[openib-general] Lustre Network Driver - KDAPL or verbs?

[James Lentini]

On Sun, 9 Oct 2005, Peter J. Braam wrote:

> Cluster File Systems, Inc and its customers have been wondering if the
> Lustre Network Driver (LND) for OpenIb gen2, which we will begin to
> develop during the coming months, should be based on kdapl or verbs.
>  
> The driver we plan to develop should strive to address several goals: 
>  - high reliability and performance
>  - allow interoperability between user and kernel level
>  - allow interoperability, or better, portability among different
> operating systems (Linux, OS X, Windows, Solaris)
>  - be suitable for inclusion in the Linux kernel
>  
> We are keen to hear some opinions!
>  
> Thanks
>  
> Peter Braam

Hi Peter,

I am the maintainer of the kDAPL reference implementation.

If you are interested in portability, I would recommend kDAPL. 

Earlier this year, there was an effort to modify the kDAPL API to make 
it acceptable for inclusion in the Linux kernel. After making these 
modifications, the OpenIB community still felt that the kDAPL API was 
not ready for merging into the upstream kernel. As a result, a new 
project was begun to develop an API capable of supporting both IB and 
iWARP and suitable for kernel inclusion. 

At the present time, neither the kDAPL API or the new RDMA API (verbs 
+ CMA) has been sent upstream. The current thinking is that the RDMA 
API has a better chance than kDAPL. 

james