Re: Merge plans for RPC/RDMA? (Was: Re: [NFS] [PATCH 000 of 14] knfsd: Preparation for IPv6 support in NFS server.)

[Chuck Lever <chuck.lever@oracle.com>]

Mike Snitzer wrote:
> On 4/13/07, Chuck Lever <chuck.lever@oracle.com> wrote:
> > Mike Snitzer wrote:
> > > On 2/2/07, Chuck Lever <chuck.lever@oracle.com> wrote:
> > >> Roland Dreier wrote:
> > >> >  > They are mostly from Chuck Level and make preparating for IPv6
> > >> support
> > >> >  > in the NFS server.
> > >> >  > They are *not* for 2.6.20, but should be ok for .21.
> > >> >
> > >> > Out of curiousity, does this patch series reduce the delta 
> > between the
> > >> > NFS/RDMA tree and mainline Linux?  In other words does this bring
> > >> > NFS/RDMA closer to merging?
> > >>
> > >> Hi Roland-
> > >>
> > >> The client side support for an RPC/RDMA module is almost completely
> > >> integrated into mainline.  There is still a minimal set of patches
> > >> required to support alternate transports in loadable kernel modules
> > >> which Trond has indicated he will integrate when the RPC/RDMA 
> > transport
> > >> is ready to be integrated.
> > >
> > > Hi Chuck,
> > >
> > > I must be missing something because I don't see _any_ trace of the
> > > core RPC over RDMA support (xprtrdma et al), your RPC Transport
> > > Switch, or any of the other supporting changes in mainline.  Could
> > > you, or others, please clarify the plan for merging RPC/RDMA?
> >
> > The RPC transport switch patches are almost fully integrated into
> > mainline.  The xprtrdma piece is what is not there yet.
>
> OK, has the xprtrdma piece been reviewed by the community?  What, if
> anything, is preventing the code from being included in -mm for wider
> testing?

OK, there is something holding up the client-side piece of NFS/RDMA. 
There is some hackery required for the NFS client to recognize that the 
RDMA transport should be used instead of the standard socket transport.

We did discuss this a bit at Connectathon '07 six weeks ago, but my 
impression is that more discussion is required.

I'm working on some changes to NFS mounting that would move NFS mount 
option parsing into the kernel.  This would make it very simple to add 
RDMA transport support, but it's rather a while in coming.
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