAPs.
The adapter anchor naming also goes through the shared
utils.kernel_anchor helper, like the other node types.
New features/dynamips-kernel-datapath.md: the anchor model (persistent TAP
per Ethernet port, the hypervisor opens it with nio create_tap), port
selection via the adapter registry, the anchor lifecycle with QEMU's stop
order and the stop-is-not-close semantics, link operations, capture/
markers/filters, the relay fallback, the live e2e results, configuration
and the roadmap (Ethernet switch next). The IOU and QEMU roadmaps note
that Dynamips has landed.
* docs/features/iou-kernel-datapath.md: architecture (one irreducible
userspace hop on the fabric leg, kernel link segment), datapath
selection, the anchor lifecycle with the reverse-of-QEMU stop order,
capture/markers/filters, relay fallback, and the verified numbers (an
isolated server with two IOU nodes behind a fake ELF image, the test
playing the IOL fabric: 64/64 kernel, 62/62 relay).
* docs/design/ubridge-iol-tap-anchor-spec.md: delivered — implemented on
the ubridge fork's feature/iol-tap-anchor branch (both commands, the
listener hardening, plus releasing every port NIO on iol_bridge delete
even when the bridge was not running), with the implementation notes
that came back (208 vs the older 214 for a missing bridge; one perror
line per frame dropped on a down anchor).
* The Docker/QEMU feature docs point at it from their roadmaps.
uBridge delivered `link l2only` (e2e3155) and the brctl delete refusal
(83a84fb); verified from the server side -- anchors and per-link bridges
report addrgenmode none, carry no addresses, and an idle anchor is silent
once the one-shot membership burst has settled.
That burst is the one thing the command cannot remove, so it is now recorded
where the acceptance criteria live, with the measurement: enslaving a port
makes the kernel announce the bridge's multicast memberships (90 B MLDv2 at
+0.00 s, 54 B IGMPv3 at +0.09 s, 90 B MLDv2 at +0.73 s, then silence; no
addresses involved, and IPv4 has no per-device IGMP switch). Decision:
accepted and documented, not suppressed -- §E.2 measures idle silence after a
settle window instead.
Pins the other delivered behaviour with a test: a bridge now survives a
single-sided node stop, so brctl create answers EEXIST on the common path
rather than only in a create race -- the attach must not short-circuit there,
because the restarted side has a brand-new anchor whose filters and markers
still have to be re-applied.
Kernel eligibility becomes "both endpoints on one compute, each able to
anchor": Docker always (adapters are born as veth pairs), QEMU when that
compute's uBridge can create the persistent TAPs its adapters anchor on. The
question is asked per compute, because the link needs both ends anchored --
so a mixed or half-upgraded deployment degrades to the relay instead of
failing an attach.
probe_tap_support() creates and deletes one throwaway persistent TAP through a
scratch uBridge, cached by binary identity like the tc report; /capabilities
exposes `ubridge_tap` (absent = unknown, which keeps links on the relay).
The compute route for a QEMU adapter NIO took UDPNIO only, so a kernel link
was rejected with 422: its body and response now accept
Union[UDPNIO, BridgeNIO] exactly like Docker's.
Stale "Docker-to-Docker" wording in the config, link and MCP descriptions now
talks about anchors, and docs/features/qemu-kernel-datapath.md documents the
datapath -- verified end-to-end on a real instance: 32/32 kernel-datapath
checks and 29/29 on the relay variant.
