linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] hpsa: SCSI driver for HP Smart Array controllers

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Date:	Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:33:23 -0600
From:	Mike Christie <michaelc@...wisc.edu>
To:	Jens Axboe <jens.axboe@...cle.com>
CC:	Grant Grundler <grundler@...gle.com>,
	FUJITA Tomonori <fujita.tomonori@....ntt.co.jp>,
	mike.miller@...com, akpm@...ux-foundation.org,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-scsi@...r.kernel.org,
	hare@...ell.com, iss_storagedev@...com, iss.sbteam@...com
Subject: Re: [PATCH] hpsa: SCSI driver for HP Smart Array controllers

Jens Axboe wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 02 2009, Mike Christie wrote:
>> Grant Grundler wrote:
>>> On Sun, Mar 1, 2009 at 10:32 PM, FUJITA Tomonori
>>> <fujita.tomonori@....ntt.co.jp> wrote:
>>> ...
>>>>> +/*
>>>>> + * For operations that cannot sleep, a command block is allocated at init,
>>>>> + * and managed by cmd_alloc() and cmd_free() using a simple bitmap to track
>>>>> + * which ones are free or in use.  Lock must be held when calling this.
>>>>> + * cmd_free() is the complement.
>>>>> + */
>>>>> +static struct CommandList_struct *cmd_alloc(struct ctlr_info *h)
>>>>> +{
>>>>> +     struct CommandList_struct *c;
>>>>> +     int i;
>>>>> +     union u64bit temp64;
>>>>> +     dma_addr_t cmd_dma_handle, err_dma_handle;
>>>>> +
>>>>> +     do {
>>>>> +             i = find_first_zero_bit(h->cmd_pool_bits, h->nr_cmds);
>>>>> +             if (i == h->nr_cmds)
>>>>> +                     return NULL;
>>>>> +     } while (test_and_set_bit
>>>>> +              (i & (BITS_PER_LONG - 1),
>>>>> +               h->cmd_pool_bits + (i / BITS_PER_LONG)) != 0);
>>>> Using bitmap to manage free commands looks too complicated a bit to
>>>> me. Can we just use lists for command management?
>>> Bit maps are generally more efficient than lists since we touch less data.
>>> For both search and moving elements from free<->busy lists. This probably
>>> won't matter if we are talking less than 10K IOPS. And willy demonstrated
>>> other layers have pretty high overhead (block, libata and SCSI midlayer)
>>> at high transaction rates.
>>>
>> If it was just needing this for the queuecommand path it would be  
>> simple. For the queuecommand path we could just use the scsi host  
>> tagging code for the index. You do not need a lock in the queuecommand  
>> path for getting a index and command, and you do not need to duplicate  
>> the tag/index allocation code in the block/scsi code
>>
>> A problem with the host tagging is what to do if you need a tag/index  
>> for a internal command. In the slow path like the device reset and cache  
>> flush case you could use a list or preallocated command or whatever  
>> other drivers are using that makes you happy.
>>
>> Or for the reset/shutdown/internal path could we come up with a  
>> extension to the existing API. Maybe just add some wrapper around some  
>> of blk_queue_start_tag that takes a the bqt (the bqt would come from the  
>> host wide one) and allocates the tag (need a something similar for the  
>> release side).
> 
> This is precisely what I did for libata, here is is interleaved with
> some other stuff:
> 
> http://git.kernel.dk/?p=linux-2.6-block.git;a=commitdiff;h=f557570ec6042370333b6b9c33bbbae175120a89
> 
> It needs a little more polish and so on, but the concept is identical to
> what you describe for this case. And I agree, it's much better to use
> the same index instead of generating/maintaining seperate bitmaps for
> this type of thing.
> 

In that patch where does the tag come from? Is it from libata?

What if we wanted and/or needed the bqt to give us a tag value and we 
need it for the lookup? It looks like for hpsa we could kill its 
find_first_zero_bit code and use and use the code in blk_queue_start_tag.

iscsi also needs the unique tag and then it needs the 
blk_map_queue_find_tag functionality too. iscsi needs the lookup and tag 
for host/transport level commands that do not have a scsi 
command/request. The tag value has to be unique accross the 
host/transport (acutally just the transport, but ignore that for now to 
make it simple and because for software iscsi we do a host per transport 
connection). Do you think something like the attached patch would be ok 
(it is only compile tested)?

View attachment "make-tagging-more-generic.patch" of type "text/plain" (6487 bytes)