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".
Thanks,
Neo
Alex