blk-mq: improve DM's blk-mq IO merging via blk_insert_cloned_request feedback

blk_insert_cloned_request() is called in the fast path of a dm-rq driver
(e.g. blk-mq request-based DM mpath).  blk_insert_cloned_request() uses
blk_mq_request_bypass_insert() to directly append the request to the
blk-mq hctx->dispatch_list of the underlying queue.

1) This way isn't efficient enough because the hctx spinlock is always
used.

2) With blk_insert_cloned_request(), we completely bypass underlying
queue's elevator and depend on the upper-level dm-rq driver's elevator
to schedule IO.  But dm-rq currently can't get the underlying queue's
dispatch feedback at all.  Without knowing whether a request was issued
or not (e.g. due to underlying queue being busy) the dm-rq elevator will
not be able to provide effective IO merging (as a side-effect of dm-rq
currently blindly destaging a request from its elevator only to requeue
it after a delay, which kills any opportunity for merging).  This
obviously causes very bad sequential IO performance.

Fix this by updating blk_insert_cloned_request() to use
blk_mq_request_direct_issue().  blk_mq_request_direct_issue() allows a
request to be issued directly to the underlying queue and returns the
dispatch feedback (blk_status_t).  If blk_mq_request_direct_issue()
returns BLK_SYS_RESOURCE the dm-rq driver will now use DM_MAPIO_REQUEUE
to _not_ destage the request.  Whereby preserving the opportunity to
merge IO.

With this, request-based DM's blk-mq sequential IO performance is vastly
improved (as much as 3X in mpath/virtio-scsi testing).

Signed-off-by: Ming Lei <ming.lei@redhat.com>
[blk-mq.c changes heavily influenced by Ming Lei's initial solution, but
they were refactored to make them less fragile and easier to read/review]
Signed-off-by: Mike Snitzer <snitzer@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Jens Axboe <axboe@kernel.dk>

1 files changed, 1 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/block/blk-core.c b/block/blk-core.c
index 7ba607527487..55f338020254 100644
--- a/block/blk-core.c
+++ b/block/blk-core.c
@@ -2500,8 +2500,7 @@ blk_status_t blk_insert_cloned_request(struct request_queue *q, struct request *
 		 * bypass a potential scheduler on the bottom device for
 		 * insert.
 		 */
-		blk_mq_request_bypass_insert(rq, true);
-		return BLK_STS_OK;
+		return blk_mq_request_direct_issue(rq);
 	}
 
 	spin_lock_irqsave(q->queue_lock, flags);