--- /dev/null
+ LIBNVDIMM: Non-Volatile Devices
+ libnvdimm - kernel / libndctl - userspace helper library
+ linux-nvdimm@lists.01.org
+ v13
+
+
+ Glossary
+ Overview
+ Supporting Documents
+ Git Trees
+ LIBNVDIMM PMEM and BLK
+ Why BLK?
+ PMEM vs BLK
+ BLK-REGIONs, PMEM-REGIONs, Atomic Sectors, and DAX
+ Example NVDIMM Platform
+ LIBNVDIMM Kernel Device Model and LIBNDCTL Userspace API
+ LIBNDCTL: Context
+ libndctl: instantiate a new library context example
+ LIBNVDIMM/LIBNDCTL: Bus
+ libnvdimm: control class device in /sys/class
+ libnvdimm: bus
+ libndctl: bus enumeration example
+ LIBNVDIMM/LIBNDCTL: DIMM (NMEM)
+ libnvdimm: DIMM (NMEM)
+ libndctl: DIMM enumeration example
+ LIBNVDIMM/LIBNDCTL: Region
+ libnvdimm: region
+ libndctl: region enumeration example
+ Why Not Encode the Region Type into the Region Name?
+ How Do I Determine the Major Type of a Region?
+ LIBNVDIMM/LIBNDCTL: Namespace
+ libnvdimm: namespace
+ libndctl: namespace enumeration example
+ libndctl: namespace creation example
+ Why the Term "namespace"?
+ LIBNVDIMM/LIBNDCTL: Block Translation Table "btt"
+ libnvdimm: btt layout
+ libndctl: btt creation example
+ Summary LIBNDCTL Diagram
+
+
+Glossary
+--------
+
+PMEM: A system-physical-address range where writes are persistent. A
+block device composed of PMEM is capable of DAX. A PMEM address range
+may span an interleave of several DIMMs.
+
+BLK: A set of one or more programmable memory mapped apertures provided
+by a DIMM to access its media. This indirection precludes the
+performance benefit of interleaving, but enables DIMM-bounded failure
+modes.
+
+DPA: DIMM Physical Address, is a DIMM-relative offset. With one DIMM in
+the system there would be a 1:1 system-physical-address:DPA association.
+Once more DIMMs are added a memory controller interleave must be
+decoded to determine the DPA associated with a given
+system-physical-address. BLK capacity always has a 1:1 relationship
+with a single-DIMM's DPA range.
+
+DAX: File system extensions to bypass the page cache and block layer to
+mmap persistent memory, from a PMEM block device, directly into a
+process address space.
+
+BTT: Block Translation Table: Persistent memory is byte addressable.
+Existing software may have an expectation that the power-fail-atomicity
+of writes is at least one sector, 512 bytes. The BTT is an indirection
+table with atomic update semantics to front a PMEM/BLK block device
+driver and present arbitrary atomic sector sizes.
+
+LABEL: Metadata stored on a DIMM device that partitions and identifies
+(persistently names) storage between PMEM and BLK. It also partitions
+BLK storage to host BTTs with different parameters per BLK-partition.
+Note that traditional partition tables, GPT/MBR, are layered on top of a
+BLK or PMEM device.
+
+
+Overview
+--------
+
+The LIBNVDIMM subsystem provides support for three types of NVDIMMs, namely,
+PMEM, BLK, and NVDIMM devices that can simultaneously support both PMEM
+and BLK mode access. These three modes of operation are described by
+the "NVDIMM Firmware Interface Table" (NFIT) in ACPI 6. While the LIBNVDIMM
+implementation is generic and supports pre-NFIT platforms, it was guided
+by the superset of capabilities need to support this ACPI 6 definition
+for NVDIMM resources. The bulk of the kernel implementation is in place
+to handle the case where DPA accessible via PMEM is aliased with DPA
+accessible via BLK. When that occurs a LABEL is needed to reserve DPA
+for exclusive access via one mode a time.
+
+Supporting Documents
+ACPI 6: http://www.uefi.org/sites/default/files/resources/ACPI_6.0.pdf
+NVDIMM Namespace: http://pmem.io/documents/NVDIMM_Namespace_Spec.pdf
+DSM Interface Example: http://pmem.io/documents/NVDIMM_DSM_Interface_Example.pdf
+Driver Writer's Guide: http://pmem.io/documents/NVDIMM_Driver_Writers_Guide.pdf
+
+Git Trees
+LIBNVDIMM: https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/djbw/nvdimm.git
+LIBNDCTL: https://github.com/pmem/ndctl.git
+PMEM: https://github.com/01org/prd
+
+
+LIBNVDIMM PMEM and BLK
+------------------
+
+Prior to the arrival of the NFIT, non-volatile memory was described to a
+system in various ad-hoc ways. Usually only the bare minimum was
+provided, namely, a single system-physical-address range where writes
+are expected to be durable after a system power loss. Now, the NFIT
+specification standardizes not only the description of PMEM, but also
+BLK and platform message-passing entry points for control and
+configuration.
+
+For each NVDIMM access method (PMEM, BLK), LIBNVDIMM provides a block
+device driver:
+
+ 1. PMEM (nd_pmem.ko): Drives a system-physical-address range. This
+ range is contiguous in system memory and may be interleaved (hardware
+ memory controller striped) across multiple DIMMs. When interleaved the
+ platform may optionally provide details of which DIMMs are participating
+ in the interleave.
+
+ Note that while LIBNVDIMM describes system-physical-address ranges that may
+ alias with BLK access as ND_NAMESPACE_PMEM ranges and those without
+ alias as ND_NAMESPACE_IO ranges, to the nd_pmem driver there is no
+ distinction. The different device-types are an implementation detail
+ that userspace can exploit to implement policies like "only interface
+ with address ranges from certain DIMMs". It is worth noting that when
+ aliasing is present and a DIMM lacks a label, then no block device can
+ be created by default as userspace needs to do at least one allocation
+ of DPA to the PMEM range. In contrast ND_NAMESPACE_IO ranges, once
+ registered, can be immediately attached to nd_pmem.
+
+ 2. BLK (nd_blk.ko): This driver performs I/O using a set of platform
+ defined apertures. A set of apertures will all access just one DIMM.
+ Multiple windows allow multiple concurrent accesses, much like
+ tagged-command-queuing, and would likely be used by different threads or
+ different CPUs.
+
+ The NFIT specification defines a standard format for a BLK-aperture, but
+ the spec also allows for vendor specific layouts, and non-NFIT BLK
+ implementations may other designs for BLK I/O. For this reason "nd_blk"
+ calls back into platform-specific code to perform the I/O. One such
+ implementation is defined in the "Driver Writer's Guide" and "DSM
+ Interface Example".
+
+
+Why BLK?
+--------
+
+While PMEM provides direct byte-addressable CPU-load/store access to
+NVDIMM storage, it does not provide the best system RAS (recovery,
+availability, and serviceability) model. An access to a corrupted
+system-physical-address address causes a cpu exception while an access
+to a corrupted address through an BLK-aperture causes that block window
+to raise an error status in a register. The latter is more aligned with
+the standard error model that host-bus-adapter attached disks present.
+Also, if an administrator ever wants to replace a memory it is easier to
+service a system at DIMM module boundaries. Compare this to PMEM where
+data could be interleaved in an opaque hardware specific manner across
+several DIMMs.
+
+PMEM vs BLK
+BLK-apertures solve this RAS problem, but their presence is also the
+major contributing factor to the complexity of the ND subsystem. They
+complicate the implementation because PMEM and BLK alias in DPA space.
+Any given DIMM's DPA-range may contribute to one or more
+system-physical-address sets of interleaved DIMMs, *and* may also be
+accessed in its entirety through its BLK-aperture. Accessing a DPA
+through a system-physical-address while simultaneously accessing the
+same DPA through a BLK-aperture has undefined results. For this reason,
+DIMMs with this dual interface configuration include a DSM function to
+store/retrieve a LABEL. The LABEL effectively partitions the DPA-space
+into exclusive system-physical-address and BLK-aperture accessible
+regions. For simplicity a DIMM is allowed a PMEM "region" per each
+interleave set in which it is a member. The remaining DPA space can be
+carved into an arbitrary number of BLK devices with discontiguous
+extents.
+
+BLK-REGIONs, PMEM-REGIONs, Atomic Sectors, and DAX
+--------------------------------------------------
+
+One of the few
+reasons to allow multiple BLK namespaces per REGION is so that each
+BLK-namespace can be configured with a BTT with unique atomic sector
+sizes. While a PMEM device can host a BTT the LABEL specification does
+not provide for a sector size to be specified for a PMEM namespace.
+This is due to the expectation that the primary usage model for PMEM is
+via DAX, and the BTT is incompatible with DAX. However, for the cases
+where an application or filesystem still needs atomic sector update
+guarantees it can register a BTT on a PMEM device or partition. See
+LIBNVDIMM/NDCTL: Block Translation Table "btt"
+
+
+Example NVDIMM Platform
+-----------------------
+
+For the remainder of this document the following diagram will be
+referenced for any example sysfs layouts.
+
+
+ (a) (b) DIMM BLK-REGION
+ +-------------------+--------+--------+--------+
++------+ | pm0.0 | blk2.0 | pm1.0 | blk2.1 | 0 region2
+| imc0 +--+- - - region0- - - +--------+ +--------+
++--+---+ | pm0.0 | blk3.0 | pm1.0 | blk3.1 | 1 region3
+ | +-------------------+--------v v--------+
++--+---+ | |
+| cpu0 | region1
++--+---+ | |
+ | +----------------------------^ ^--------+
++--+---+ | blk4.0 | pm1.0 | blk4.0 | 2 region4
+| imc1 +--+----------------------------| +--------+
++------+ | blk5.0 | pm1.0 | blk5.0 | 3 region5
+ +----------------------------+--------+--------+
+
+In this platform we have four DIMMs and two memory controllers in one
+socket. Each unique interface (BLK or PMEM) to DPA space is identified
+by a region device with a dynamically assigned id (REGION0 - REGION5).
+
+ 1. The first portion of DIMM0 and DIMM1 are interleaved as REGION0. A
+ single PMEM namespace is created in the REGION0-SPA-range that spans
+ DIMM0 and DIMM1 with a user-specified name of "pm0.0". Some of that
+ interleaved system-physical-address range is reclaimed as BLK-aperture
+ accessed space starting at DPA-offset (a) into each DIMM. In that
+ reclaimed space we create two BLK-aperture "namespaces" from REGION2 and
+ REGION3 where "blk2.0" and "blk3.0" are just human readable names that
+ could be set to any user-desired name in the LABEL.
+
+ 2. In the last portion of DIMM0 and DIMM1 we have an interleaved
+ system-physical-address range, REGION1, that spans those two DIMMs as
+ well as DIMM2 and DIMM3. Some of REGION1 allocated to a PMEM namespace
+ named "pm1.0" the rest is reclaimed in 4 BLK-aperture namespaces (for
+ each DIMM in the interleave set), "blk2.1", "blk3.1", "blk4.0", and
+ "blk5.0".
+
+ 3. The portion of DIMM2 and DIMM3 that do not participate in the REGION1
+ interleaved system-physical-address range (i.e. the DPA address below
+ offset (b) are also included in the "blk4.0" and "blk5.0" namespaces.
+ Note, that this example shows that BLK-aperture namespaces don't need to
+ be contiguous in DPA-space.
+
+ This bus is provided by the kernel under the device
+ /sys/devices/platform/nfit_test.0 when CONFIG_NFIT_TEST is enabled and
+ the nfit_test.ko module is loaded. This not only test LIBNVDIMM but the
+ acpi_nfit.ko driver as well.
+
+
+LIBNVDIMM Kernel Device Model and LIBNDCTL Userspace API
+----------------------------------------------------
+
+What follows is a description of the LIBNVDIMM sysfs layout and a
+corresponding object hierarchy diagram as viewed through the LIBNDCTL
+api. The example sysfs paths and diagrams are relative to the Example
+NVDIMM Platform which is also the LIBNVDIMM bus used in the LIBNDCTL unit
+test.
+
+LIBNDCTL: Context
+Every api call in the LIBNDCTL library requires a context that holds the
+logging parameters and other library instance state. The library is
+based on the libabc template:
+https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/kay/libabc.git/
+
+LIBNDCTL: instantiate a new library context example
+
+ struct ndctl_ctx *ctx;
+
+ if (ndctl_new(&ctx) == 0)
+ return ctx;
+ else
+ return NULL;
+
+LIBNVDIMM/LIBNDCTL: Bus
+-------------------
+
+A bus has a 1:1 relationship with an NFIT. The current expectation for
+ACPI based systems is that there is only ever one platform-global NFIT.
+That said, it is trivial to register multiple NFITs, the specification
+does not preclude it. The infrastructure supports multiple busses and
+we we use this capability to test multiple NFIT configurations in the
+unit test.
+
+LIBNVDIMM: control class device in /sys/class
+
+This character device accepts DSM messages to be passed to DIMM
+identified by its NFIT handle.
+
+ /sys/class/nd/ndctl0
+ |-- dev
+ |-- device -> ../../../ndbus0
+ |-- subsystem -> ../../../../../../../class/nd
+
+
+
+LIBNVDIMM: bus
+
+ struct nvdimm_bus *nvdimm_bus_register(struct device *parent,
+ struct nvdimm_bus_descriptor *nfit_desc);
+
+ /sys/devices/platform/nfit_test.0/ndbus0
+ |-- commands
+ |-- nd
+ |-- nfit
+ |-- nmem0
+ |-- nmem1
+ |-- nmem2
+ |-- nmem3
+ |-- power
+ |-- provider
+ |-- region0
+ |-- region1
+ |-- region2
+ |-- region3
+ |-- region4
+ |-- region5
+ |-- uevent
+ `-- wait_probe
+
+LIBNDCTL: bus enumeration example
+Find the bus handle that describes the bus from Example NVDIMM Platform
+
+ static struct ndctl_bus *get_bus_by_provider(struct ndctl_ctx *ctx,
+ const char *provider)
+ {
+ struct ndctl_bus *bus;
+
+ ndctl_bus_foreach(ctx, bus)
+ if (strcmp(provider, ndctl_bus_get_provider(bus)) == 0)
+ return bus;
+
+ return NULL;
+ }
+
+ bus = get_bus_by_provider(ctx, "nfit_test.0");
+
+
+LIBNVDIMM/LIBNDCTL: DIMM (NMEM)
+---------------------------
+
+The DIMM device provides a character device for sending commands to
+hardware, and it is a container for LABELs. If the DIMM is defined by
+NFIT then an optional 'nfit' attribute sub-directory is available to add
+NFIT-specifics.
+
+Note that the kernel device name for "DIMMs" is "nmemX". The NFIT
+describes these devices via "Memory Device to System Physical Address
+Range Mapping Structure", and there is no requirement that they actually
+be physical DIMMs, so we use a more generic name.
+
+LIBNVDIMM: DIMM (NMEM)
+
+ struct nvdimm *nvdimm_create(struct nvdimm_bus *nvdimm_bus, void *provider_data,
+ const struct attribute_group **groups, unsigned long flags,
+ unsigned long *dsm_mask);
+
+ /sys/devices/platform/nfit_test.0/ndbus0
+ |-- nmem0
+ | |-- available_slots
+ | |-- commands
+ | |-- dev
+ | |-- devtype
+ | |-- driver -> ../../../../../bus/nd/drivers/nvdimm
+ | |-- modalias
+ | |-- nfit
+ | | |-- device
+ | | |-- format
+ | | |-- handle
+ | | |-- phys_id
+ | | |-- rev_id
+ | | |-- serial
+ | | `-- vendor
+ | |-- state
+ | |-- subsystem -> ../../../../../bus/nd
+ | `-- uevent
+ |-- nmem1
+ [..]
+
+
+LIBNDCTL: DIMM enumeration example
+
+Note, in this example we are assuming NFIT-defined DIMMs which are
+identified by an "nfit_handle" a 32-bit value where:
+Bit 3:0 DIMM number within the memory channel
+Bit 7:4 memory channel number
+Bit 11:8 memory controller ID
+Bit 15:12 socket ID (within scope of a Node controller if node controller is present)
+Bit 27:16 Node Controller ID
+Bit 31:28 Reserved
+
+ static struct ndctl_dimm *get_dimm_by_handle(struct ndctl_bus *bus,
+ unsigned int handle)
+ {
+ struct ndctl_dimm *dimm;
+
+ ndctl_dimm_foreach(bus, dimm)
+ if (ndctl_dimm_get_handle(dimm) == handle)
+ return dimm;
+
+ return NULL;
+ }
+
+ #define DIMM_HANDLE(n, s, i, c, d) \
+ (((n & 0xfff) << 16) | ((s & 0xf) << 12) | ((i & 0xf) << 8) \
+ | ((c & 0xf) << 4) | (d & 0xf))
+
+ dimm = get_dimm_by_handle(bus, DIMM_HANDLE(0, 0, 0, 0, 0));
+
+LIBNVDIMM/LIBNDCTL: Region
+----------------------
+
+A generic REGION device is registered for each PMEM range orBLK-aperture
+set. Per the example there are 6 regions: 2 PMEM and 4 BLK-aperture
+sets on the "nfit_test.0" bus. The primary role of regions are to be a
+container of "mappings". A mapping is a tuple of <DIMM,
+DPA-start-offset, length>.
+
+LIBNVDIMM provides a built-in driver for these REGION devices. This driver
+is responsible for reconciling the aliased DPA mappings across all
+regions, parsing the LABEL, if present, and then emitting NAMESPACE
+devices with the resolved/exclusive DPA-boundaries for the nd_pmem or
+nd_blk device driver to consume.
+
+In addition to the generic attributes of "mapping"s, "interleave_ways"
+and "size" the REGION device also exports some convenience attributes.
+"nstype" indicates the integer type of namespace-device this region
+emits, "devtype" duplicates the DEVTYPE variable stored by udev at the
+'add' event, "modalias" duplicates the MODALIAS variable stored by udev
+at the 'add' event, and finally, the optional "spa_index" is provided in
+the case where the region is defined by a SPA.
+
+LIBNVDIMM: region
+
+ struct nd_region *nvdimm_pmem_region_create(struct nvdimm_bus *nvdimm_bus,
+ struct nd_region_desc *ndr_desc);
+ struct nd_region *nvdimm_blk_region_create(struct nvdimm_bus *nvdimm_bus,
+ struct nd_region_desc *ndr_desc);
+
+ /sys/devices/platform/nfit_test.0/ndbus0
+ |-- region0
+ | |-- available_size
+ | |-- btt0
+ | |-- btt_seed
+ | |-- devtype
+ | |-- driver -> ../../../../../bus/nd/drivers/nd_region
+ | |-- init_namespaces
+ | |-- mapping0
+ | |-- mapping1
+ | |-- mappings
+ | |-- modalias
+ | |-- namespace0.0
+ | |-- namespace_seed
+ | |-- numa_node
+ | |-- nfit
+ | | `-- spa_index
+ | |-- nstype
+ | |-- set_cookie
+ | |-- size
+ | |-- subsystem -> ../../../../../bus/nd
+ | `-- uevent
+ |-- region1
+ [..]
+
+LIBNDCTL: region enumeration example
+
+Sample region retrieval routines based on NFIT-unique data like
+"spa_index" (interleave set id) for PMEM and "nfit_handle" (dimm id) for
+BLK.
+
+ static struct ndctl_region *get_pmem_region_by_spa_index(struct ndctl_bus *bus,
+ unsigned int spa_index)
+ {
+ struct ndctl_region *region;
+
+ ndctl_region_foreach(bus, region) {
+ if (ndctl_region_get_type(region) != ND_DEVICE_REGION_PMEM)
+ continue;
+ if (ndctl_region_get_spa_index(region) == spa_index)
+ return region;
+ }
+ return NULL;
+ }
+
+ static struct ndctl_region *get_blk_region_by_dimm_handle(struct ndctl_bus *bus,
+ unsigned int handle)
+ {
+ struct ndctl_region *region;
+
+ ndctl_region_foreach(bus, region) {
+ struct ndctl_mapping *map;
+
+ if (ndctl_region_get_type(region) != ND_DEVICE_REGION_BLOCK)
+ continue;
+ ndctl_mapping_foreach(region, map) {
+ struct ndctl_dimm *dimm = ndctl_mapping_get_dimm(map);
+
+ if (ndctl_dimm_get_handle(dimm) == handle)
+ return region;
+ }
+ }
+ return NULL;
+ }
+
+
+Why Not Encode the Region Type into the Region Name?
+----------------------------------------------------
+
+At first glance it seems since NFIT defines just PMEM and BLK interface
+types that we should simply name REGION devices with something derived
+from those type names. However, the ND subsystem explicitly keeps the
+REGION name generic and expects userspace to always consider the
+region-attributes for 4 reasons:
+
+ 1. There are already more than two REGION and "namespace" types. For
+ PMEM there are two subtypes. As mentioned previously we have PMEM where
+ the constituent DIMM devices are known and anonymous PMEM. For BLK
+ regions the NFIT specification already anticipates vendor specific
+ implementations. The exact distinction of what a region contains is in
+ the region-attributes not the region-name or the region-devtype.
+
+ 2. A region with zero child-namespaces is a possible configuration. For
+ example, the NFIT allows for a DCR to be published without a
+ corresponding BLK-aperture. This equates to a DIMM that can only accept
+ control/configuration messages, but no i/o through a descendant block
+ device. Again, this "type" is advertised in the attributes ('mappings'
+ == 0) and the name does not tell you much.
+
+ 3. What if a third major interface type arises in the future? Outside
+ of vendor specific implementations, it's not difficult to envision a
+ third class of interface type beyond BLK and PMEM. With a generic name
+ for the REGION level of the device-hierarchy old userspace
+ implementations can still make sense of new kernel advertised
+ region-types. Userspace can always rely on the generic region
+ attributes like "mappings", "size", etc and the expected child devices
+ named "namespace". This generic format of the device-model hierarchy
+ allows the LIBNVDIMM and LIBNDCTL implementations to be more uniform and
+ future-proof.
+
+ 4. There are more robust mechanisms for determining the major type of a
+ region than a device name. See the next section, How Do I Determine the
+ Major Type of a Region?
+
+How Do I Determine the Major Type of a Region?
+----------------------------------------------
+
+Outside of the blanket recommendation of "use libndctl", or simply
+looking at the kernel header (/usr/include/linux/ndctl.h) to decode the
+"nstype" integer attribute, here are some other options.
+
+ 1. module alias lookup:
+
+ The whole point of region/namespace device type differentiation is to
+ decide which block-device driver will attach to a given LIBNVDIMM namespace.
+ One can simply use the modalias to lookup the resulting module. It's
+ important to note that this method is robust in the presence of a
+ vendor-specific driver down the road. If a vendor-specific
+ implementation wants to supplant the standard nd_blk driver it can with
+ minimal impact to the rest of LIBNVDIMM.
+
+ In fact, a vendor may also want to have a vendor-specific region-driver
+ (outside of nd_region). For example, if a vendor defined its own LABEL
+ format it would need its own region driver to parse that LABEL and emit
+ the resulting namespaces. The output from module resolution is more
+ accurate than a region-name or region-devtype.
+
+ 2. udev:
+
+ The kernel "devtype" is registered in the udev database
+ # udevadm info --path=/devices/platform/nfit_test.0/ndbus0/region0
+ P: /devices/platform/nfit_test.0/ndbus0/region0
+ E: DEVPATH=/devices/platform/nfit_test.0/ndbus0/region0
+ E: DEVTYPE=nd_pmem
+ E: MODALIAS=nd:t2
+ E: SUBSYSTEM=nd
+
+ # udevadm info --path=/devices/platform/nfit_test.0/ndbus0/region4
+ P: /devices/platform/nfit_test.0/ndbus0/region4
+ E: DEVPATH=/devices/platform/nfit_test.0/ndbus0/region4
+ E: DEVTYPE=nd_blk
+ E: MODALIAS=nd:t3
+ E: SUBSYSTEM=nd
+
+ ...and is available as a region attribute, but keep in mind that the
+ "devtype" does not indicate sub-type variations and scripts should
+ really be understanding the other attributes.
+
+ 3. type specific attributes:
+
+ As it currently stands a BLK-aperture region will never have a
+ "nfit/spa_index" attribute, but neither will a non-NFIT PMEM region. A
+ BLK region with a "mappings" value of 0 is, as mentioned above, a DIMM
+ that does not allow I/O. A PMEM region with a "mappings" value of zero
+ is a simple system-physical-address range.
+
+
+LIBNVDIMM/LIBNDCTL: Namespace
+-------------------------
+
+A REGION, after resolving DPA aliasing and LABEL specified boundaries,
+surfaces one or more "namespace" devices. The arrival of a "namespace"
+device currently triggers either the nd_blk or nd_pmem driver to load
+and register a disk/block device.
+
+LIBNVDIMM: namespace
+Here is a sample layout from the three major types of NAMESPACE where
+namespace0.0 represents DIMM-info-backed PMEM (note that it has a 'uuid'
+attribute), namespace2.0 represents a BLK namespace (note it has a
+'sector_size' attribute) that, and namespace6.0 represents an anonymous
+PMEM namespace (note that has no 'uuid' attribute due to not support a
+LABEL).
+
+ /sys/devices/platform/nfit_test.0/ndbus0/region0/namespace0.0
+ |-- alt_name
+ |-- devtype
+ |-- dpa_extents
+ |-- force_raw
+ |-- modalias
+ |-- numa_node
+ |-- resource
+ |-- size
+ |-- subsystem -> ../../../../../../bus/nd
+ |-- type
+ |-- uevent
+ `-- uuid
+ /sys/devices/platform/nfit_test.0/ndbus0/region2/namespace2.0
+ |-- alt_name
+ |-- devtype
+ |-- dpa_extents
+ |-- force_raw
+ |-- modalias
+ |-- numa_node
+ |-- sector_size
+ |-- size
+ |-- subsystem -> ../../../../../../bus/nd
+ |-- type
+ |-- uevent
+ `-- uuid
+ /sys/devices/platform/nfit_test.1/ndbus1/region6/namespace6.0
+ |-- block
+ | `-- pmem0
+ |-- devtype
+ |-- driver -> ../../../../../../bus/nd/drivers/pmem
+ |-- force_raw
+ |-- modalias
+ |-- numa_node
+ |-- resource
+ |-- size
+ |-- subsystem -> ../../../../../../bus/nd
+ |-- type
+ `-- uevent
+
+LIBNDCTL: namespace enumeration example
+Namespaces are indexed relative to their parent region, example below.
+These indexes are mostly static from boot to boot, but subsystem makes
+no guarantees in this regard. For a static namespace identifier use its
+'uuid' attribute.
+
+static struct ndctl_namespace *get_namespace_by_id(struct ndctl_region *region,
+ unsigned int id)
+{
+ struct ndctl_namespace *ndns;
+
+ ndctl_namespace_foreach(region, ndns)
+ if (ndctl_namespace_get_id(ndns) == id)
+ return ndns;
+
+ return NULL;
+}
+
+LIBNDCTL: namespace creation example
+Idle namespaces are automatically created by the kernel if a given
+region has enough available capacity to create a new namespace.
+Namespace instantiation involves finding an idle namespace and
+configuring it. For the most part the setting of namespace attributes
+can occur in any order, the only constraint is that 'uuid' must be set
+before 'size'. This enables the kernel to track DPA allocations
+internally with a static identifier.
+
+static int configure_namespace(struct ndctl_region *region,
+ struct ndctl_namespace *ndns,
+ struct namespace_parameters *parameters)
+{
+ char devname[50];
+
+ snprintf(devname, sizeof(devname), "namespace%d.%d",
+ ndctl_region_get_id(region), paramaters->id);
+
+ ndctl_namespace_set_alt_name(ndns, devname);
+ /* 'uuid' must be set prior to setting size! */
+ ndctl_namespace_set_uuid(ndns, paramaters->uuid);
+ ndctl_namespace_set_size(ndns, paramaters->size);
+ /* unlike pmem namespaces, blk namespaces have a sector size */
+ if (parameters->lbasize)
+ ndctl_namespace_set_sector_size(ndns, parameters->lbasize);
+ ndctl_namespace_enable(ndns);
+}
+
+
+Why the Term "namespace"?
+
+ 1. Why not "volume" for instance? "volume" ran the risk of confusing ND
+ as a volume manager like device-mapper.
+
+ 2. The term originated to describe the sub-devices that can be created
+ within a NVME controller (see the nvme specification:
+ http://www.nvmexpress.org/specifications/), and NFIT namespaces are
+ meant to parallel the capabilities and configurability of
+ NVME-namespaces.
+
+
+LIBNVDIMM/LIBNDCTL: Block Translation Table "btt"
+---------------------------------------------
+
+A BTT (design document: http://pmem.io/2014/09/23/btt.html) is a stacked
+block device driver that fronts either the whole block device or a
+partition of a block device emitted by either a PMEM or BLK NAMESPACE.
+
+LIBNVDIMM: btt layout
+Every region will start out with at least one BTT device which is the
+seed device. To activate it set the "namespace", "uuid", and
+"sector_size" attributes and then bind the device to the nd_pmem or
+nd_blk driver depending on the region type.
+
+ /sys/devices/platform/nfit_test.1/ndbus0/region0/btt0/
+ |-- namespace
+ |-- delete
+ |-- devtype
+ |-- modalias
+ |-- numa_node
+ |-- sector_size
+ |-- subsystem -> ../../../../../bus/nd
+ |-- uevent
+ `-- uuid
+
+LIBNDCTL: btt creation example
+Similar to namespaces an idle BTT device is automatically created per
+region. Each time this "seed" btt device is configured and enabled a new
+seed is created. Creating a BTT configuration involves two steps of
+finding and idle BTT and assigning it to consume a PMEM or BLK namespace.
+
+ static struct ndctl_btt *get_idle_btt(struct ndctl_region *region)
+ {
+ struct ndctl_btt *btt;
+
+ ndctl_btt_foreach(region, btt)
+ if (!ndctl_btt_is_enabled(btt)
+ && !ndctl_btt_is_configured(btt))
+ return btt;
+
+ return NULL;
+ }
+
+ static int configure_btt(struct ndctl_region *region,
+ struct btt_parameters *parameters)
+ {
+ btt = get_idle_btt(region);
+
+ ndctl_btt_set_uuid(btt, parameters->uuid);
+ ndctl_btt_set_sector_size(btt, parameters->sector_size);
+ ndctl_btt_set_namespace(btt, parameters->ndns);
+ /* turn off raw mode device */
+ ndctl_namespace_disable(parameters->ndns);
+ /* turn on btt access */
+ ndctl_btt_enable(btt);
+ }
+
+Once instantiated a new inactive btt seed device will appear underneath
+the region.
+
+Once a "namespace" is removed from a BTT that instance of the BTT device
+will be deleted or otherwise reset to default values. This deletion is
+only at the device model level. In order to destroy a BTT the "info
+block" needs to be destroyed. Note, that to destroy a BTT the media
+needs to be written in raw mode. By default, the kernel will autodetect
+the presence of a BTT and disable raw mode. This autodetect behavior
+can be suppressed by enabling raw mode for the namespace via the
+ndctl_namespace_set_raw_mode() api.
+
+
+Summary LIBNDCTL Diagram
+------------------------
+
+For the given example above, here is the view of the objects as seen by the LIBNDCTL api:
+ +---+
+ |CTX| +---------+ +--------------+ +---------------+
+ +-+-+ +-> REGION0 +---> NAMESPACE0.0 +--> PMEM8 "pm0.0" |
+ | | +---------+ +--------------+ +---------------+
++-------+ | | +---------+ +--------------+ +---------------+
+| DIMM0 <-+ | +-> REGION1 +---> NAMESPACE1.0 +--> PMEM6 "pm1.0" |
++-------+ | | | +---------+ +--------------+ +---------------+
+| DIMM1 <-+ +-v--+ | +---------+ +--------------+ +---------------+
++-------+ +-+BUS0+---> REGION2 +-+-> NAMESPACE2.0 +--> ND6 "blk2.0" |
+| DIMM2 <-+ +----+ | +---------+ | +--------------+ +----------------------+
++-------+ | | +-> NAMESPACE2.1 +--> ND5 "blk2.1" | BTT2 |
+| DIMM3 <-+ | +--------------+ +----------------------+
++-------+ | +---------+ +--------------+ +---------------+
+ +-> REGION3 +-+-> NAMESPACE3.0 +--> ND4 "blk3.0" |
+ | +---------+ | +--------------+ +----------------------+
+ | +-> NAMESPACE3.1 +--> ND3 "blk3.1" | BTT1 |
+ | +--------------+ +----------------------+
+ | +---------+ +--------------+ +---------------+
+ +-> REGION4 +---> NAMESPACE4.0 +--> ND2 "blk4.0" |
+ | +---------+ +--------------+ +---------------+
+ | +---------+ +--------------+ +----------------------+
+ +-> REGION5 +---> NAMESPACE5.0 +--> ND1 "blk5.0" | BTT0 |
+ +---------+ +--------------+ +---------------+------+
+
+
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