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Forwarding Table Size and Profiles

Cumulus Linux advertises the maximum number of forwarding table entries supported on the switch, including:

  • Layer 3 IPv4 LPM entries that have a mask less than /32
  • Layer 3 IPv6 LPM entries that have a mask of /64 or less
  • Layer 3 IPv6 LPM entries that have a mask greater than /64
  • Layer 3 IPv4 neighbor (or host) entries that are the next hops seen in ip neighbor
  • Layer 3 IPv6 neighbor entries that are the next hops seen in ip -6 neighbor
  • ECMP next hops, which are IP address entries in the routing table that specify the next closest or most optimal router in its routing path
  • MAC addresses

To determine the current table sizes on a switch, run the cl-resource-query command.

Each switching architecture has specific resources available for forwarding table entries. Cumulus Linux stores:

  • Forwarding table resources in a KVD.
  • ACL table entries and other switching functions in a fast memory area called the TCAM on Spectrum 1, and the ATCAM on Spectrum-2 and later.

Cumulus Linux provides various general profiles for forwarding table resources, and, based on your network design, you might need to adjust various switch parameters to allocate resources, as needed.

The values provided in the profiles below are the maximum values that Cumulus Linux software allocates; the theoretical hardware limits might be higher. These limits refer to values that NVIDIA checks as part of unidimensional scale validation. If you try to achieve maximum scalability with multiple features enabled, results might differ from the values listed in this guide.

Spectrum 1

Forwarding resource profiles control unicast forwarding table entry allocations. On the Spectrum 1 switch, TCAM profiles control multicast forwarding table entry allocations. For more information about multicast route entry limitations, refer to Hardware Limitations for ACL Rules.

Profile
MAC Addresses
Layer 3 Neighbors
LPM
default 40k 32k (IPv4) and 8k (IPv6) 64k (IPv4) and 22k (IPv6-long)
l2-heavy 88k 48k (IPv4) and 18k (IPv6) 8k (IPv4) and 8k (IPv6-long)
l2-heavy-1 176k 4k (IPv4) and 2k (IPv6) 4k (IPv4) and 2k (IPv6-long)
l2-heavy-2 86k 86k (IPv4) and 4k (IPv6) 8k (IPv4), 4k (IPv6-long)
v4-lpm-heavy 8k 8k (IPv4) and 16k (IPv6) 80k (IPv4) and 16k (IPv6-long)
v4-lpm-heavy-1 6k 6k (IPv4) and 2k (IPv6) 176k (IPv4) and 2k (IPv6-long)
v6-lpm-heavy 27k 8k (IPv4) and 36k (IPv6) 8k (IPv4), 32k (IPv6-long) and 32k (IPv6/64)
lpm-balanced 6k 4k (IPv4) and 3k (IPv6) 60k (IPv4), 60k (IPv6-long) and 120k (IPv6/64)

Spectrum-2 and Later

On Spectrum-2 and later, forwarding resource profiles control both unicast and multicast forwarding table entry allocations.

Profile
MAC Addresses
Layer 3 Neighbors
LPM
default 50k 41k (IPv4) and 20k (IPv6) 82k (IPv4), 74k (IPv6-long), 1k (IPv4-Mcast)
l2-heavy 115k 74k (IPv4) and 37k (IPv6) 16k (IPv4), 24k (IPv6-long), 1k (IPv4-Mcast)
l2-heavy-1 239k 16k (IPv4) and 12k (IPv6) 16k (IPv4), 16k (IPv6-long), 1k (IPv4-Mcast)
l2-heavy-2 124k 132k (IPv4) and 12k (IPv6) 16k (IPv4), 16k (IPv6-long), 1k (IPv4-Mcast)
l2-heavy-3 107k 90k (IPv4) and 80k (IPv6) 25k (IPv4), 10k (IPv6-long), 1k (IPv4-Mcast)
v4-lpm-heavy 16k 41k (IPv4) and 24k (IPv6) 124k (IPv4), 24k (IPv6-long), 1k (IPv4-Mcast)
v4-lpm-heavy-1 16k 16k (IPv4) and 4k (IPv6) 256k (IPv4), 8k (IPv6-long), 1k (IPv4-Mcast)
v6-lpm-heavy 16k 16k (IPv4) and 62k (IPv6) 16k (IPv4), 99k (IPv6-long), 1k (IPv4-Mcast)
v6-lpm-heavy-1 5k 4k (IPv4) and 4k (IPv6) 90k (IPv4), 235k (IPv6-long), 1k (IPv4-Mcast)
lpm-balanced 16k 16k (IPv4) and 12k (IPv6) 124k (IPv4), 124k (IPv6-long), 1k (IPv4-Mcast)
ipmc-heavy 57k 41k (IPv4) and 20k (IPv6) 82k (IPv4), 66k (IPv6-long), 8k (IPv4-Mcast)
ipmc-max 41K 41k (IPv4) and 20k (IPv6) 74k (IPv4), 66k (IPv6-long), 15k (IPv4-Mcast)

The IPv6 number corresponds to the /64 IPv6 prefix. The /128 IPv6 prefix number is half of the /64 IPv6 prefix number.

For the ipmc-max profile, the cl-resource-query command output displays 33K instead of 15K as the maximum number of IPv4 multicast routes in switchd. 15K is the supported and validated value. You can use the higher value of 33K to test higher multicast scale in non-production environments.

Change Forwarding Resource Profiles

You can set the profile that best suits your network architecture.

Run the nv set system forwarding profile <profile-name> command to specify the profile you want to use.

The following example command sets the l2-heavy profile:

cumulus@switch:~$ nv set system forwarding profile l2-heavy 
cumulus@switch:~$ nv config apply

To set the profile back to the default:

cumulus@switch:~$ nv unset system forwarding profile l2-heavy 
cumulus@switch:~$ nv config apply

Instead of the above command, you can run the nv set system forwarding profile default command to set the profile back to the default.

Specify the profile you want to use with the forwarding_table.profile variable in the /etc/cumulus/datapath/traffic.conf file. The following example specifies l2-heavy:

cumulus@switch:~$ sudo cat /etc/cumulus/datapath/traffic.conf
...
forwarding_table.profile = l2-heavy

After you specify a different profile, restart switchd with the sudo systemctl restart switchd.service command.

To show the different forwarding profiles that your switch supports and the MAC address, layer 3 neighbor, and LPM scale availability for each forwarding profile, run the nv show system forwarding profile-option command.

ACL and VLAN Memory Resources

In addition to forwarding table memory resources, there are limitations on other memory resources for ACLs and VLAN interfaces; refer to Hardware Limitations for ACL Rules.