[dm-devel] Questions regarding request based dm-multipath and blk-layer/elevator

[Kiyoshi Ueda]

Hi Nikanth,

On 05/19/2010 08:46 PM +0900, Nikanth Karthikesan wrote:
> Hi
> 
> I have couple of questions regd request based dm.
> 
> 1. With request based multipath, we have 2 elevators in the path to the
> device. Doesn't 2 idling I/O schedulers affect performance? Is it better to
> use the noop elevator for the dm device? What is suggested?
> I can send a patch to set noop as default for rq based dm, if it would be
> better.

Vivek answered perfectly.

 
> 2. The blk-layer limit nr_requests is the maximum nr of requests per-queue.
> Currently we set it to the default maximum(128) and leave it.
> 
> Instead would it be better to set it to a higher number based on the number of
> paths(underlying devices) and their nr_requests? In bio-based dm-multipath, we
> were queueing upto the sum of all the underlying queue's nr_requests.
> 
> For example the attached patch would set it to the sum of nr_requests of all
> the targets. May be it is better to do it from the user-space daemon,
> multipathd? Or just 128 requests is enough as in the end, it is going to be a
> single LUN? Or should we simply use the nr_request from one of the underlying
> device? Or the maximum nr_request amoung the underlying devices?

Thank you for working on this!
This has been on my TODO list for a long time and I have been having
the same concern.

My personal opinion is:
  o q->nr_requests of underlying devices may not be of our interests,
    since we don't use 'request' of underlying device's queue.

  o Instead, we might have to consider queue_depth of bottom devices,
    since queue_depth should affect I/O performance.
    Propagating the sum of underlying device's queue_depth to upper
    device using I/O topology framework or something may be an candidate
    for that.

  o On the other hand, which underlying devices are used depends on
    multipath configuration. (e.g. For multibus, the sum of all
    underlying devices' queue_depth should be appropriate.  But for
    failover, one of the underlying devices' queue_depth may be enough.)

  o Considering above, the userspace daemon, which knows multipath
    configuration in use, may be a good place to implement that.
    (Although some help/interface in kernel should be needed.)

Thanks,
Kiyoshi Ueda