Re: [PATCH] bonding: reset queue mapping prior to transmission to physical device

On Thu, 2011-06-02 at 15:46 -0400, Neil Horman wrote:

On Thu, Jun 02, 2011 at 08:09:49PM +0100, Ben Hutchings wrote:

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On Thu, 2011-06-02 at 14:56 -0400, Neil Horman wrote:

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On Thu, Jun 02, 2011 at 07:35:53PM +0100, Ben Hutchings wrote:

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On Thu, 2011-06-02 at 14:03 -0400, Neil Horman wrote:

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The bonding driver is multiqueue enabled, in which each queue represents a slave
to enable optional steering of output frames to given slaves against the default
output policy.  However, it needs to reset the skb->queue_mapping prior to
queuing to the physical device or the physical slave (if it is multiqueue) could
wind up transmitting on an unintended tx queue (one that was reserved for
specific traffic classes for instance)

[...]

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So far as I can see, this has no effect, because dev_queue_xmit() always
sets queue_mapping (in dev_pick_tx()).

it resets the queue mapping exactly as you would expect it to.  bonding is a
multiqueue enabled device and selects a potentially non-zero queue based on the
output of bond_select_queue.

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What is the problem you're seeing?

The problem is exctly that.  dev_pick_tx() on the bond device sets the
queue_mapping as per the result of bond_select_queue (the ndo_select_queue
method for the bonding driver).  The implementation there is based on the use of
tc with bonding, so that output slaves can be selected for certain types of
traffic.  But when that mechanism is used, skb->queue_mapping is preserved when
the bonding driver queues the frame to the underlying slave.  This denies the
slave (if its also a multiqueue device) the opportunity to reselect the queue
properly, because of this call path:

bond_queue_xmit
 dev_queue_xmit(slave_dev)
  dev_pick_tx()
   skb_tx_hash()
    __skb_tx_hash()

__skb_tx_hash sees that skb_queue_recorded returns true, and assigns a hardware queue mapping
based on what the bonding driver chose using its own internal logic.  Since
bonding uses the multiqueue infrastructure to do slave output selection without
any regard for slave output queue selection, it seems to me we should really
reset the queue mapping to zero so the slave device can pick its own tx queue.

So you're effectively clearing the *RX queue* number (as this is before
dev_pick_tx()) in order to influence TX queue selection.

No, you're not seeing it properly.  In bonding (as with all stacked devices) we
make two passes through dev_pick_tx.

Only if the stacked device has its own software queues and schedulers;
e.g. VLAN devices don't.

1) The first time we call dev_pick_tx is when the network stack calls
dev_queue_xmit on the bond device.  here we call ndo_select_queue, which calls
bond_select_queue.  This method tells the stack which queue to enqueue the skb
on for the bond device.  We can use tc's skbedit action to select a particular
queue on the bond device for various classes of traffic, and those queues
correspond to individual slave devices.

2) the second time we call dev_pick_tx is when the bonding bond_queue_xmit
routine (which is the bonding drivers ndo_start_xmit method, called after the
frist dev_pick_tx), calls dev_queue_xmit, passing the slave net_device pointer).
In this case we do whatever the slave device has configured (either reset the
queue to zero, or call the slaves ndo_select queue method).

What I'm fixing is the fact that the bonding drivers queue_mappnig value is
'leaking' down to the slave.

And this is because dev_queue_xmit() assumes that it's a record of the
RX queue number.

The differing interpretation of queue_mapping for RX and TX is annoying
and I think we should change the initial value of queue_mapping to -1.
But that's a separate issue.

Lets say, for example we're bonding two multiqueue devices, and have the bonding
driver configured to send all traffic to 192.168.1.1 over the first slave (which
we can accomplish using an appropriate tc rule on the bond device, setting
frames with that dest ip to have a skb->queue_mapping of 1).

In the above example, frames bound for 192.168.1.1 have skb->queue_mapping set
to 1 when they enter bond_queue_xmit.  bond_queue_xmit, calls
dev_queue_xmit(slave, skb), which calls dev_pick_tx(slave, skb).  If we (for
simplicity's sake) assume the slave has no ndo_select_queue method, dev_pick_tx
calls __skb_tx_hash to determine the output queue.  But the bonding driver
already set skb->queue_mapping to 1 (because it wanted this frame output on the
first slave, not because it wanted to transmit the frame on the slaves tx queue
1).  Nevertheless, __skb_tx_hash() sees that skb_rx_queue_recorded returns true
here and as a result, calls skb_rx_get_queue, which returns 0.  Because of that
we wind up transmitting on hardware queue 0 all the time, which is not at all
what we want.  What we want is for the bonding driver to be able to use
queue_mapping for its own purposes, and then allow the physical device to make
its own output queue selection independently.

[...]

I think I understand - the bonding device is effectively single-queue
and shouldn't record an RX queue number.  But I think you should define
and use skb_clear_rx_queue() to set queue_mapping=0, rather than abusing
skb_set_queue_mapping() which is meant to take a TX queue number.

Ben.

-- 
Ben Hutchings, Senior Software Engineer, Solarflare
Not speaking for my employer; that's the marketing department's job.
They asked us to note that Solarflare product names are trademarked.