Re: [PATCH v9 0/6] MAP_DIRECT for DAX userspace flush

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On Fri, Oct 13, 2017 at 10:31 AM, Jason Gunthorpe
<jgunthorpe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 13, 2017 at 10:01:04AM -0700, Dan Williams wrote:
>> On Fri, Oct 13, 2017 at 9:38 AM, Jason Gunthorpe
>> <jgunthorpe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> > On Fri, Oct 13, 2017 at 08:14:55AM -0700, Dan Williams wrote:
>> >
>> >> scheme specific to RDMA which seems like a waste to me when we can
>> >> generically signal an event on the fd for any event that effects any
>> >> of the vma's on the file. The FL_LAYOUT lease impacts the entire file,
>> >> so as far as I can see delaying the notification until MR-init is too
>> >> late, too granular, and too RDMA specific.
>> >
>> > But for RDMA a FD is not what we care about - we want the MR handle so
>> > the app knows which MR needs fixing.
>>
>> I'd rather put the onus on userspace to remember where it used a
>> MAP_DIRECT mapping and be aware that all the mappings of that file are
>> subject to a lease break. Sure, we could build up a pile of kernel
>> infrastructure to notify on a per-MR basis, but I think that would
>> only be worth it if leases were range based. As it is, the entire file
>> is covered by a lease instance and all MRs that might reference that
>> file get one notification. That said, we can always arrange for a
>> per-driver callback at lease-break time so that it can do something
>> above and beyond the default notification.
>
> I don't think that really represents how lots of apps actually use
> RDMA.
>
> RDMA is often buried down in the software stack (eg in a MPI), and by
> the time a mapping gets used for RDMA transfer the link between the
> FD, mmap and the MR is totally opaque.
>
> Having a MR specific notification means the low level RDMA libraries
> have a chance to deal with everything for the app.
>
> Eg consider a HPC app using MPI that uses some DAX aware library to
> get DAX backed mmap's. It then passes memory in those mmaps to the
> MPI library to do transfers. The MPI creates the MR on demand.
>
> So, who should be responsible for MR coherency? Today we say the MPI
> is responsible. But we can't really expect the MPI
> to hook SIGIO and somehow try to reverse engineer what MRs are
> impacted from a FD that may not even still be open.

Ok, that's good insight that I didn't have. Userspace needs more help
than just an fd notification.

> I think, if you want to build a uAPI for notification of MR lease
> break, then you need show how it fits into the above software model:
>  - How it can be hidden in a RDMA specific library

So, here's a strawman can ibv_poll_cq() start returning ibv_wc_status
== IBV_WC_LOC_PROT_ERR when file coherency is lost. This would make
the solution generic across DAX and non-DAX. What's you're feeling for
how well applications are prepared to deal with that status return?

>  - How lease break can be done hitlessly, so the library user never
>    needs to know it is happening or see failed/missed transfers

iommu redirect should be hit less and behave like the page cache case
where RDMA targets pages that are no longer part of the file.

>  - Whatever fast path checking is needed does not kill performance

What do you consider a fast path? I was assuming that memory
registration is a slow path, and iommu operations are asynchronous so
should not impact performance of ongoing operations beyond typical
iommu overhead.
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