• Introduction
• Licensing
• Features
• Hardware Requirements
• Software Requirements
• Additional Information
• Limitations
• Installation Instructions
  • Install Async Mode Nginx
  • Build OpenSSL* and QAT engine
• SSL Engine Framework for Configuration
• Support for Nginx level Polling
  • External Polling Mode
  • Heuristic Polling Mode
• Known Issues
• Intended Audience
• Legal

Nginx* [engine x] is an HTTP and reverse proxy server, a mail proxy server, and a generic TCP/UDP proxy server, originally written by Igor Sysoev. This project provides an extended Nginx working with asynchronous mode OpenSSL*. With Intel® QuickAssist Technology(QAT) acceleration, the asynchronous mode Nginx can provide significant performance improvement.

The Licensing of the files within this project is:

Intel® Quickassist Technology (QAT) Async Mode Nginx - BSD License. Please see the LICENSE file contained in the top level folder. Further details can be found in the file headers of the relevant files.

• Asynchronous Mode in SSL/TLS processing (including http/stream/mail/proxy module)
• SSL Engine Framework for engine configuraion
• Support for external polling mode and heursitic polling mode
• Release hardware resource during worker is shutting down (For more details information, please read modules/nginx_qat_module/README)
• Support OpenSSL Cipher PIPELINE feature

Async Mode Nginx supports Crypto offload to the following acceleration devices:

• Intel® C62X Series Chipset
• Intel® Communications Chipset 8925 to 8955 Series

This release was validated on the following:

• OpenSSL-1.1.0h
• QAT engine v0.5.37

• Async Mode Nginx SSL engine framework provides new directives:

Directives

Syntax:     ssl_asynch on | off;
Default:    ssl_asynch off;
Context:    stream, mail, http, server

    Enables SSL/TLS asynchronous mode

Example

file: conf/nginx.conf

    http {
        ssl_asynch  on;
        server {...}
    }

    stream {
        ssl_asynch  on;
        server {...}
    }

Directives

Syntax:     proxy_ssl_asynch on | off;
Default:    proxy_ssl_asynch off;
Context:    stream, http, server

Enables the SSL/TLS protocol asynchronous mode for connections to a proxied server.

Example

file: conf/nginx.conf

    http {
        server {
            location /ssl {
                proxy_pass https://127.0.0.1:8082/outer;
                proxy_ssl_asynch on;
            }
        }
    }

• Async Mode Nginx provide new option asynch for listen directive.

Example

file: conf/nginx.conf

    http {
        server{ listen 443 asynch; }
    }

• Support OpenSSL Cipher PIPELINE feature (Deitals information about the pipeline settings, please refer to OpenSSL Docs)

Directives

Syntax:     ssl_max_pipelines size;
Default:    ssl_max_pipelines 0;
Context:    server

Set MAX number of pipelines

Directives

Syntax:     ssl_split_send_fragment size;
Default:    ssl_split_send_fragment 0;
Context:    server

Set split size of sending fragment

Directives

Syntax:     ssl_max_send_fragment size;
Default:    ssl_max_send_fragment 0;
Context:    server

Set max number of sending fragment

• White Paper: Intel® Quickassist Technology and OpenSSL-1.1.0:Performance

• Nginx supports reload operation, when QAT hardware is involved for crypto offload, user should enure that there are enough number of qat instances. For example, the available qat instance number should be 2x equal or more than Nginx worker process number.

  For example, in Nginx configuration file (nginx.conf) worker process number is configured as

     worker_processes 16;

  Then the instance configuration in QAT driver configuration file should be

      [SHIM]
      NumberCyInstances = 1
      NumberDcInstances = 0
      NumProcesses = 32
      LimitDevAccess = 1

Set the following environmental variables:

NGINX_INSTALL_DIR is the directory where nginx will be installed to

OPENSSL_LIB is the directory where the openssl has been installed to

Configure nginx for compilation:

    ./configure \
        --prefix=$NGINX_INSTALL_DIR \
        --with-http_ssl_module \
        --add-dynamic-module=modules/nginx_qat_module/ \
        --with-cc-opt="-DNGX_SECURE_MEM -I$OPENSSL_LIB/include -Wno-error=deprecated-declarations" \
        --with-ld-opt="-Wl,-rpath=$OPENSSL_LIB/lib -L$OPENSSL_LIB/lib"

Compile and Install:

    make
    make install

These instructions can be found on QAT engine

As QAT engine is implemented as a standard OpenSSL* engine, its behavior can be controlled from the OpenSSL* configuration file (openssl.conf), which can be found on QAT engine.

Note: From v0.3.2 and later, this kind of configuration in openssl.conf will not be effective for Nginx. Please use the following method to configure Nginx SSL engine, such as Intel® QAT.

An SSL Engine Framework is introduced to provide a more powerful and flexible mechanism to configure Nginx SSL engine direclty in the Nginx configuration file (nginx.conf).

A new configuration block is introduced as ssl_engine which provides two general directives:

Syntax:     use_engine [engine name];
Default:    N/A
Context:    ssl_engine
Description:
            Specify the engine name

Syntax:     default_algorithms [ALL/RSA/EC/...];
Default:    ALL
Context:    ssl_engine
Description:
            Specify the algorithms need to be offloaded to the engine
            More details information please refer to OpenSSL engine

A following configuration sub-block can be used to set engine specific configuration. The name of the sub-block should have a prefix using the engine name specified in use_engine, such as [engine_name]_engine.

Any 3rd party modules can be intergrated into this framwork. By default, a reference module dasync_module is provided in src/engine/modules and a QAT module nginx_qat_module is provided in modules/nginx_qat_modules.

An example configuration in the nginx.conf:

    load_module modules/ngx_ssl_engine_qat_module.so;
    ...
    ssl_engine {
        use_engine qat;
        default_algorithms RSA,EC,DH,PKEY_CRYPTO;
        qat_engine {
            qat_offload_mode async;
            qat_notify_mode poll;
            qat_poll_mode heuristic;
            qat_shutting_down_release on;
        }
    }

For more details directives of nginx_qat_module, please refer to modules/nginx_qat_modules/README.

The qat_module provides two kinds of nginx side polling for QAT engine,

• external polling mode
• heuristic polling mode

Please refer to the README file in the modules/nginx_qat_modules directory to install this dynamic module.

Note: External polling and heuristic polling are unavailable in SSL proxy and stream module up to current release.

A timer-based polling is employed in each Nginx worker process to collect accelerator's response.

**Directives in the qat_module **

Syntax:     qat_external_poll_interval time;
Default:    1
Dependency: Valid if (qat_poll_mode=external)
Context:    qat_engine
Description:
            External polling time interval (ms)
            Valid value: 1 ~ 1000

Example file: conf/nginx.conf

    load_module modules/ngx_ssl_engine_qat_module.so;
    ...
    ssl_engine {
        use_engine qat;
        default_algorithms ALL;
        qat_engine {
            qat_offload_mode async;
            qat_notify_mode poll;

            qat_poll_mode external;
            qat_external_poll_interval 1;
        }
    }

This mode can be regarded as an improvement of the timer-based external polling. It is the recommended polling mode to communicate with QAT accelerators because of its performance advantages. With the knowledge of the offload traffic, it controls the response reaping rate to match the request submission rate so as to maximize system efficiency with moderate latency, and adapt well to diverse types of network traffics.

Note:

• This mode is only available when using QAT engine v0.5.35 or later.
• External polling timer is enabled by default when heruistic polling mode is enabled.

In the heuristic polling mode, a polling operation is only trigerred at a proper moment:

• Number of in-flight offload requests reaches a pre-defined threshold (in consideration of efficiency)
• All the active SSL connections have submitted their cryptographic requests and been waitting for the corresponding responses (in consideration of timeliness).

**Directives in the qat_module **

Syntax:     qat_heuristic_poll_asym_threshold num;
Default:    48
Dependency: Valid if (qat_poll_mode=heuristic)
Context:    qat_engine
Description:
            Threshold of the number of in-flight requests to trigger a polling
            operation when there are in-flight asymmetric crypto requests
            Valid value: 1 ~ 512


Syntax:     qat_heuristic_poll_sym_threshold num;
Default:    24
Dependency: Valid if (qat_poll_mode=heuristic)
Context:    qat_engine
Description:
            Threshold of the number of in-flight requests to trigger a polling
            operation when there is no in-flight asymmetric crypto request
            Valid value: 1 ~ 512

Example file: conf/nginx.conf

    load_module modules/ngx_ssl_engine_qat_module.so;
    ...
    ssl_engine {
        use_engine qat;
        default_algorithms ALL;
        qat_engine {
            qat_offload_mode async;
            qat_notify_mode poll;

            qat_poll_mode heuristic;
            qat_heuristic_poll_asym_threshold 48;
            qat_heuristic_poll_sym_threshold 24;
        }
    }

** 'Orphan ring' errors in dmesg output when Nginx exit ** Working with current QAT driver (version 1.0.3 in 01.org), Nginx workers exit with 'Orphan ring' errors. This issue has been fixed in next QAT driver release

** Cache manager/loader process will allocate QAT instance via QAT engine ** According to current QAT engine design, child process forked by master process will initialize QAT engine automatically in QAT engine atfork hook function. If cache manager/loader processes are employed, QAT instances will be allocated in the same way as worker process. Cache manager/loader processes do not perform modules' exit process method in Nginx native design which will introduce "Orphan ring" error message in dmesg output.

The target audience may be software developers, test and validation engineers, system integrators, end users and consumers for Async Mode Nginx integrated Intel® Quick Assist Technology.

Intel® disclaims all express and implied warranties, including without limitation, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement, as well as any warranty arising from course of performance, course of dealing, or usage in trade.

This document contains information on products, services and/or processes in development. All information provided here is subject to change without notice. Contact your Intel® representative to obtain the latest forecast , schedule, specifications and roadmaps.

The products and services described may contain defects or errors known as errata which may cause deviations from published specifications. Current characterized errata are available on request.

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