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diff --git a/Documentation/powerpc/cxlflash.txt b/Documentation/powerpc/cxlflash.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..f943967f90ce --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/powerpc/cxlflash.txt @@ -0,0 +1,257 @@ +Introduction +============ + + The IBM Power architecture provides support for CAPI (Coherent + Accelerator Power Interface), which is available to certain PCIe slots + on Power 8 systems. CAPI can be thought of as a special tunneling + protocol through PCIe that allow PCIe adapters to look like special + purpose co-processors which can read or write an application's + memory and generate page faults. As a result, the host interface to + an adapter running in CAPI mode does not require the data buffers to + be mapped to the device's memory (IOMMU bypass) nor does it require + memory to be pinned. + + On Linux, Coherent Accelerator (CXL) kernel services present CAPI + devices as a PCI device by implementing a virtual PCI host bridge. + This abstraction simplifies the infrastructure and programming + model, allowing for drivers to look similar to other native PCI + device drivers. + + CXL provides a mechanism by which user space applications can + directly talk to a device (network or storage) bypassing the typical + kernel/device driver stack. The CXL Flash Adapter Driver enables a + user space application direct access to Flash storage. + + The CXL Flash Adapter Driver is a kernel module that sits in the + SCSI stack as a low level device driver (below the SCSI disk and + protocol drivers) for the IBM CXL Flash Adapter. This driver is + responsible for the initialization of the adapter, setting up the + special path for user space access, and performing error recovery. It + communicates directly the Flash Accelerator Functional Unit (AFU) + as described in Documentation/powerpc/cxl.txt. + + The cxlflash driver supports two, mutually exclusive, modes of + operation at the device (LUN) level: + + - Any flash device (LUN) can be configured to be accessed as a + regular disk device (i.e.: /dev/sdc). This is the default mode. + + - Any flash device (LUN) can be configured to be accessed from + user space with a special block library. This mode further + specifies the means of accessing the device and provides for + either raw access to the entire LUN (referred to as direct + or physical LUN access) or access to a kernel/AFU-mediated + partition of the LUN (referred to as virtual LUN access). The + segmentation of a disk device into virtual LUNs is assisted + by special translation services provided by the Flash AFU. + +Overview +======== + + The Coherent Accelerator Interface Architecture (CAIA) introduces a + concept of a master context. A master typically has special privileges + granted to it by the kernel or hypervisor allowing it to perform AFU + wide management and control. The master may or may not be involved + directly in each user I/O, but at the minimum is involved in the + initial setup before the user application is allowed to send requests + directly to the AFU. + + The CXL Flash Adapter Driver establishes a master context with the + AFU. It uses memory mapped I/O (MMIO) for this control and setup. The + Adapter Problem Space Memory Map looks like this: + + +-------------------------------+ + | 512 * 64 KB User MMIO | + | (per context) | + | User Accessible | + +-------------------------------+ + | 512 * 128 B per context | + | Provisioning and Control | + | Trusted Process accessible | + +-------------------------------+ + | 64 KB Global | + | Trusted Process accessible | + +-------------------------------+ + + This driver configures itself into the SCSI software stack as an + adapter driver. The driver is the only entity that is considered a + Trusted Process to program the Provisioning and Control and Global + areas in the MMIO Space shown above. The master context driver + discovers all LUNs attached to the CXL Flash adapter and instantiates + scsi block devices (/dev/sdb, /dev/sdc etc.) for each unique LUN + seen from each path. + + Once these scsi block devices are instantiated, an application + written to a specification provided by the block library may get + access to the Flash from user space (without requiring a system call). + + This master context driver also provides a series of ioctls for this + block library to enable this user space access. The driver supports + two modes for accessing the block device. + + The first mode is called a virtual mode. In this mode a single scsi + block device (/dev/sdb) may be carved up into any number of distinct + virtual LUNs. The virtual LUNs may be resized as long as the sum of + the sizes of all the virtual LUNs, along with the meta-data associated + with it does not exceed the physical capacity. + + The second mode is called the physical mode. In this mode a single + block device (/dev/sdb) may be opened directly by the block library + and the entire space for the LUN is available to the application. + + Only the physical mode provides persistence of the data. i.e. The + data written to the block device will survive application exit and + restart and also reboot. The virtual LUNs do not persist (i.e. do + not survive after the application terminates or the system reboots). + + +Block library API +================= + + Applications intending to get access to the CXL Flash from user + space should use the block library, as it abstracts the details of + interfacing directly with the cxlflash driver that are necessary for + performing administrative actions (i.e.: setup, tear down, resize). + The block library can be thought of as a 'user' of services, + implemented as IOCTLs, that are provided by the cxlflash driver + specifically for devices (LUNs) operating in user space access + mode. While it is not a requirement that applications understand + the interface between the block library and the cxlflash driver, + a high-level overview of each supported service (IOCTL) is provided + below. + + The block library can be found on GitHub: + http://www.github.com/mikehollinger/ibmcapikv + + +CXL Flash Driver IOCTLs +======================= + + Users, such as the block library, that wish to interface with a flash + device (LUN) via user space access need to use the services provided + by the cxlflash driver. As these services are implemented as ioctls, + a file descriptor handle must first be obtained in order to establish + the communication channel between a user and the kernel. This file + descriptor is obtained by opening the device special file associated + with the scsi disk device (/dev/sdb) that was created during LUN + discovery. As per the location of the cxlflash driver within the + SCSI protocol stack, this open is actually not seen by the cxlflash + driver. Upon successful open, the user receives a file descriptor + (herein referred to as fd1) that should be used for issuing the + subsequent ioctls listed below. + + The structure definitions for these IOCTLs are available in: + uapi/scsi/cxlflash_ioctl.h + +DK_CXLFLASH_ATTACH +------------------ + + This ioctl obtains, initializes, and starts a context using the CXL + kernel services. These services specify a context id (u16) by which + to uniquely identify the context and its allocated resources. The + services additionally provide a second file descriptor (herein + referred to as fd2) that is used by the block library to initiate + memory mapped I/O (via mmap()) to the CXL flash device and poll for + completion events. This file descriptor is intentionally installed by + this driver and not the CXL kernel services to allow for intermediary + notification and access in the event of a non-user-initiated close(), + such as a killed process. This design point is described in further + detail in the description for the DK_CXLFLASH_DETACH ioctl. + + There are a few important aspects regarding the "tokens" (context id + and fd2) that are provided back to the user: + + - These tokens are only valid for the process under which they + were created. The child of a forked process cannot continue + to use the context id or file descriptor created by its parent. + + - These tokens are only valid for the lifetime of the context and + the process under which they were created. Once either is + destroyed, the tokens are to be considered stale and subsequent + usage will result in errors. + + - When a context is no longer needed, the user shall detach from + the context via the DK_CXLFLASH_DETACH ioctl. + + - A close on fd2 will invalidate the tokens. This operation is not + required by the user. + +DK_CXLFLASH_USER_DIRECT +----------------------- + This ioctl is responsible for transitioning the LUN to direct + (physical) mode access and configuring the AFU for direct access from + user space on a per-context basis. Additionally, the block size and + last logical block address (LBA) are returned to the user. + + As mentioned previously, when operating in user space access mode, + LUNs may be accessed in whole or in part. Only one mode is allowed + at a time and if one mode is active (outstanding references exist), + requests to use the LUN in a different mode are denied. + + The AFU is configured for direct access from user space by adding an + entry to the AFU's resource handle table. The index of the entry is + treated as a resource handle that is returned to the user. The user + is then able to use the handle to reference the LUN during I/O. + +DK_CXLFLASH_RELEASE +------------------- + This ioctl is responsible for releasing a previously obtained + reference to either a physical or virtual LUN. This can be + thought of as the inverse of the DK_CXLFLASH_USER_DIRECT or + DK_CXLFLASH_USER_VIRTUAL ioctls. Upon success, the resource handle + is no longer valid and the entry in the resource handle table is + made available to be used again. + + As part of the release process for virtual LUNs, the virtual LUN + is first resized to 0 to clear out and free the translation tables + associated with the virtual LUN reference. + +DK_CXLFLASH_DETACH +------------------ + This ioctl is responsible for unregistering a context with the + cxlflash driver and release outstanding resources that were + not explicitly released via the DK_CXLFLASH_RELEASE ioctl. Upon + success, all "tokens" which had been provided to the user from the + DK_CXLFLASH_ATTACH onward are no longer valid. + +DK_CXLFLASH_VERIFY +------------------ + This ioctl is used to detect various changes such as the capacity of + the disk changing, the number of LUNs visible changing, etc. In cases + where the changes affect the application (such as a LUN resize), the + cxlflash driver will report the changed state to the application. + + The user calls in when they want to validate that a LUN hasn't been + changed in response to a check condition. As the user is operating out + of band from the kernel, they will see these types of events without + the kernel's knowledge. When encountered, the user's architected + behavior is to call in to this ioctl, indicating what they want to + verify and passing along any appropriate information. For now, only + verifying a LUN change (ie: size different) with sense data is + supported. + +DK_CXLFLASH_RECOVER_AFU +----------------------- + This ioctl is used to drive recovery (if such an action is warranted) + of a specified user context. Any state associated with the user context + is re-established upon successful recovery. + + User contexts are put into an error condition when the device needs to + be reset or is terminating. Users are notified of this error condition + by seeing all 0xF's on an MMIO read. Upon encountering this, the + architected behavior for a user is to call into this ioctl to recover + their context. A user may also call into this ioctl at any time to + check if the device is operating normally. If a failure is returned + from this ioctl, the user is expected to gracefully clean up their + context via release/detach ioctls. Until they do, the context they + hold is not relinquished. The user may also optionally exit the process + at which time the context/resources they held will be freed as part of + the release fop. + +DK_CXLFLASH_MANAGE_LUN +---------------------- + This ioctl is used to switch a LUN from a mode where it is available + for file-system access (legacy), to a mode where it is set aside for + exclusive user space access (superpipe). In case a LUN is visible + across multiple ports and adapters, this ioctl is used to uniquely + identify each LUN by its World Wide Node Name (WWNN). |