1. Using PF_RING with Docker

This guide shows how to run packet processing applications based on PF_RING or PF_RING ZC inside Docker containers in a few simple steps.

For an overview about the Docker networking support and configuration please refer to the Docker documentation (https://docs.docker.com/v1.7/articles/networking/).

As first step build the Docker image using the Dockerfile below, in this example based on Ubuntu 16.

sudo docker build -t ubuntu16 -f Dockerfile.ubuntu16 .

Please note the Dockerfile is running the needed steps for installing the ntop repository, installing pfring, and setting the simple-entrypoint.sh script as entrypoint, in order to let us commands running the Docker image from command line.

Dockerfile.ubuntu16

FROM ubuntu:16.04
MAINTAINER ntop.org

RUN apt-get update && \
    apt-get -y -q install wget lsb-release && \
    wget -q http://apt.ntop.org/16.04/all/apt-ntop.deb && dpkg -i apt-ntop.deb && \
    apt-get clean all && \
    apt-get update && \
    apt-get -y install pfring

COPY simple-entrypoint.sh /tmp
ENTRYPOINT ["/tmp/simple-entrypoint.sh"]

simple-entrypoint.sh

#!/bin/bash
set -e
exec "$@"

At this point it is possible to test pf_ring using pfcount as sample application. Please note that the pf_ring.ko kernel module must be loaded on the host machine, and that we need to set the proper capabilities using “–cap-add” in order to work with pf_ring.

sudo docker run ubuntu16 pfcount -i eth0

Note: since PF_RING 7.1 and kernel 3.8 “–cap-add net_admin” is no longer needed. An application running inside a docker container is able to capture traffic from the interfaces visible inside the container only. If you want to capture traffic from an interface in the host network namespace you should run docker with “–network=host”.

sudo docker run --network=host ubuntu16 pfcount -i eth0

When working with PF_RING ZC, using for instance zbalance_ipc for forwarding traffic to consumer applications running inside Docker containers by means of ZC queues, we need to bind the hugetlb mountpoint inside the container using “-v” and set the proper capabilities.

sudo docker run -v /dev/hugepages:/dev/hugepages --cap-add ipc_lock ubuntu16 pfcount -i zc:99@0