Hello, A long discussion on the list followed this initial topic proposal from Matias. I think this is a worthy topic to discuss at LSF in order to steer development of the zoned block device interface in the right direction. Considering the relation and implication to ZBC/ZAC support, I would like to attend LSF/MM to participate in this discussion. Thank you. Best regards. On 1/3/17 06:06, Matias Bjørling wrote: > Hi, > > The open-channel SSD subsystem is maturing, and drives are beginning to > become available on the market. The open-channel SSD interface is very > similar to the one exposed by SMR hard-drives. They both have a set of > chunks (zones) exposed, and zones are managed using open/close logic. > The main difference on open-channel SSDs is that it additionally exposes > multiple sets of zones through a hierarchical interface, which covers a > numbers levels (X channels, Y LUNs per channel, Z zones per LUN). > > Given that the SMR interface is similar to OCSSDs interface, I like to > propose to discuss this at LSF/MM to align the efforts and make a clear > path forward: > > 1. SMR Compatibility > > Can the SMR host interface be adapted to Open-Channel SSDs? For example, > the interface may be exposed as a single-level set of zones, which > ignore the channel and lun concept for simplicity. Another approach > might be to extend the SMR implementation sysfs entries to expose the > hierarchy of the device (channels with X LUNs and each luns have a set > of zones). > > 2. How to expose the tens of LUNs that OCSSDs have? > > An open-channel SSDs typically has 64-256 LUNs that each acts as a > parallel unit. How can these be efficiently exposed? > > One may expose these as separate namespaces/partitions. For a DAS with > 24 drives, that will be 1536-6144 separate LUNs to manage. That many > LUNs will blow up the host with gendisk instances. While if we do, then > we have an excellent 1:1 mapping between the SMR interface and the OCSSD > interface. > > On the other hand, one could expose the device LUNs within a single LBA > address space and lay the LUNs out linearly. In that case, the block > layer may expose a variable that enables applications to understand this > hierarchy. Mainly the channels with LUNs. Any warm feelings towards this? > > Currently, a shortcut is taken with the geometry and hierarchy, which > expose it through the /lightnvm sysfs entries. These (or a type thereof) > can be moved to the block layer /queue directory. > > If keeping the LUNs exposed on the same gendisk, vector I/Os becomes a > viable path: > > 3. Vector I/Os > > To derive parallelism from an open-channel SSD (and SSDs in parallel), > one need to access them in parallel. Parallelism is achieved either by > issuing I/Os for each LUN (similar to driving multiple SSDs today) or > using a vector interface (encapsulating a list of LBAs, length, and data > buffer) into the kernel. The latter approach allows I/Os to be > vectorized and sent as a single unit to hardware. > > Implementing this in generic block layer code might be overkill if only > open-channel SSDs use it. I like to hear other use-cases (e.g., > preadv/pwritev, file-systems, virtio?) that can take advantage of > vectored I/Os. If it makes sense, then which level to implement: > bio/request level, SGLs, or a new structure? > > Device drivers that support vectored I/Os should be able to opt into the > interface, while the block layer may automatically roll out for device > drivers that don't have the support. > > What has the history been in the Linux kernel about vector I/Os? What > have reasons in the past been that such an interface was not adopted? > > I will post RFC SMR patches before LSF/MM, such that we have a firm > ground to discuss how it may be integrated. > > -- Besides OCSSDs, I also like to participate in the discussions of > XCOPY, NVMe, multipath, multi-queue interrupt management as well. > > -Matias > > _______________________________________________ > Linux-nvme mailing list > Linux-nvme@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-nvme > -- Damien Le Moal, Ph.D. Sr. Manager, System Software Research Group, Western Digital Corporation Damien.LeMoal@xxxxxxx (+81) 0466-98-3593 (ext. 513593) 1 kirihara-cho, Fujisawa, Kanagawa, 252-0888 Japan www.wdc.com, www.hgst.com -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-block" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
