[ofa-general] Re: [PATCH v4 14/14] QLogic VNIC: sysfs Documentation

[Amar Mudrankit]

>
>> +/sys/class/infiniband_qlgc_vnic/interfaces/<VNIC-interface-name>/
>> +
>> +       vnic_state      (0444)  State of the VNIC interface.
>
> This I don't understand - you seem to be registering and
> unregistering the net_device based some state machine,
> in some cases even triggered by timers.
>
> Whats the idea behind this?
>

For a given VNIC interface, unless the VNIC host driver establishes a
connection with EVIC
and completes the control and data path communication sequence with
the EVIC, the
VNIC network device is not registered on the host.  Establishing a
connection with EVIC
and going through the control and data path communication involves
multiple packet
exchange on the IB side with the EVIC and can take some time.  The
netpath statemachine is, hence, meant to PERIODICALLY check if
connection is fully established with EVIC or not.
Once connection is established, it takes care to register the VNIC netdevice.