[ofw] minutes for the 2-12-08 WWG meeting

[Stan C. Smith]

What: OFA - Windows Working Group
When: Tue Feb 12, 2008, 09:00 AM - 11:00 AM US Pacific Time

2-12-08 Minutes:

Attending

  Sean Hefty               sean.hefty at intel.com
  Anatoly Lisenko          anatolyl at voltaire.com
  Ishai Rabinovitz         ishai at mellanox.co.il
  Leonid Keller            leonid at mellanox.co.il
  Usha Srinivasan          usha.srinivasan at qlogic.com
  Alex Estrin              Alex.estrin at qlogic.com
  Gilad Shainer            Shainer at Mellanox.com
  Fab Tillier
  stan smith               stan.smith at intel.com

OFA Bugzilla integration update

Shai will send email explaining how maintainers can register to get bug reports for their
respective modules. 

Windows Server 2008 update

This topic needs a priority boost in order to make WinOF 1.1.
Microsoft is assisting Mx with driver installation issues.
Intel windows developers, along with Microsoft, are advocating the use of a Fabric
service and filter driver for HCA PNP events; drop the co-installer approach and
do the right thing by implementing the fabric service & filter driver.

Boot-over-Fabric update [http://rom-o-matic.net/5.4.3/] + WDS [Windows Deployment Server]
Mx is encountering problems with gPXE booting over InfiniBand. MS will be assisting.
MS and Intel would like to see BOF as HCA firmware.

OFA Updates
  SSL certificate - still WIP...  :-(
  OFA driver signing certificate
    $500/yr - OFA will pay. long term, MS is considering a SW certification process
    similar to WHQL.

Proposed Win-O-F 1.1 Release content

  - IPoIB partitioning support - SVN deployment estimates in early March.
  - ConnectX status - should hit the SVN tree in early April
  - WSD - ready
  - VNIC (Qlogic) - driver name change issues: 8.3 format name to use as boot device.
  - VNIC (Xsigo) - no WWG representation, no SVN code - feature doesn't exist; removed.
  - SRP - ready.
  - DAT/DAPL - ready.
  - NDI - possible .dll inclusion
  - IB SDK - ready
  - WIX Installer - start utilizing DPInst.exe for target free VNIC install, expand.
  - Debug versions & symbols @ the OFA-WinOF download site; needs Wiki FAQ update (stan)
  - (only WWG validated) Device drivers will be Digitally signed by OFA.

Need release notes level documentation on component functionality/changes.

  Module maintainers will supply Stan with summary change info suitable for
  release notes inclusion.

trunk\docs\manual.htm updates for all WinOF components!

Is 3-25-08 realistic for WinOF 1.1 release?

   No - pushed out until April as ConnectX, Win2k8 & BOF are desirable high
   priority issues.

Revised WinOF 1.1 release schedule
   
   4-08-08    RC1
   4-15-08    RC2
   4-22-08    RC3 -or- WinOF 1.1 release
   4-29-08    (if required) WinOF 1.1 release


Who is validating WinOF 1.1?

All WWG participants, others?

Proposed test coverage map - participants are encouraged to validate additional
areas outside area(s) of expertise in order to increase coverage by unfamiliar eyes.
Windows - Server 2003/8, CCS, XP on processor architectures x86, x64(x86_64+amd64) & IPF(ia64).

  Voltaire (Anatoly Lisenko)
    IPoIB partitioning support
    IPOIB

  Ishai Rabinovitz
    ConnectX
    Mthca
    IBAL
    WSD
    SRP
    NDI (Gilad Shainer)
    full Mx validation suite.

  Alex Estrin
    qlc_VNIC

  Stan Smith
    DAT/DAPL
    IB SDK
    WIX installer


Sonoma'08 presentations?

  Eric Lantz (MS) will present MS view of WinOF
  Gilad Shainer will present WinOF: current & futures.


Heads up: WinOF 1.2 October'08 ?

  No comments at this juncture.


Open Source developers - working as a community

  Developers need to be more proactive in using the ofw at lists.openfabirc.org mailing
  list to discuss new designs and display patches. The idea being more stable code
  is checked into SVN when more eyes have reviewed the changes; detect errors early.
  Open source development behaviors are proven to maintain and improve code base
  stability!

Sean Hefty presented the proposed WinVerbs design.

  Evolutionary instead of revolutionary design to move the openib-windows stack
  to MS proscribed IRP based processing. Evolutionary in the sense that existing
  interfaces (NDI, DAPL, IBAL-verbs (Snd/Rcv, CM & MAD) remain intact as does
  application performance.

  Benefits:
      RDMA CM support - APIs similar to Linux RDMA-CM, future iWARP support possible.
      Reduced complexity in the IB verbs processing by elimination of
      user-mode thread processing and callbacks.
      WinVerbs is optimized for Windows by using IRPs & async I/O.
      Long term: IB application porting to Windows environment is enhanced by
      support of RDMA-CM API along with ibverbs API.

Next WWG meet 3-4-08 @ 9:00AM PST, bridge information TBA.