DPDK Mode

This chapter will focus on new DPDK based vEOS, while highlighting the changes from the existing kernel based vEOS, as needed.

The Arista vEOS Router is a cloud-grade, feature-rich, multi-cloud and multi-hypervisor virtual router that empowers enterprises and cloud providers to build consistent, highly secure and scalable multi-cloud networks.

The vEOS Router can run in two modes : DPDK (high performance) and kernel, each with its own set of supported features. From vEOS-Router-4.23.0FX new installations of vEOS router from the hypervisor image or on public cloud by default run in high performance DPDK mode. Going forward all the new features and development will be in the DPDK mode.

Both flavors of vEOS perform all the packet forwarding operations in software, but use different software components for the same. DPDK based vEOS which use DPDK to perform packet forwarding operations is much more efficient. Note, that while DPDK mode has more number of features than the kernel mode, there are certain features that are available only in the kernel mode like Zone Based Segmentation (ZSS) and sflow.

Note: We publish both 64 bit and 32 bit mode we recommend users to use 64 bit mode. Customers who upgrade from 32 bit to 64 bit mode need to be aware that the 64bit mode requires 30 percent more memory than 32 bit mode. In general, 64 bit mode can scale better and has higher datapath performance. The public cloud images are only available in 64 bit mode.