Hello All, I've been trying to track down the cause of some soft lockups with call traces involving the iscsi initiator. I believe I have found a locking error in __iscsi_conn_send_pdu that is responsible. A previous commit (4fa507992f0a ("scsi: libiscsi: Fix locking in __iscsi_conn_send_pdu") changed the way that __iscsi_conn_send_pdu acquires session->back_lock, from using spin_lock_bh to using spin_lock. However, half a dozen lines up the function is still using spin_lock_bh to acquire conn->taskqueuelock. I think the locking for conn->taskqueuelock should be changed in the same way the locking for conn->session->back_lock was changed. A patch to do so follows. Furthermore, I think that the message for the previous commit understates the impact of the improper use of spin_lock_bh. It states that the use of spin_lock_bh here can trigger a WARN_ONCE. I believe it creates the possibility of deadlocks involving session->frwd_lock and/or queue_lock, and that I have observed such a deadlock. Here is the call trace from one soft lockup I have seen: Call Trace: <IRQ> do_raw_spin_lock+0xb2/0xc0 _raw_spin_lock+0x55/0x70 iscsi_check_transport_timeouts+0x24/0x1a0 [libiscsi] call_timer_fn+0xb9/0x3a0 ? iscsi_complete_pdu+0x60/0x60 [libiscsi] run_timer_softirq+0x254/0x650 __do_softirq+0xc5/0x4eb ? __iscsi_conn_send_pdu+0x1e3/0x420 [libiscsi] irq_exit+0xff/0x110 smp_apic_timer_interrupt+0x3d/0x50 apic_timer_interrupt+0x9d/0xb0 RIP: 0010:__local_bh_enable_ip+0x74/0xa0 RSP: 0018:ffffb0a60a26bc98 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: ffffffffffffff10 RAX: ffff901985f30000 RBX: 00000000fffffe00 RCX: 0000000000000002 RDX: ffff901985f30000 RSI: 0000000000000001 RDI: ffffffffa9837ed4 RBP: ffffb0a60a26bca8 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: ffff901985f30000 R11: 0000000000000002 R12: ffffffffc01b1ca3 R13: ffff90198d8916a0 R14: ffff90199207d480 R15: ffff90199207d400 </IRQ> ? __iscsi_conn_send_pdu+0x1e3/0x420 [libiscsi] ? dump_stack+0xaa/0xc6 ? __local_bh_enable_ip+0x70/0xa0 _raw_spin_unlock_bh+0x35/0x40 __iscsi_conn_send_pdu+0x1e3/0x420 [libiscsi] iscsi_send_nopout+0xbe/0x110 [libiscsi] iscsi_eh_cmd_timed_out+0x2b7/0x2c0 [libiscsi] scsi_times_out+0x86/0x2b0 blk_rq_timed_out+0x1f/0x60 blk_timeout_work+0x11b/0x170 process_one_work+0x250/0x690 worker_thread+0x4e/0x3c0 kthread+0x117/0x150 ? process_one_work+0x690/0x690 ? kthread_create_on_node+0x70/0x70 ret_from_fork+0x2a/0x40 blk_timeout_work calls blk_rq_timed_out inside a spin_lock_irqsave, so it should not be possible to take the softirq at this point. I believe, but would like to someone to confirm, that it is the use of spin_lock_bh/spin_unlock_bh that makes it possible to take the irq here. A deadlock results from spin_lock of session->frwd_lock in the softirq while it is already held by same cpu, having been acquired in iscsi_eh_cmd_timed_out. I have seen another similar soft lockup trace: <IRQ> queued_spin_lock_slowpath _raw_spin_lock iscsi_complete_pdu iscsi_tcp_process_data_in ... network driver and tcp stack ... net_rx_action __do_softirq do_softirq_own_stack <EOI> do_softirq __local_bh_enable_ip _raw_spin_unlock_bh __iscsi_conn_send_pdu iscsi_eh_cmd_timed_out scsi_times_out blk_rq_timed_out blk_timeout_work ... Which I think is also a deadlock involving the spin_lock of session->frwd_lock, in this instance following case ISCSI_OP_NOOP_IN: in __iscsi_complete_pdu. Feedback on the proposed change, patch, and whether it would be expected to address the soft lockups I have seen are most welcome. Best regards, --Chris