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ublk: decouple server threads from hctxs

From:  Uday Shankar <ushankar-AT-purestorage.com>
To:  Ming Lei <ming.lei-AT-redhat.com>, Jens Axboe <axboe-AT-kernel.dk>, Caleb Sander Mateos <csander-AT-purestorage.com>, Andrew Morton <akpm-AT-linux-foundation.org>, Shuah Khan <shuah-AT-kernel.org>, Jonathan Corbet <corbet-AT-lwn.net>
Subject:  [PATCH v6 0/8] ublk: decouple server threads from hctxs
Date:  Wed, 07 May 2025 15:49:34 -0600
Message-ID:  <20250507-ublk_task_per_io-v6-0-a2a298783c01@purestorage.com>
Cc:  linux-block-AT-vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel-AT-vger.kernel.org, linux-kselftest-AT-vger.kernel.org, linux-doc-AT-vger.kernel.org, Uday Shankar <ushankar-AT-purestorage.com>
Archive-link:  Article

This patch set aims to allow ublk server threads to better balance load
amongst themselves by decoupling server threads from ublk queues/hctxs,
so that multiple threads can service I/Os from a single hctx.

The first patch is the functional change in the driver which switches
from per-queue daemons to per-io daemons and allows for ublk servers to
balance load that is imbalanced among queues. The second patch fixes a
bug in tag allocation (in the sbitmap layer) that was observed while
developing a test for this feature. The next five patches add support in
the selftests ublk server (kublk) for this feature, and add a test which
shows the new feature working as intended. The last patch documents the
new feature.

Signed-off-by: Uday Shankar <ushankar@purestorage.com>
---
Changes in v6:
- Add a feature flag for this feature, called UBLK_F_RR_TAGS (Ming Lei)
- Add test for this feature (Ming Lei)
- Add documentation for this feature (Ming Lei)
- Link to v5: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250416-ublk_task_per_io-v5-0-...

Changes in v5:
- Set io->task before ublk_mark_io_ready (Caleb Sander Mateos)
- Set io->task atomically, read it atomically when needed
- Return 0 on success from command-specific helpers in
  __ublk_ch_uring_cmd (Caleb Sander Mateos)
- Rename ublk_handle_need_get_data to ublk_get_data (Caleb Sander
  Mateos)
- Link to v4: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250415-ublk_task_per_io-v4-0-...

Changes in v4:
- Drop "ublk: properly serialize all FETCH_REQs" since Ming is taking it
  in another set
- Prevent data races by marking data structures which should be
  read-only in the I/O path as const (Ming Lei)
- Link to v3: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250410-ublk_task_per_io-v3-0-...

Changes in v3:
- Check for UBLK_IO_FLAG_ACTIVE on I/O again after taking lock to ensure
  that two concurrent FETCH_REQs on the same I/O can't succeed (Caleb
  Sander Mateos)
- Link to v2: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250408-ublk_task_per_io-v2-0-...

Changes in v2:
- Remove changes split into other patches
- To ease error handling/synchronization, associate each I/O (instead of
  each queue) to the last task that issues a FETCH_REQ against it. Only
  that task is allowed to operate on the I/O.
- Link to v1: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20241002224437.3088981-1-ushank...

---
Uday Shankar (8):
      ublk: have a per-io daemon instead of a per-queue daemon
      sbitmap: fix off-by-one when wrapping hint
      selftests: ublk: kublk: plumb q_id in io_uring user_data
      selftests: ublk: kublk: tie sqe allocation to io instead of queue
      selftests: ublk: kublk: lift queue initialization out of thread
      selftests: ublk: kublk: move per-thread data out of ublk_queue
      selftests: ublk: kublk: decouple ublk_queues from ublk server threads
      Documentation: ublk: document UBLK_F_RR_TAGS

 Documentation/block/ublk.rst                       |  83 +++++-
 drivers/block/ublk_drv.c                           |  82 ++---
 include/uapi/linux/ublk_cmd.h                      |   8 +
 lib/sbitmap.c                                      |   4 +-
 tools/testing/selftests/ublk/Makefile              |   1 +
 tools/testing/selftests/ublk/fault_inject.c        |   4 +-
 tools/testing/selftests/ublk/file_backed.c         |  20 +-
 tools/testing/selftests/ublk/kublk.c               | 329 ++++++++++++++-------
 tools/testing/selftests/ublk/kublk.h               |  73 +++--
 tools/testing/selftests/ublk/null.c                |  12 +-
 tools/testing/selftests/ublk/stripe.c              |  17 +-
 tools/testing/selftests/ublk/test_generic_08.sh    |  61 ++++
 .../selftests/ublk/trace/count_ios_per_tid.bt      |   9 +
 13 files changed, 488 insertions(+), 215 deletions(-)
---
base-commit: 037af793557ed192b2c10cf2379ac97abacedf55
change-id: 20250408-ublk_task_per_io-c693cf608d7a

Best regards,
-- 
Uday Shankar <ushankar@purestorage.com>




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