[IBAL]path records pkey issue. was: [ofw] what's up with the OFAWindows project?

[Todd Rimmer]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ofw-bounces at lists.openfabrics.org [mailto:ofw-
> bounces at lists.openfabrics.org] On Behalf Of Alex Estrin
> Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2008 11:18 AM
> To: Leonid Keller; chas williams - CONTRACTOR; Gilad Shainer
> Cc: ofw at lists.openfabrics.org
> Subject: [IBAL]path records pkey issue. was: [ofw] what's up with the
> OFAWindows project?

> 
> I think we should talk a little bit more on this issue.
> 
> > here's one.  we have two partitions, 0xffff and 0xfff2.  this causes
> > some confusion with the pnp layer.  when the pnp layer iterates the
> > nodes/paths to the hardware, the first path returned isnt always on
> > the default partition.  if this path is given to srp, then srp
> > attempts to login to the storage on the non-default pkey.
> 
> I believe if SM returns path records with different pkeys it should
mean
> host and a storage are both members of both partitions, and obtained
> paths are valid for this host.
> Then the consumer of path records (SRP initiator in our case) could
> validate what path has higher priority to use.
> 
> > > this patch makes the pnp layer only return the default paths.
> 
> With proposed patch all IOCs on the fabric will be visible only by
hosts
> having default pkey in it's pkey table.
> For example, if IOC configured to have pkey1 only, then host on the
same
> partition with pkey1 won't ever find this IOC, since it will be
looking
> for it in default partition only.
> 
> Thoughts?


I agree with Alex's comments above.  It should be up to the SM to return
only valid paths in the preferred order of use, the initiator should be
able to simply use the 1st path provided (additional paths if
redundancy, etc is used).

It's a bad idea to assume there is a default partition and that all
hosts and IOCs are part of it.  Such a configuration would totally
defeat the purpose of Partitions and prevent isolation access to
specific IOCs for selected hosts.

Todd Rimmer
Chief Architect 
QLogic System Interconnect Group
Voice: 610-233-4852     Fax: 610-233-4777
Todd.Rimmer at QLogic.com  www.QLogic.com