Re: [PATCH 00/24] InfiniBand Transport (IBTRS) and Network Block Device (IBNBD)

Danil Kipnis
2018-02-06T09:44:37Z

On Mon, Feb 5, 2018 at 7:38 PM, Bart Van Assche <bart.vanassche@wdc.com> wrote:
> On 02/05/18 08:40, Danil Kipnis wrote:
>>
>> It just occurred to me, that we could easily extend the interface in
>> such a way that each client (i.e. each session) would have on server
>> side her own directory with the devices it can access. I.e. instead of
>> just "dev_search_path" per server, any client would be able to only
>> access devices under <dev_search_path>/session_name. (session name
>> must already be generated by each client in a unique way). This way
>> one could have an explicit control over which devices can be accessed
>> by which clients. Do you think that would do it?
>
>
> Hello Danil,
>
> That sounds interesting to me. However, I think that approach requires to
> configure client access completely before the kernel target side module is
> loaded. It does not allow to configure permissions dynamically after the
> kernel target module has been loaded. Additionally, I don't see how to
> support attributes per (initiator, block device) pair with that approach.
> LIO e.g. supports the
> /sys/kernel/config/target/srpt/*/*/acls/*/lun_*/write_protect attribute. You
> may want to implement similar functionality if you want to convince more
> users to use IBNBD.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Bart.

Hello Bart,

the configuration (which devices can be accessed by a particular
client) can happen also after the kernel target module is loaded. The
directory in <dev_search_path> is a module parameter and is fixed. It
contains for example "/ibnbd_devices/". But a particular client X
would be able to only access the devices located in the subdirectory
"/ibnbd_devices/client_x/". (The sessionname here is client_x) One can
add or remove the devices from that directory (those are just symlinks
to /dev/xxx) at any time - before or after the server module is
loaded. But you are right, we need something additional in order to be
able to specify which devices a client can access writable and which
readonly. May be another subdirectories "wr" and "ro" for each client:
those under /ibnbd_devices/client_x/ro/ can only be read by client_x
and those in /ibnbd_devices/client_x/wr/ can also be written to?

Thanks,

Danil.