[openib-general] Re: [PATCH 9 of 18] ipath - char devices for diagnostics and lightweight subnet management

[Michael S. Tsirkin]

Quoting r. Bryan O'Sullivan <bos at pathscale.com>:
> The ipath_sma.c file supports a lightweight userspace subnet management
> agent (SMA).  This is used in deployments (such as HPC clusters) where
> a full Infiniband protocol stack is not needed.

Could you please explain why is this useful? Users could not care less - they
never have to touch an SMA. The "full" Infiniband stack is very lightweight and
already includes an SMA, and it already includes ib_umad module which makes it
possible to implement subnet management in userspace should you want to.

-- 
Michael S. Tsirkin
Staff Engineer, Mellanox Technologies