[PATCH v3 0/3] nvme: system fault while shutting down fabric controller

[PATCH v3 0/3] nvme: system fault while shutting down fabric controller

[Nilay Shroff]

We observed a kernel task hang up and a kernel crash while shutting down
NVMe fabric controller. These issues were observed while running blktest
nvme/037. The first two patches in this series address issues encountered
while running this test. The third patch in the series is an attempt to
use helper nvme_ctrl_state for accessing NVMe controller state.

We intermittently observe the blow kernel task hang while running the
blktest nvme/037. This test setup NVMeOF passthru controller using loop
target, connect to it and then immediately terminate/cleanup the
connection.

dmesg output:
-------------
run blktests nvme/037 at 2024-10-04 00:46:02
nvmet: creating nvm controller 1 for subsystem blktests-subsystem-1 for NQN nqn.2014-08.org.nvmexpress:uuid:0f01fb42-9f7f-4856-b0b3-51e60b8de349.
nvme nvme1: D3 entry latency set to 10 seconds
nvme nvme1: creating 32 I/O queues.
nvme nvme1: new ctrl: "blktests-subsystem-1"
nvme nvme1: Failed to configure AEN (cfg 300)
nvme nvme1: resetting controller
INFO: task nvme:3082 blocked for more than 120 seconds.
      Not tainted 6.11.0+ #89
"echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message.
task:nvme            state:D stack:0     pid:3082  tgid:3082  ppid:2983   flags:0x00042080
Call Trace:
    0xc000000070f5bf90 (unreliable)
    __switch_to+0x148/0x230
    __schedule+0x260/0x6dc
    schedule+0x40/0x100
    blk_mq_freeze_queue_wait+0xa4/0xec
    blk_mq_destroy_queue+0x68/0xac
    nvme_remove_admin_tag_set+0x2c/0xb8 [nvme_core]
    nvme_loop_destroy_admin_queue+0x68/0x88 [nvme_loop]
    nvme_do_delete_ctrl+0x1e0/0x268 [nvme_core]
    nvme_delete_ctrl_sync+0xd4/0x104 [nvme_core]
    nvme_sysfs_delete+0x78/0x90 [nvme_core]
    dev_attr_store+0x34/0x50
    sysfs_kf_write+0x64/0x78
    kernfs_fop_write_iter+0x1b0/0x290
    vfs_write+0x3bc/0x4f8
    ksys_write+0x84/0x140
    system_call_exception+0x124/0x320
    system_call_vectored_common+0x15c/0x2ec

As we can see from the above trace that nvme task hangs up indefinitely
while shutting down loop controller. This task couldn't forward progress
because it's waiting for unfinished/outstanding requests which haven't
yet finished.

The first patch in the series fixes the above hang by ensuring that while
shutting down nvme loop controller, we flush off any pending I/O to the
completion, which might have been queued after that queue has been quiesced.
So the first patch adds a missing unquiesce admin and IO queue operation in
the nvme loop driver just before the respective queue is destroyed.

The second patch in the series fixes another issue with the nvme keep-alive
operation. The keep-alive operation could potentially sneak in while
the fabric controller is shutting down. We encounter the below intermittent
kernel crash while running blktest nvme/037:

dmesg output:
------------
run blktests nvme/037 at 2024-10-04 03:59:27
<snip>
nvme nvme1: new ctrl: "blktests-subsystem-5"
nvme nvme1: Failed to configure AEN (cfg 300)
nvme nvme1: Removing ctrl: NQN "blktests-subsystem-5"
nvme nvme1: long keepalive RTT (54760 ms)
nvme nvme1: failed nvme_keep_alive_end_io error=4
BUG: Kernel NULL pointer dereference on read at 0x00000080
Faulting instruction address: 0xc00000000091c9f8
Oops: Kernel access of bad area, sig: 7 [#1]
LE PAGE_SIZE=64K MMU=Radix SMP NR_CPUS=2048 NUMA pSeries
<snip>
CPU: 28 UID: 0 PID: 338 Comm: kworker/u263:2 Kdump: loaded Not tainted 6.11.0+ #89
Hardware name: IBM,9043-MRX POWER10 (architected) 0x800200 0xf000006 of:IBM,FW1060.00 (NM1060_028) hv:phyp pSeries
Workqueue: nvme-wq nvme_keep_alive_work [nvme_core]
NIP:  c00000000091c9f8 LR: c00000000084150c CTR: 0000000000000004
<snip>
NIP [c00000000091c9f8] sbitmap_any_bit_set+0x68/0xb8
LR [c00000000084150c] blk_mq_do_dispatch_ctx+0xcc/0x280
Call Trace:
    autoremove_wake_function+0x0/0xbc (unreliable)
    __blk_mq_sched_dispatch_requests+0x114/0x24c
    blk_mq_sched_dispatch_requests+0x44/0x84
    blk_mq_run_hw_queue+0x140/0x220
    nvme_keep_alive_work+0xc8/0x19c [nvme_core]
    process_one_work+0x200/0x4e0
    worker_thread+0x340/0x504
    kthread+0x138/0x140
    start_kernel_thread+0x14/0x18

The above crash occurred while shutting down fabric/loop controller.

While shutting down fabric controller, if nvme keep-alive request sneaks in
and later flushed off then nvme_keep_alive_end_io() function is
asynchronously invoked to handle the end of the keep-alive operation. The
nvme_keep_alive_end_io() decrements the admin-queue-usage-ref-counter and
assuming this is the last/only request in the admin queue then the admin
queue-usage-ref-counter becomes zero. If that happens then blk-mq destroy
queue operation (blk_mq_destroy_queue()) which could be potentially
running simultaneously on another cpu (as this is the controller shutdown
code path) would forward progress and deletes the admin queue. However at
the same time nvme keep-alive thread running on another cpu hasn't yet
returned/finished from it's async blk-mq request operation (i.e blk_execute_
rq_nowait()) and so it could still access admin queue resources which could
have been already released from controller shutdown code path and that
causes the observed symptom.
For instance, find below the sequence of operations running simultaneously
on two cpus and causing this issue:

cpu0:
nvme_keep_alive_work()
  ->blk_execute_rq_no_wait()
    ->blk_mq_run_hw_queue()
      ->blk_mq_sched_dispatch_requests()
        ->__blk_mq_sched_dispatch_requests()
          ->blk_mq_dispatch_rq_list()
            ->nvme_loop_queue_rq()
              ->nvme_fail_nonready_command() -- here keep-alive req fails because admin queue is shutting down
                ->nvme_complete_rq()
                  ->nvme_end_req()
                    ->blk_mq_end_request()
                      ->__blk_mq_end_request()
                        ->nvme_keep_alive_end_io() -- here we decrement admin-queue-usage-ref-counter
cpu1:
nvme_loop_delete_ctrl_host()
  ->nvme_loop_shutdown_ctrl()
    ->nvme_loop_destroy_admin_queue()
      ->nvme_remove_admin_tag_set()
        ->blk_mq_destroy_queue() -- here we wait until admin-queue-usage-ref-counter reches to zero
        ->blk_put_queue() -- here we destroy queue once admin-queue-usage-ref-counter becomes zero
                          -- From here on we are not supposed to access admin queue
                             resources, however, nvme keep-alive thread running on
                             cpu0 which is not yet finished and so may still access
                             the admin qeueue pointer and causing the observed crash.

So prima facie, from the above trace it appears that the nvme keep-alive
thread running on one cpu races with the shutdown controller operation
which could be running on another cpu.

The second patch in the series addresses above issue by making nvme keep-
alive a synchronous operation so that we decrement admin-queue-usage-ref-
counter only after keep-alive operation/command finish and returns status.
This would also ensure that blk_mq_destroy_queue() doesn't return until
the nvme keep-alive thread finish it's work and so it's safe to destroy the
queue.

Moreover, the Keep-alive command is lightweight and low-frequency, making
it a synchronous approach shall be reasonable from a performance
perspective. Since this command is not frequent compared to other NVMe
operations (like reads/writes), it does not introduce a significant
performance overhead when handled synchronously.

The third patch in the series addresses the use of ctrl->lock before
accessing NVMe controller state in nvme_keep_alive_finish function.
With introduction of helper nvme_ctrl_state, we no longer need to
first acquire ctrl->lock before accessing the NVMe controller state.
So this patch removes the use of ctrl->lock from nvme_keep_alive_finish
function and replaces it with helper nvme_ctrl_state call.

Changelog:

Changes since v2:
    - In third patch in this series, remove the redudndant 
      "startka" variable from nvme_keep_alive_finish function
      and unify logic to queue delayed work (Damien Le Moal)

Changes since v1:
    - Split the second patch and move the use of helper
      nvme_ctrl_state call in third patch (Christoph Hellwig)


Nilay Shroff (3):
  nvme-loop: flush off pending I/O while shutting down loop controller
  nvme: make keep-alive synchronous operation
  nvme: use helper nvme_ctrl_state in nvme_keep_alive_finish function

 drivers/nvme/host/core.c   | 28 ++++++++++------------------
 drivers/nvme/target/loop.c | 13 +++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 23 insertions(+), 18 deletions(-)

-- 
2.45.2

[PATCH v3 1/3] nvme-loop: flush off pending I/O while shutting down loop controller

[Nilay Shroff]

While shutting down loop controller, we first quiesce the admin/IO queue,
delete the admin/IO tag-set and then at last destroy the admin/IO queue.
However it's quite possible that during the window between quiescing and
destroying of the admin/IO queue, some admin/IO request might sneak in
and if that happens then we could potentially encounter a hung task
because shutdown operation can't forward progress until any pending I/O
is flushed off.

This commit helps ensure that before destroying the admin/IO queue, we
unquiesce the admin/IO queue so that any outstanding requests, which are
added after the admin/IO queue is quiesced, are now flushed to its
completion.

Reviewed-by: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
Signed-off-by: Nilay Shroff <nilay@linux.ibm.com>
---
 drivers/nvme/target/loop.c | 13 +++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 13 insertions(+)

diff --git a/drivers/nvme/target/loop.c b/drivers/nvme/target/loop.c
index e32790d8fc26..a9d112d34d4f 100644
--- a/drivers/nvme/target/loop.c
+++ b/drivers/nvme/target/loop.c
@@ -265,6 +265,13 @@ static void nvme_loop_destroy_admin_queue(struct nvme_loop_ctrl *ctrl)
 {
 	if (!test_and_clear_bit(NVME_LOOP_Q_LIVE, &ctrl->queues[0].flags))
 		return;
+	/*
+	 * It's possible that some requests might have been added
+	 * after admin queue is stopped/quiesced. So now start the
+	 * queue to flush these requests to the completion.
+	 */
+	nvme_unquiesce_admin_queue(&ctrl->ctrl);
+
 	nvmet_sq_destroy(&ctrl->queues[0].nvme_sq);
 	nvme_remove_admin_tag_set(&ctrl->ctrl);
 }
@@ -297,6 +304,12 @@ static void nvme_loop_destroy_io_queues(struct nvme_loop_ctrl *ctrl)
 		nvmet_sq_destroy(&ctrl->queues[i].nvme_sq);
 	}
 	ctrl->ctrl.queue_count = 1;
+	/*
+	 * It's possible that some requests might have been added
+	 * after io queue is stopped/quiesced. So now start the
+	 * queue to flush these requests to the completion.
+	 */
+	nvme_unquiesce_io_queues(&ctrl->ctrl);
 }
 
 static int nvme_loop_init_io_queues(struct nvme_loop_ctrl *ctrl)
-- 
2.45.2

[PATCH v3 2/3] nvme: make keep-alive synchronous operation

[Nilay Shroff]

The nvme keep-alive operation, which executes at a periodic interval,
could potentially sneak in while shutting down a fabric controller.
This may lead to a race between the fabric controller admin queue
destroy code path (while shutting down controller) and the blk-mq
hw/hctx queuing from the keep-alive thread.

This fix helps avoid race by implementing keep-alive as a synchronous
operation so that admin queue-usage ref counter is decremented only
after keep-alive command finish execution and returns its status. This
would ensure that we don't inadvertently destroy the fabric admin queue
until we finish processing of nvme keep-alive request and its status and
hence it's safe to delete the queue.

Signed-off-by: Nilay Shroff <nilay@linux.ibm.com>
---
 drivers/nvme/host/core.c | 18 ++++++++----------
 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/nvme/host/core.c b/drivers/nvme/host/core.c
index 02897f0564a3..736adbf65ef5 100644
--- a/drivers/nvme/host/core.c
+++ b/drivers/nvme/host/core.c
@@ -1292,10 +1292,10 @@ static void nvme_queue_keep_alive_work(struct nvme_ctrl *ctrl)
 	queue_delayed_work(nvme_wq, &ctrl->ka_work, delay);
 }
 
-static enum rq_end_io_ret nvme_keep_alive_end_io(struct request *rq,
-						 blk_status_t status)
+static void nvme_keep_alive_finish(struct request *rq,
+				blk_status_t status,
+				struct nvme_ctrl *ctrl)
 {
-	struct nvme_ctrl *ctrl = rq->end_io_data;
 	unsigned long flags;
 	bool startka = false;
 	unsigned long rtt = jiffies - (rq->deadline - rq->timeout);
@@ -1313,13 +1313,11 @@ static enum rq_end_io_ret nvme_keep_alive_end_io(struct request *rq,
 		delay = 0;
 	}
 
-	blk_mq_free_request(rq);
-
 	if (status) {
 		dev_err(ctrl->device,
 			"failed nvme_keep_alive_end_io error=%d\n",
 				status);
-		return RQ_END_IO_NONE;
+		return;
 	}
 
 	ctrl->ka_last_check_time = jiffies;
@@ -1331,7 +1329,6 @@ static enum rq_end_io_ret nvme_keep_alive_end_io(struct request *rq,
 	spin_unlock_irqrestore(&ctrl->lock, flags);
 	if (startka)
 		queue_delayed_work(nvme_wq, &ctrl->ka_work, delay);
-	return RQ_END_IO_NONE;
 }
 
 static void nvme_keep_alive_work(struct work_struct *work)
@@ -1340,6 +1337,7 @@ static void nvme_keep_alive_work(struct work_struct *work)
 			struct nvme_ctrl, ka_work);
 	bool comp_seen = ctrl->comp_seen;
 	struct request *rq;
+	blk_status_t status;
 
 	ctrl->ka_last_check_time = jiffies;
 
@@ -1362,9 +1360,9 @@ static void nvme_keep_alive_work(struct work_struct *work)
 	nvme_init_request(rq, &ctrl->ka_cmd);
 
 	rq->timeout = ctrl->kato * HZ;
-	rq->end_io = nvme_keep_alive_end_io;
-	rq->end_io_data = ctrl;
-	blk_execute_rq_nowait(rq, false);
+	status = blk_execute_rq(rq, false);
+	nvme_keep_alive_finish(rq, status, ctrl);
+	blk_mq_free_request(rq);
 }
 
 static void nvme_start_keep_alive(struct nvme_ctrl *ctrl)
-- 
2.45.2

Re: [PATCH v3 2/3] nvme: make keep-alive synchronous operation

[Christoph Hellwig]

On Tue, Oct 08, 2024 at 11:51:51AM +0530, Nilay Shroff wrote:
> This fix helps avoid race by implementing keep-alive as a synchronous
> operation so that admin queue-usage ref counter is decremented only

Please spell out q_usage_counter as requested in the first round.

> after keep-alive command finish execution and returns its status. This
> would ensure that we don't inadvertently destroy the fabric admin queue
> until we finish processing of nvme keep-alive request and its status and
> hence it's safe to delete the queue.

I still fail to see why this requires a synchronous operation vs just
calling blk_mq_free_request and thus decrementing q_usage_counter
afrer checking the controller state.

Maybe I'm just dumb and missing the obvious even after the last
explanation, but then the commit log needs to be improved to explain
it.


> -static enum rq_end_io_ret nvme_keep_alive_end_io(struct request *rq,
> -						 blk_status_t status)
> +static void nvme_keep_alive_finish(struct request *rq,
> +				blk_status_t status,
> +				struct nvme_ctrl *ctrl)

And as a nipick, this should be:

static void nvme_keep_alive_finish(struct request *rq, blk_status_t status,
		struct nvme_ctrl *ctrl)

Re: [PATCH v3 2/3] nvme: make keep-alive synchronous operation

[Nilay Shroff]

On 10/8/24 12:34, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 08, 2024 at 11:51:51AM +0530, Nilay Shroff wrote:
>> This fix helps avoid race by implementing keep-alive as a synchronous
>> operation so that admin queue-usage ref counter is decremented only
> 
> Please spell out q_usage_counter as requested in the first round.
> 
Yes sure, I will do it in the next patch revision.

>> after keep-alive command finish execution and returns its status. This
>> would ensure that we don't inadvertently destroy the fabric admin queue
>> until we finish processing of nvme keep-alive request and its status and
>> hence it's safe to delete the queue.
> 
> I still fail to see why this requires a synchronous operation vs just
> calling blk_mq_free_request and thus decrementing q_usage_counter
> afrer checking the controller state.
> 
> Maybe I'm just dumb and missing the obvious even after the last
> explanation, but then the commit log needs to be improved to explain
> it.
>
OK, I will update the commit log in the next patch revision.
 
BTW, I just tried experimenting with your suggestion of "removing the 
blk_mq_free_request call from nvme_keep_alive_finish function and returning 
RQ_END_IO_FREE instead of RQ_END_IO_NONE" and I could still hit the same issue. 

The issue here's that after nvme_keep_alive_finish returns back up to the 
block layer, the nvme keep-alive thread running the queue dispatcher operation 
(and hence accessing the queue resources) while this queue might have been 
destroyed on another cpu.  

nvme_keep_alive_work()
  ->blk_execute_rq_no_wait()
    ->blk_mq_run_hw_queue()
      ->blk_mq_sched_dispatch_requests()
        ->__blk_mq_sched_dispatch_requests()
          ->blk_mq_dispatch_rq_list()
            ->nvme_loop_queue_rq()
              ->nvme_fail_nonready_command() 
                ->nvme_complete_rq()
                  ->nvme_end_req()
                    ->blk_mq_end_request()
                      ->__blk_mq_end_request()  -- with your suggestion, we now decrement admin->q_usage_counter here
                        ->nvme_keep_alive_finish() 
 
When above call stack returns to __blk_mq_sched_dispatch_requests function, 
the admin queue might have been destroyed on another cpu however the 
__blk_mq_sched_dispatch_requests could still access the admin queue resources 
and causing the crash as reported in the cover letter.

> 
>> -static enum rq_end_io_ret nvme_keep_alive_end_io(struct request *rq,
>> -						 blk_status_t status)
>> +static void nvme_keep_alive_finish(struct request *rq,
>> +				blk_status_t status,
>> +				struct nvme_ctrl *ctrl)
> 
> And as a nipick, this should be:
> 
> static void nvme_keep_alive_finish(struct request *rq, blk_status_t status,
> 		struct nvme_ctrl *ctrl)
> 
> 
Yes will do it the next patch.

Thanks,
--Nilay

[PATCH v3 3/3] nvme: use helper nvme_ctrl_state in nvme_keep_alive_finish function

[Nilay Shroff]

We no more need acquiring ctrl->lock before accessing the
NVMe controller state and instead we can now use the helper
nvme_ctrl_state. So replace the use of ctrl->lock from
nvme_keep_alive_finish function with nvme_ctrl_state call.

Signed-off-by: Nilay Shroff <nilay@linux.ibm.com>
---
 drivers/nvme/host/core.c | 10 ++--------
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/nvme/host/core.c b/drivers/nvme/host/core.c
index 736adbf65ef5..4c83424fbd66 100644
--- a/drivers/nvme/host/core.c
+++ b/drivers/nvme/host/core.c
@@ -1296,10 +1296,9 @@ static void nvme_keep_alive_finish(struct request *rq,
 				blk_status_t status,
 				struct nvme_ctrl *ctrl)
 {
-	unsigned long flags;
-	bool startka = false;
 	unsigned long rtt = jiffies - (rq->deadline - rq->timeout);
 	unsigned long delay = nvme_keep_alive_work_period(ctrl);
+	enum nvme_ctrl_state state = nvme_ctrl_state(ctrl);
 
 	/*
 	 * Subtract off the keepalive RTT so nvme_keep_alive_work runs
@@ -1322,12 +1321,7 @@ static void nvme_keep_alive_finish(struct request *rq,
 
 	ctrl->ka_last_check_time = jiffies;
 	ctrl->comp_seen = false;
-	spin_lock_irqsave(&ctrl->lock, flags);
-	if (ctrl->state == NVME_CTRL_LIVE ||
-	    ctrl->state == NVME_CTRL_CONNECTING)
-		startka = true;
-	spin_unlock_irqrestore(&ctrl->lock, flags);
-	if (startka)
+	if (state == NVME_CTRL_LIVE || state == NVME_CTRL_CONNECTING)
 		queue_delayed_work(nvme_wq, &ctrl->ka_work, delay);
 }
 
-- 
2.45.2

Re: [PATCH v3 3/3] nvme: use helper nvme_ctrl_state in nvme_keep_alive_finish function

[Christoph Hellwig]

On Tue, Oct 08, 2024 at 11:51:52AM +0530, Nilay Shroff wrote:
> We no more need acquiring ctrl->lock before accessing the
> NVMe controller state and instead we can now use the helper
> nvme_ctrl_state. So replace the use of ctrl->lock from
> nvme_keep_alive_finish function with nvme_ctrl_state call.

Looks good:

Reviewed-by: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>