Re: [PATCH v6 17/18] nfs: add Documentation/filesystems/nfs/localio.rst

Mike Snitzer
2024-06-20T14:33:17Z

On Thu, Jun 20, 2024 at 09:52:21AM -0400, Chuck Lever wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 19, 2024 at 04:40:31PM -0400, Mike Snitzer wrote:
> > This document gives an overview of the LOCALIO auxiliary RPC protocol
> > added to the Linux NFS client and server (both v3 and v4) to allow a
> > client and server to reliably handshake to determine if they are on the
> > same host. The LOCALIO auxiliary protocol's implementation, which uses
> > the same connection as NFS traffic, follows the pattern established by
> > the NFS ACL protocol extension.
> >
> > The robust handshake between local client and server is just the
> > beginning, the ultimate usecase this locality makes possible is the
> > client is able to issue reads, writes and commits directly to the server
> > without having to go over the network. This is particularly useful for
> > container usecases (e.g. kubernetes) where it is possible to run an IO
> > job local to the server.
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Mike Snitzer <snitzer@kernel.org>
> > ---
> > Documentation/filesystems/nfs/localio.rst | 148 ++++++++++++++++++++++
> > include/linux/nfslocalio.h | 2 +
> > 2 files changed, 150 insertions(+)
> > create mode 100644 Documentation/filesystems/nfs/localio.rst
> >
> > diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/nfs/localio.rst b/Documentation/filesystems/nfs/localio.rst
> > new file mode 100644
> > index 000000000000..a43c3dab2cab
> > --- /dev/null
> > +++ b/Documentation/filesystems/nfs/localio.rst
> > @@ -0,0 +1,148 @@
> > +===========
> > +NFS localio
> > +===========
> > +
> > +This document gives an overview of the LOCALIO auxiliary RPC protocol
> > +added to the Linux NFS client and server (both v3 and v4) to allow a
> > +client and server to reliably handshake to determine if they are on the
> > +same host. The LOCALIO auxiliary protocol's implementation, which uses
> > +the same connection as NFS traffic, follows the pattern established by
> > +the NFS ACL protocol extension.
> > +
> > +The LOCALIO auxiliary protocol is needed to allow robust discovery of
> > +clients local to their servers. Prior to this LOCALIO protocol a
> > +fragile sockaddr network address based match against all local network
> > +interfaces was attempted. But unlike the LOCALIO protocol, the
> > +sockaddr-based matching didn't handle use of iptables or containers.
> > +
> > +The robust handshake between local client and server is just the
> > +beginning, the ultimate usecase this locality makes possible is the
> > +client is able to issue reads, writes and commits directly to the server
> > +without having to go over the network. This is particularly useful for
> > +container usecases (e.g. kubernetes) where it is possible to run an IO
> > +job local to the server.
> > +
> > +The performance advantage realized from localio's ability to bypass
> > +using XDR and RPC for reads, writes and commits can be extreme, e.g.:
> > +fio for 20 secs with 24 libaio threads, 64k directio reads, qd of 8,
> > +- With localio:
> > + read: IOPS=691k, BW=42.2GiB/s (45.3GB/s)(843GiB/20002msec)
> > +- Without localio:
> > + read: IOPS=15.7k, BW=984MiB/s (1032MB/s)(19.2GiB/20013msec)
> > +
> > +RPC
> > +---
> > +
> > +The LOCALIO auxiliary RPC protocol consists of a single "GETUUID" RPC
> > +method that allows the Linux nfs client to retrieve a Linux nfs server's
> > +uuid. This protocol isn't part of an IETF standard, nor does it need to
> > +be considering it is Linux-to-Linux auxiliary RPC protocol that amounts
> > +to an implementation detail.
> > +
> > +The GETUUID method encodes the server's uuid_t in terms of the fixed
> > +UUID_SIZE (16 bytes). The fixed size opaque encode and decode XDR
> > +methods are used instead of the less efficient variable sized methods.
> > +
> > +The RPC program number for the NFS_LOCALIO_PROGRAM is currently defined
> > +as 0x20000002 (but a request for a unique RPC program number assignment
> > +has been submitted to IANA.org).
> > +
> > +The following approximately describes the LOCALIO in a pseudo rpcgen .x
> > +syntax:
> > +
> > +#define UUID_SIZE 16
> > +typedef u8 uuid_t<UUID_SIZE>;
> > +
> > +program NFS_LOCALIO_PROGRAM {
> > + version NULLVERS {
> > + void NULL(void) = 0;
> > + } = 1;
> > + version GETUUIDVERS {
> > + uuid_t GETUUID(void) = 1;
> > + } = 1;
> > +} = 0x20000002;
> > +
> > +The above is the skeleton for the LOCALIO protocol, it doesn't account
> > +for NFS v3 and v4 RPC boilerplate (which also marshalls RPC status) that
> > +is used to implement GETUUID.
> > +
> > +Here are the respective XDR results for nfsd and nfs:
>
> Hi Mike!
>
> A protocol spec describes the on-the-wire data formats, not the
> in-memory structure layouts. The below C structures are not
> relevant to this specification. This should be all you need here,
> if I understand your protocol correctly:
>
> /* raw RFC 9562 UUID */
> #define UUID_SIZE 16
> typedef u8 uuid_t<UUID_SIZE>;
>
> union GETUUID1res switch (uint32 status) {
> case 0:
> uuid_t uuid;
> default:
> void;
> };
>
> program NFS_LOCALIO_PROGRAM {
> version LOCALIO_V1 {
> void
> NULL(void) = 0;
>
> GETUUID1res
> GETUUID(void) = 1;
> } = 1;
> } = 0x20000002;

Thanks for this, nice to see I wasn't too far off.

> Then you need to discuss transport considerations:
>
> - Whether this protocol is registered with the server's rpcbind
> service,

It isn't, should it be? Not familiar with what needs updating to do
it, but happy to work through it.

> - Which TCP/UDP port number does it use? Assuming 2049, and that
> it will appear on the same transport connection as NFS traffic
> (just like NFACL).

Correct.

> Should it be supported on port 20049 with RDMA as well?

Unless there is some additional code needed, I don't see why it
wouldn't. But I haven't tested it (will look at NFS's RDMA support
and wrap my head around it).

> > +Testing
> > +-------
> > +
> > +The LOCALIO auxiliary protocol and associated NFS localio read, right
> > +and commit access have proven stable against various test scenarios but
> > +these have not yet been formalized in any testsuite:
>
> Is there anywhere that describes what is needed to set up clients
> and a server to do local I/O? Then running the usual suite of NFS
> tests on that set up and comparing the nfsstat output on the local
> and remote clients should be a basic "smoke test" kind of thing
> that maintainers can use as a check-in test.

I just figured running nfsd and nfs client connecting to that
localhost was obvious. But I can fill in more howto like info in this
section.

What is "the usual suite of NFS tests"? I should run them ;)

(apologies if there is well established docs with pointers, still
learning to fish, thanks for your help!)

Mike