[PATCH 5/7] nvme: export I/O failure count when no path is available via sysfs

Nilay Shroff
2026-01-30T18:21:21Z

When I/O is submitted to the NVMe namespace head and no available path
can handle the request, the driver fails the I/O immediately. Currently,
such failures are only reported via kernel log messages, which may be
lost over time since dmesg is a circular buffer.

Add a new sysfs counter, fail_no_available_path, to expose the number of
I/Os that failed due to the absence of an available path. This provides
persistent visibility into path-related I/O failures and can help users
diagnose the cause of I/O errors.

This counter can also be consumed by monitoring tools such as nvme-top.

Signed-off-by: Nilay Shroff <nilay@linux.ibm.com>
---
drivers/nvme/host/multipath.c | 11 +++++++++++
drivers/nvme/host/nvme.h | 2 ++
drivers/nvme/host/sysfs.c | 1 +
3 files changed, 14 insertions(+)

diff --git a/drivers/nvme/host/multipath.c b/drivers/nvme/host/multipath.c
index 4e5f8523ca40..85641e8852ad 100644
--- a/drivers/nvme/host/multipath.c
+++ b/drivers/nvme/host/multipath.c
@@ -544,6 +544,7 @@ static void nvme_ns_head_submit_bio(struct bio *bio)
dev_warn_ratelimited(dev, "no available path - failing I/O\n");

bio_io_error(bio);
+ head->fail_no_available_path++;
}

srcu_read_unlock(&head->srcu, srcu_idx);
@@ -1189,6 +1190,16 @@ static ssize_t requeue_no_usable_path_show(struct device *dev,
}
DEVICE_ATTR_RO(requeue_no_usable_path);

+static ssize_t fail_no_available_path_show(struct device *dev,
+ struct device_attribute *attr, char *buf)
+{
+ struct gendisk *disk = dev_to_disk(dev);
+ struct nvme_ns_head *head = disk->private_data;
+
+ return sysfs_emit(buf, "%llu\n", head->fail_no_available_path);
+}
+DEVICE_ATTR_RO(fail_no_available_path);
+
static int nvme_lookup_ana_group_desc(struct nvme_ctrl *ctrl,
struct nvme_ana_group_desc *desc, void *data)
{
diff --git a/drivers/nvme/host/nvme.h b/drivers/nvme/host/nvme.h
index 5836e4c557a2..66bd4db1fe0f 100644
--- a/drivers/nvme/host/nvme.h
+++ b/drivers/nvme/host/nvme.h
@@ -510,6 +510,7 @@ struct nvme_ns_head {
struct delayed_work remove_work;
unsigned int delayed_removal_secs;
u64 requeue_no_usable_path;
+ u64 fail_no_available_path;
#define NVME_NSHEAD_DISK_LIVE 0
#define NVME_NSHEAD_QUEUE_IF_NO_PATH 1
struct nvme_ns __rcu *current_path[];
@@ -1007,6 +1008,7 @@ extern struct device_attribute dev_attr_numa_nodes;
extern struct device_attribute dev_attr_delayed_removal_secs;
extern struct device_attribute dev_attr_multipath_failover_count;
extern struct device_attribute dev_attr_requeue_no_usable_path;
+extern struct device_attribute dev_attr_fail_no_available_path;
extern struct device_attribute subsys_attr_iopolicy;

static inline bool nvme_disk_is_ns_head(struct gendisk *disk)
diff --git a/drivers/nvme/host/sysfs.c b/drivers/nvme/host/sysfs.c
index 84d33445a578..c23d9a0ba3f4 100644
--- a/drivers/nvme/host/sysfs.c
+++ b/drivers/nvme/host/sysfs.c
@@ -285,6 +285,7 @@ static struct attribute *nvme_ns_attrs[] = {
&dev_attr_delayed_removal_secs.attr,
&dev_attr_multipath_failover_count.attr,
&dev_attr_requeue_no_usable_path.attr,
+ &dev_attr_fail_no_available_path.attr,
#endif
&dev_attr_io_passthru_err_log_enabled.attr,
&dev_attr_io_command_retries.attr,
--
2.52.0