netdev - RE: [External] Re: [PATCH 0/7] Introduce vdpa management tool

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Date:   Tue, 1 Dec 2020 15:58:56 +0000
From:   Parav Pandit <parav@...dia.com>
To:     Yongji Xie <xieyongji@...edance.com>
CC:     Jason Wang <jasowang@...hat.com>,
        "virtualization@...ts.linux-foundation.org" 
        <virtualization@...ts.linux-foundation.org>,
        "Michael S. Tsirkin" <mst@...hat.com>, Eli Cohen <elic@...dia.com>,
        "netdev@...r.kernel.org" <netdev@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: RE: [External] Re: [PATCH 0/7] Introduce vdpa management tool



> From: Yongji Xie <xieyongji@...edance.com>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 1, 2020 7:49 PM
> 
> On Tue, Dec 1, 2020 at 7:32 PM Parav Pandit <parav@...dia.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> > > From: Yongji Xie <xieyongji@...edance.com>
> > > Sent: Tuesday, December 1, 2020 3:26 PM
> > >
> > > On Tue, Dec 1, 2020 at 2:25 PM Jason Wang <jasowang@...hat.com>
> wrote:
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On 2020/11/30 下午3:07, Yongji Xie wrote:
> > > > >>> Thanks for adding me, Jason!
> > > > >>>
> > > > >>> Now I'm working on a v2 patchset for VDUSE (vDPA Device in
> > > > >>> Userspace) [1]. This tool is very useful for the vduse device.
> > > > >>> So I'm considering integrating this into my v2 patchset. But
> > > > >>> there is one problem：
> > > > >>>
> > > > >>> In this tool, vdpa device config action and enable action are
> > > > >>> combined into one netlink msg: VDPA_CMD_DEV_NEW. But in
> vduse
> > > > >>> case, it needs to be splitted because a chardev should be
> > > > >>> created and opened by a userspace process before we enable the
> > > > >>> vdpa device (call vdpa_register_device()).
> > > > >>>
> > > > >>> So I'd like to know whether it's possible (or have some plans)
> > > > >>> to add two new netlink msgs something like:
> > > > >>> VDPA_CMD_DEV_ENABLE
> > > and
> > > > >>> VDPA_CMD_DEV_DISABLE to make the config path more flexible.
> > > > >>>
> > > > >> Actually, we've discussed such intermediate step in some early
> > > > >> discussion. It looks to me VDUSE could be one of the users of this.
> > > > >>
> > > > >> Or I wonder whether we can switch to use anonymous inode(fd)
> > > > >> for VDUSE then fetching it via an VDUSE_GET_DEVICE_FD ioctl?
> > > > >>
> > > > > Yes, we can. Actually the current implementation in VDUSE is
> > > > > like this.  But seems like this is still a intermediate step.
> > > > > The fd should be binded to a name or something else which need
> > > > > to be configured before.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > The name could be specified via the netlink. It looks to me the
> > > > real issue is that until the device is connected with a userspace,
> > > > it can't be used. So we also need to fail the enabling if it doesn't
> opened.
> > > >
> > >
> > > Yes, that's true. So you mean we can firstly try to fetch the fd
> > > binded to a name/vduse_id via an VDUSE_GET_DEVICE_FD, then use the
> > > name/vduse_id as a attribute to create vdpa device? It looks fine to me.
> >
> > I probably do not well understand. I tried reading patch [1] and few things
> do not look correct as below.
> > Creating the vdpa device on the bus device and destroying the device from
> the workqueue seems unnecessary and racy.
> >
> > It seems vduse driver needs
> > This is something should be done as part of the vdpa dev add command,
> instead of connecting two sides separately and ensuring race free access to
> it.
> >
> > So VDUSE_DEV_START and VDUSE_DEV_STOP should possibly be avoided.
> >
> 
> Yes, we can avoid these two ioctls with the help of the management tool.
> 
> > $ vdpa dev add parentdev vduse_mgmtdev type net name foo2
> >
> > When above command is executed it creates necessary vdpa device foo2
> on the bus.
> > When user binds foo2 device with the vduse driver, in the probe(), it
> creates respective char device to access it from user space.
>
I see. So vduse cannot work with any existing vdpa devices like ifc, mlx5 or netdevsim.
It has its own implementation similar to fuse with its own backend of choice.
More below.

> But vduse driver is not a vdpa bus driver. It works like vdpasim driver, but
> offloads the data plane and control plane to a user space process.

In that case to draw parallel lines,

1. netdevsim:
(a) create resources in kernel sw
(b) datapath simulates in kernel

2. ifc + mlx5 vdpa dev:
(a) creates resource in hw
(b) data path is in hw

3. vduse:
(a) creates resources in userspace sw
(b) data path is in user space.
hence creates data path resources for user space.
So char device is created, removed as result of vdpa device creation.

For example,
$ vdpa dev add parentdev vduse_mgmtdev type net name foo2

Above command will create char device for user space.

Similar command for ifc/mlx5 would have created similar channel for rest of the config commands in hw.
vduse channel = char device, eventfd etc.
ifc/mlx5 hw channel = bar, irq, command interface etc
Netdev sim channel = sw direct calls

Does it make sense?