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Death by Kernel locks: Hyperscalers road to DPDK#

Open vSwitch and OVN 2026 Fall Conference digest Program Adjacent pick 2–4 November 2026

Abstract

Florian Werner, Schwarz Digits; Felix Huettner, Schwarz Digits

  • Why: Kernel-lock contention is the classic reason large OVN gateway deployments give up on netlink/kernel bridges. This is a full-fleet migration to DPDK bridges with pitfalls and before/after performance comparisons — a decision many operators are facing with the same data.
  • What: The migration of all Schwarz Digits OVN gateway chassis from kernel netlink bridges to DPDK bridges: motivations (kernel-lock pathologies), migration pitfalls, and performance comparisons between the two. (from abstract only)
  • How: Fleet-wide bridge-type migration on OVN gateway chassis; pairs with the follow-up dpdk conntrack performance talk on the conntrack problems they found.
  • Where applicable: Schwarz Digits' environment (their silicon, their workloads) — treat the direction and pitfalls as transferable, the numbers as org-specific. Relevant wherever kernel-datapath scaling limits bite.