RE: MPA alignment

"John Hufferd" <[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.ietf.ips
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Well, the initiator side must still field the RDMA messages sent by the
target (RDMA Read & RDMA write). And that means that the RDMA Read
response must be handled by initiator side, and of course the RDMA write
must be handled and data moved into the appropriate buffers when the
RDMA write message is received from the target.  

 

The software RDMA stack on the Initiator is really quite busy.

 

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John L Hufferd

Sr. Executive Director of Technology

Brocade Communications Systems, Inc

[email protected]

Office Phone: (408) 333-5244; eFAX: (408) 904-4688

Alt Office Phone: (408) 997-6136; Cell: (408) 627-9606

 

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From: Dan Bar Dov [mailto:[email protected]] 
Sent: Sunday, April 23, 2006 1:47 AM
To: John Hufferd; Eddy Quicksall; Mike Ko
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: RE: [Ips] MPA alignment

 

I just wanted to note in addition to what John said, that ISER is not a
symmetric protocol.

Only the target side performs the RDMA operations. The initiator does
only the setup.

 

Dan

	 

	
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	From: John Hufferd [mailto:[email protected]] 
	Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2006 9:56 PM
	To: Eddy Quicksall; Mike Ko
	Cc: [email protected]
	Subject: RE: [Ips] MPA alignment

	Eddy,

	I agree with your statement about software RDMA being a bit
silly, but only when the thought is about implementations on servers.

	There is at least one type of environment where using RDMA with
a software iWARP stack may not be too silly, and that is when the object
of the interconnect is to optimize the over all costs and save Server
Cycles.  In that case is may make sense to operate with a software RDMA
stack on the desktop systems or workstations.  Those environments often
have a plentiful amount of available CPU cycles on the
desktop/workstation.  So, the approach is to burn CPU cycles at the
desktop/workstation and save CPU cycles on the servers, which have
RNICs.  This type of a configuration actually seems to be a useful
configuration.

	 

	The same argument can be used with iSCSI and iSER, but only in
the case where there are RNICs in the target.  It is a little bit
strange, as you point out, to have the storage controller implement a
software version of iSER, except perhaps for some type of compatibility
or migration reasons.

	 

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	.

	.

	John L Hufferd

	Sr. Executive Director of Technology

	Brocade Communications Systems, Inc

	[email protected]

	Office Phone: (408) 333-5244; eFAX: (408) 904-4688

	Alt Office Phone: (408) 997-6136; Cell: (408) 627-9606

	 

	
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	From: Eddy Quicksall
[mailto:[email protected]] 
	Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2006 5:48 AM
	To: Mike Ko
	Cc: [email protected]
	Subject: Re: [Ips] MPA alignment

	 

	Thanks,

	 

	Here is my feeling on this. If one were to use a standard TCP/IP
stack (that does copying) then it is a bit silly to use iSER. If one
were to use a software implementation and write/modify the stack to get
the desired effects of DDP then he will probably heed to the alignment
notes in the spec. So if one were to support misaligned segments using a
slower method then it would be OK.

	 

	Eddy

		----- Original Message ----- 

		From: Mike Ko <mailto:[email protected]>  

		To: Eddy Quicksall
<mailto:[email protected]>  

		Cc: [email protected] 

		Sent: Tuesday, April 18, 2006 2:16 AM

		Subject: Re: [Ips] MPA alignment

		 

		
		Eddy, 
		
		If your question is about MPA behavior in general, then
it should be directed to the rddp forum. 
		
		Assuming your question is related to iSER, then if iWARP
is implemented in software and uses the existing TCP/IP stack, then it
cannot guarantee that FPDU's will be aligned with TCP segments.  For the
general case where iWARP is implemented in an RNIC with an integrated
TCP/IP stack, then it is to the RNIC vendor's advantage to optimize his
product's performance and therefore FPDU's should be aligned with TCP
segments.  However, the receiver can still receive FPDU's which are not
aligned with TCP segments if there are resegmenting middleboxes
somewhere in the connection path. 
		
		Mike   

		To:        <[email protected]> 
		cc:         
		Subject:        [Ips] MPA alignment 
		
		
		It is preferable to have TCP sender to align MPA header
where a TCP segment begins and to keep the MPA FPDU within a TCP
segment, so that the receiver hardware doesn't need to temporarily
buffer the FPDU for the CRC checking.   
		  
		Does anyone know of any software or hardware that is not
an FPDU alignment sender? 
		Does anyone have a feel for the likelihood of software
or hardware to not align FPDU's on a TCP segment? 
		  
		Eddy_______________________________________________
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