[nvmewin] Happy New Year... and status update

[Judy Brock-SSI]

Hi Ray,

We strongly prefer Options #2.  We think it is important to continue supporting OFA official releases for some time to come. We also don't think it makes sense to release what is in the trunk today as a 2015 release and then follow up almost immediately on its heels with a 2016 release containing all the patches below.  Hence our vote for Option #2.

Samsung is very comfortable in committing to delivering the 3 patches below in the Option #2 timeframe.

In fact, we will be ready with our first patch(PerfOpts + 2 critical bug fixes - see below) after 5 days of pushing the Namespace management patch to main branch.

In addition to PerfOpts support, we will be including two critical bug fixes in our first patch - both fixes for BSODs:

1. The first bug fix addresses the following:
There is a basic race condition/synchronization issue in the driver which allows the Admin queue's linked list of cmd_entry structures (pSQI->FreeQList) to get corrupted. In the current code, this list can be manipulated by different processors concurrently. When that happens, a BSOD ("A LIST_ENTRY has been corrupted (i.e. double remove)") occurs.  This hole is fixed.
2. The second bug fix addresses the following:
If a new SRB that comes in while a Format NVM is in progress, the NVMeBuildIo looks at the SCSI CDB opcode and rejects reads/writes.
The code that does this checking needs to make sure the request coming in is a SCSI-CDB based request before it tries to look at the CDB opcode - but it does not.  The logic is in the wrong place in NVMeBuildIo. The current code results in an attempt to access a null pointer and BSODs.


Thanks,
Judy

From: nvmewin-bounces at lists.openfabrics.org<mailto:nvmewin-bounces at lists.openfabrics.org> [mailto:nvmewin-bounces at lists.openfabrics.org]<mailto:[mailto:nvmewin-bounces at lists.openfabrics.org]> On Behalf Of Robles, Raymond C
Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2016 3:55 PM
To: 'nvmewin at lists.openfabrics.org'
Subject: [nvmewin] Happy New Year... and status update

Hello and Happy New Year,

I hope everyone had a great holiday season and is off to a great start to the new year!

As communicated last month, the patch from HGST for the SCSI multi-initiator changes has been approved and pushed. The holidays slowed down much of the progress on the OFA driver and there were several patches that did not get pushed prior to the end of the year. The list of patches remained to be pushed are as follows...


*         Namespace Management (Intel)

*         Perf Opts (Samsung)

*         Win 8.1 Timers (Samsung)

*         EOL Read Only (Samsung)

*         Concurrent channels (Google)

The namespace management patch will be sent out for review tomorrow (look for the patch email from Carolyn)... stay tuned!!!

However, once this patch is resolved, we as a community will have to make a decision on an official release strategy. The patch process and cadence was significantly slower in 2015 which leaves us with a few options.


1.       Release what is in the trunk today (or after the namespace management patch)... and call that the 2015 release (albeit later than expected)

2.       In lieu of an official 2015 release, we push the remaining patches listed above... and then release in ~Q2 of 2015. Basically skip a 2015 release and go right into the mid-2016 release.

3.       Remove the concept of "official releases" from the OFA Windows NVMe driver and just allow people, companies, and users to pull from the OFA trunk as necessary.

For #3 above, my thoughts are that because the OFA driver is not a production driver... but a reference and enabling driver, it should/could be managed as just that... a reference baseline driver that any potential user can go and grab the source, or contribute a patch. Nothing more... nothing less.

For the release decision, I'll be happy to call a meeting... but we can also handle it via email as well... just let me know. Feedback from all is welcome... but I would request mandatory feedback form the 4 reviewing companies: Samsung, HGST, PMC-Sierra, and Intel. How would you like to proceed?

Thanks,
Ray

[cid:image001.png at 01CB3870.4BB88E70]
Raymond C. Robles
Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group
Intel Corporation
Office: 480-554-2600
Mobile: 480-399-0645

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