linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v2 10/10] nvmet: Optionally use PCI P2P memory

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Message-ID: <A95AE6BF-1CAC-48F5-B676-DA7BD6D5BF24@raithlin.com>
Date:   Thu, 1 Mar 2018 16:15:04 +0000
From:   "Stephen  Bates" <sbates@...thlin.com>
To:     Sagi Grimberg <sagi@...mberg.me>,
        Logan Gunthorpe <logang@...tatee.com>,
        "linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        "linux-pci@...r.kernel.org" <linux-pci@...r.kernel.org>,
        "linux-nvme@...ts.infradead.org" <linux-nvme@...ts.infradead.org>,
        "linux-rdma@...r.kernel.org" <linux-rdma@...r.kernel.org>,
        "linux-nvdimm@...ts.01.org" <linux-nvdimm@...ts.01.org>,
        "linux-block@...r.kernel.org" <linux-block@...r.kernel.org>
CC:     Christoph Hellwig <hch@....de>, Jens Axboe <axboe@...nel.dk>,
        Keith Busch <keith.busch@...el.com>,
        Bjorn Helgaas <bhelgaas@...gle.com>,
        Jason Gunthorpe <jgg@...lanox.com>,
        Max Gurtovoy <maxg@...lanox.com>,
        Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@...el.com>,
        Jérôme Glisse <jglisse@...hat.com>,
        Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@...nel.crashing.org>,
        "Alex Williamson" <alex.williamson@...hat.com>,
        Steve Wise <swise@...ngridcomputing.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 10/10] nvmet: Optionally use PCI P2P memory

> > Ideally, we'd want to use an NVME CMB buffer as p2p memory. This would
> > save an extra PCI transfer as the NVME card could just take the data
> > out of it's own memory. However, at this time, cards with CMB buffers
> > don't seem to be available.

> Can you describe what would be the plan to have it when these devices
> do come along? I'd say that p2p_dev needs to become a nvmet_ns reference
> and not from nvmet_ctrl. Then, when cmb capable devices come along, the
> ns can prefer to use its own cmb instead of locating a p2p_dev device?

Hi Sagi

Thanks for the review! That commit message is somewhat dated as NVMe controllers with CMBs that support RDS and WDS are now commercially available [1]. However we have not yet tried to do any kind of optimization around this yet in terms of determining which p2p_dev to use. Your suggest above looks good and we can look into this kind of optimization in due course.

[1] http://www.eideticom.com/uploads/images/NoLoad_Product_Spec.pdf
    
>> +	ctrl->p2p_dev = pci_p2pmem_find(&ctrl->p2p_clients);

> This is the first p2p_dev found right? What happens if I have more than
> a single p2p device? In theory I'd have more p2p memory I can use. Have
> you considered making pci_p2pmem_find return the least used suitable
> device?
    
Yes pci_p2pmem_find will always return the first valid p2p_dev found. At the very least we should update this allocate over all the valid p2p_dev. Since the load on any given p2p_dev will vary over time I think a random allocation of the devices makes sense (at least for now). 

Stephen