Re: [RFC - PATCH 0/3] SCSI: Initiator based LUN Masking - SCSI mid-layer

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Hi Krishna,

On 08/11/2012 04:35 AM, kgudipat@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
	The following RFC patch-set adds Initiator based LUN Masking support to SCSI mid-layer
	and tries to address the feedback we have received to have LUN Masking feature in the
	SCSI mid-layer and made available to everyone.

	We came up with a design proposal to implement LUN Masking in SCSI mid-layer.

	I have listed the proposal details below and also attached the RFC patch-set
	that enables LUN Masking in the SCSI mid-layer and the implementation of the
	LUN Masking feature by the Brocade BFA driver using the APIs provided by the
	SCSI mid-layer to support LUN Masking feature.

	Can you please review the design proposal, patches and please let us know your opinion?

Thanks in advance,
Krishna C Gudipati.

(LUN masked = LUN to be made visible)

This terminology definition strikes me a bit odd, though I have to admit that I'm not a native speaker. One of the definitions I found says "to conceal from view" which is also what I would feel naturally and seems the opposite of your proposed usage. How is "masking" defined for target lun masking on the storage side?

==============================================================================
Proposal - LUN Masking implementation in the SCSI mid-layer using SCSI target
==============================================================================

Design Proposal:
================
Maintain a masked LUN list (the luns to be made visible) per target in the
SCSI target structure and use this list to determine whether to add the LUN
to the system config or to skip adding this LUN during the SCSI scan.

The masked LUN list can be populated during the LLD target_alloc() entry point
and can also be modified using the APIs that re-config this masked LUN list.
The re-config is followed by a SCSI scan to honor the modified masked LUN list.

API changes:
============
	- Introduce APIs to add or remove LUNs from SCSI target masked_lun_list.

	   extern int scsi_target_mask_lun(struct Scsi_Host *shost, int channel,
					   int target_id, unsigned int lun);

	   extern int scsi_target_unmask_lun(struct Scsi_Host *shost, int channel,
					     int target_id, unsigned int lun);

	   extern int scsi_target_config_lunmask(struct Scsi_Host *shost, int channel,
						 int target_id, int masking_config);

Pseudocode/Logic:
=================
Populating the "masked_lun_list":
=================================

   - For implementing LUN Masking, LLD can add the list of LUNs that are to be
     masked to the scsi_target "masked_lun_list" in the target_alloc() entry point.

   - Further add/remove modifications to "masked_lun_list" can be done using APIs
     scsi_target_mask_lun() or scsi_target_unmask_lun() respectively.

Please correct me if my understanding is wrong. It seems to me as if the only interface to add/removing luns from the masking list in the scsi midlayer are three in-kernel functions that are supposed to be called by an LLD. I understand this makes sense in your case with bfa, where you seem to have a vendor-specific interface via bsg to user space to add/remove luns from masking (among other things), and persistent storage for the configured stuff in flash on the HBA.

Zfcp has been having initiator based lun masking since a long time. Originally, we disabled all midlayer lun scanning on registering the scsi_host. Only on explicit user actions through our own driver-specific sysfs interface, we would ask the midlayer to probe and add one particular lun by calling scsi_scan_target() for this one specific lun only.

When we introduced automatic lun scanning and probing through the midlayer for NPIV setups, we also had to introduce -ENXIO in slave_alloc() to suppress luns we do not want as an LLD when running in non-NPIV setups, where we still support hardware virtualized HBAs and must not touch each reported lun in each virtual Linux image sharing the same HBA and thus the same physical WWPN making the Linux images indistinguishable in the fabric and on the target.

However, in both cases we only have the lun masking knowledge in the LLD because we did not know of any other existing mechanism we could reuse but to implement it on our own. The user space interface is by means of unit_add and unit_remove sysfs attributes in the LLD specific sysfs tree reflecting HBAs, remote ports, and fcp luns. Basically, it is a shadow of common code objects of type scsi/fc_host, fc_rport/target, scsi_device making up the hierarchical whitelist of resources the user would like to use. The user interface is described in the scsi/zfcp chapter of our device drivers book on http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/linux390/documentation_dev.html.

In other words, we don't have our own persistence layer and would be happy to rely on a common user space interface possibly owned by the scsi midlayer. Other LLDs, that also don't have their own persistence layer, could then also build on this generic lun masking and some user space tool could do persistence if needed (such as udev rules).

Without such common user space interface, I don't yet see why the scsi stack should maintain a (copy of an LLD) list if this list can only come from an LLD which could already do the lun masking in slave_alloc()?
I admit that it would be a first step, though.

LUN Masking configuration change:
=================================
To enable LUN Masking from disabled state:
==========================================

     Handling already attached SCSI Devices:
     ---------------------------------------
     Flow:
     -----
     __scsi_scan_target() {
	scsi_probe_and_add_lun() {
		. . .
		sdev = scsi_device_lookup_by_target(starget, lun);
		if (sdev) {

		    /* Check if this LUN is part of the "masked_lun_list"
		     * If YES - set the sdev->is_masked to 1 and return
		     * SCSI_SCAN_LUN_PRESENT as done currently.
		     * If the LUN is NOT part of the "masked_lun_list" then
		     * remove this device using the __scsi_remove_device().

Is __scsi_remove_device() safe to call? The device could be in use. Of course it would still have a refcount > 1 but we've had quite a number of scsi device removal races lately so I might be a bit overcautious.

		     * The return status in this case will be SCSI_SCAN_MASK_LUN
		     */

To disable LUN Masking from enabled state:
==========================================
     - Unset LUN Masking in scsi_target using scsi_target_config_lunmask() API.
     - Trigger a new LUN scan to reflect the new config.

     Handling already attached SCSI Devices:
     ---------------------------------------
     Flow:
     -----
     __scsi_scan_target() {
	scsi_probe_and_add_lun() {
		. . .
		sdev = scsi_device_lookup_by_target(starget, lun);
		if (sdev) {
		    . . .
		    /* Unset the sdev->is_masked bit */
		    . . .

Dito, since this also calls __scsi_remove_device() eventually.

		}
		. . .
	}
     }

Pros:
=====
	- Implementation is not that complex
	- LLD can choose at run time / during SCSI scan LUNs to be masked.
	- SCSI Stack controls the device addition/removal during the scan
	  based on the LLD LUN masking config.
	- SCSI Stack maintains the list of masked luns.


Steffen Maier

Linux on System z Development

IBM Deutschland Research & Development GmbH
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Geschäftsführung: Dirk Wittkopp
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