On Wed, 28 Sep 2016 13:06:31 -0700
Neo Jia <cjia(a)nvidia.com> wrote:
On Wed, Sep 28, 2016 at 01:55:47PM -0600, Alex Williamson wrote:
> On Wed, 28 Sep 2016 12:22:35 -0700
> Neo Jia <cjia(a)nvidia.com> wrote:
>
> > On Thu, Sep 22, 2016 at 03:26:38PM +0100, Daniel P. Berrange wrote:
> > > On Thu, Sep 22, 2016 at 08:19:21AM -0600, Alex Williamson wrote:
> > > > On Thu, 22 Sep 2016 09:41:20 +0530
> > > > Kirti Wankhede <kwankhede(a)nvidia.com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > >>>>> My concern is that a type id seems
arbitrary but we're specifying that
> > > > > >>>>> it be unique. We already have something
unique, the name. So why try
> > > > > >>>>> to make the type id unique as well? A
vendor can accidentally create
> > > > > >>>>> their vendor driver so that a given name
means something very
> > > > > >>>>> specific. On the other hand they need to
be extremely deliberate to
> > > > > >>>>> coordinate that a type id means a unique
thing across all their product
> > > > > >>>>> lines.
> > > > > >>>>>
> > > > > >>>>
> > > > > >>>> Let me clarify, type id should be unique in the
list of
> > > > > >>>> mdev_supported_types. You can't have 2
directories in with same name.
> > > > > >>>
> > > > > >>> Of course, but does that mean it's only unique
to the machine I'm
> > > > > >>> currently running on? Let's say I have a Tesla
P100 on my system and
> > > > > >>> type-id 11 is named "GRID-M60-0B". At
some point in the future I
> > > > > >>> replace the Tesla P100 with a Q1000 (made up). Is
type-id 11 on that
> > > > > >>> new card still going to be a
"GRID-M60-0B"? If not then we've based
> > > > > >>> our XML on the wrong attribute. If the new device
does not support
> > > > > >>> "GRID-M60-0B" then we should generate an
error, not simply initialize
> > > > > >>> whatever type-id 11 happens to be on this new
card.
> > > > > >>>
> > > > > >>
> > > > > >> If there are 2 M60 in the system then you would find
'11' type directory
> > > > > >> in mdev_supported_types of both M60. If you have P100,
'11' type would
> > > > > >> not be there in its mdev_supported_types, it will have
different types.
> > > > > >>
> > > > > >> For example, if you replace M60 with P100, but XML is
not updated. XML
> > > > > >> have type '11'. When libvirt would try to
create mdev device, libvirt
> > > > > >> would have to find 'create' file in sysfs in
following directory format:
> > > > > >>
> > > > > >> --- mdev_supported_types
> > > > > >> |-- 11
> > > > > >> | |-- create
> > > > > >>
> > > > > >> but now for P100, '11' directory is not there,
so libvirt should throw
> > > > > >> error on not able to find '11' directory.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > This really seems like an accident waiting to happen. What
happens
> > > > > > when the user replaces their M60 with an Intel XYZ device
that happens
> > > > > > to expose a type 11 mdev class gpu device? How is libvirt
supposed to
> > > > > > know that the XML used to refer to a GRID-M60-0B and now
it's an
> > > > > > INTEL-IGD-XYZ? Doesn't basing the XML entry on the
name and removing
> > > > > > yet another arbitrary requirement that we have some sort of
globally
> > > > > > unique type-id database make a lot of sense? The same
issue applies
> > > > > > for simple debug-ability, if I'm reviewing the XML for
a domain and the
> > > > > > name is the primary index for the mdev device, I know what
it is.
> > > > > > Seeing type-id='11' is meaningless.
> > > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Let me clarify again, type '11' is a string that vendor
driver would
> > > > > define (see my previous reply below) it could be "11"
or "GRID-M60-0B".
> > > > > If 2 vendors used same string we can't control that. right?
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > >>>> Lets remove 'id' from type id in XML if
that is the concern. Supported
> > > > > >>>> types is going to be defined by vendor driver,
so let vendor driver
> > > > > >>>> decide what to use for directory name and same
should be used in device
> > > > > >>>> xml file, it could be '11' or
"GRID M60-0B":
> > > > > >>>>
> > > > > >>>> <device>
> > > > > >>>> <name>my-vgpu</name>
> > > > > >>>>
<parent>pci_0000_86_00_0</parent>
> > > > > >>>> <capability type='mdev'>
> > > > > >>>> <type='11'/>
> > > > > >>>> ...
> > > > > >>>> </capability>
> > > > > >>>> </device>
> > > >
> > > > Then let's get rid of the 'name' attribute and let the
sysfs directory
> > > > simply be the name. Then we can get rid of 'type' altogether
so we
> > > > don't have this '11' vs 'GRID-M60-0B' issue.
Thanks,
> > >
> > > That sounds nice to me - we don't need two unique identifiers if
> > > one will do.
> >
> > Hi Alex and Daniel,
> >
> > I just had some internal discussions here within NVIDIA and found out that
> > actually the name/label potentially might not be unique and the "id"
will be.
> > So I think we still would like to keep both so the id is the programmatic id
> > and the name/label is a human readable string for it, which might get changed
to
> > be non-unique by outside of engineering.
>
> I think your discovery only means that for your vendor driver, the name
> will be "11" (as a string). Perhaps you'd like some sort of vendor
> provided description within each type, but I am not in favor of having
> an arbitrary integer value imply something specific within the sysfs
> interface. IOW, the NVIDIA vendor driver should be able to create:
>
> 11
> ├── create
> ├── description
> ├── etc
> └── resolution
>
> While Intel might create:
>
> Skylake-vGPU
> ├── create
> ├── description
> ├── etc
> └── resolution
>
> Maybe "description" is optional for vendors that use useful names?
> Thanks,
I think we should be able to have a unique vendor type string instead of an
arbitrary integer value there as long as we are allowed to have a description
field that can be used to show to the end user as "name / label".
The key is what goes into the XML and I think that should be unique,
both between vendors and within the vendor, so "11" is probably a poor
choice. We could perhaps get a per-vendor-driver namespace by
prefixing the name of the vendor driver, then you could have
nvidia-vgpu-mdev-11 (or whatever you end up naming your vendor
driver). Of course if the vendor driver wanted to translate "11" into
a more stable, human readable name, you could export something like
"nvidia-vgpu-mdev-GRID11" (I have no idea what your unique types are
based on). Thanks,
Alex