Host Setup for DPDK Containers - Why?

I’m trying to set up containers that can run DPDK, and I am having trouble understanding – conceptually – the interplay between the host and containers during setup.

Based on what I’ve found so far, it looks like I will have to fully configure DPDK on the host and then mount devices onto each container, even if there’s no need to connect the containers to the outside world. (Is this correct?) If so, I don’t fully understand this, since a container/container network should be self-contained.

  • Why do I need to set up DPDK on the host? (Why isn’t the container enough?)
  • Why do I need to set up a DPDK-compatible driver on the host NICs? If the containers are on the same machine, exchanging packets, why would the host NIC be involved at all? Nothing is going in or out.
  • Why do I need to configure hugepages on the host and then mount them on the container? Why can’t one just configure this on the containers? Is this something that can’t be emulated?

Thank you so much!

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