[PATCH v3 0/4] Sending kernel pathrecord query to user cache server

[kaike.wan-ral2JQCrhuEAvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org]

From: Kaike Wan <kaike.wan-ral2JQCrhuEAvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org>

A SA cache is undeniably critical for fabric scalability and performance.
In user space, the ibacm application provides a good example of pathrecord
cache for address and route resolution. With the recent implementation of
the provider architecture, ibacm offers more extensibility as a SA cache.
In kernel, ipoib implements its own small cache for pathrecords, which is
however not available for general use. Furthermore, the implementation of
a SA cache in user space offers better flexibility, larger capacity, and
more robustness for the system.

In this patch series, a mechanism is implemented to allow ib_sa to
send pathrecord query to a user application (eg ibacm) through netlink.
Potentially, this mechanism could be easily extended to other SA queries.

With a customized test implemented in rdma_cm module (not included in this
series), it was shown that the time to retrieve 1 million pathrecords
dropped from 46660 jiffies (46.66 seconds) to 16119 jiffies (or 16.119
seconds) on a two-node system, a reduction of more than 60%.

Changes since v2:
- Redesigned the communication protocol between the kernel and user space
  application. Instead of the MAD packet format, the new protocol uses 
  netlink message header and attributes to exchange request and 
  response between the kernel and user space.The design was described
  here:
  http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-rdma/msg25621.html

Changes since v1:
- Move kzalloc changes into a separate patch (Patch 3).
- Remove redundant include line (Patch 4). 
- Rename struct rdma_nl_resp_msg as structure ib_nl_resp_msg (Patch 4).

Kaike Wan (4):
  IB/netlink: Add defines for local service requests through netlink
  IB/core: Check the presence of netlink multicast group listeners
  IB/sa: Allocate SA query with kzalloc
  IB/sa: Route SA pathrecord query through netlink

 drivers/infiniband/core/netlink.c  |    8 +
 drivers/infiniband/core/sa_query.c |  496 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 include/rdma/rdma_netlink.h        |    7 +
 include/uapi/rdma/rdma_netlink.h   |   56 ++++
 4 files changed, 562 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

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