fi_lnx(7)

NAME

fi_lnx - The LINKx (LNX) Provider

OVERVIEW

The LNX provider is designed to link two or more providers, allowing applications to seamlessly use multiple providers or NICs. This provider uses the libfabric peer infrastructure to aid in the use of the underlying providers. This version of the provider is able to link any libfabric provider which supports the FI_PEER capability.

SUPPORTED FEATURES

This release contains an initial implementation of the LNX provider that offers the following support:

Endpoint types
    The provider supports only endpoint type FI_EP_RDM.

Endpoint capabilities
    LNX is a passthrough layer on the send path. On the receive path LNX utilizes the peer infrastructure to create shared receive queues (SRQ). Receive requests are placed on the SRQ instead of on the core provider receive queue. When the provider receives a message it queries the SRQ for a match. If one is found the receive request is completed, otherwise the message is placed on the LNX shared unexpected queue (SUQ). Further receive requests query the SUQ for matches. The first release of the provider only supports tagged operations. Other message types will be supported in future releases.

Modes
    The provider does not require the use of any mode bits.

Progress
    LNX utilizes the peer infrastructure to provide a shared completion queue. Each linked provider still needs to handle its own progress. Completion events will however be placed on the shared completion queue, which is passed to the application for access.

Address Format
    LNX wraps the linked providers addresses in one common binary blob. It does not alter or change the linked providers address format. It wraps them into a LNX structure which is then flattened and returned to the application. This is passed between different nodes. The LNX provider is able to parse the flattened format and operate on the different links. This assumes that nodes in the same group are all using the same version of the provider with the exact same links. IE: you can’t have one node linking shm+cxi while another linking shm+rxm.

Message Operations
    LNX is designed to intercept message operations such as fi_tsenddata and based on specific criteria forward the operation to the appropriate provider. LNX can link any provider which supports the FI_PEER capability. SHM provider is special cased in the sense that it’s always used for intra-node communication if it’s part of the link. Otherwise all other providers in the link are used in round robin.

Using the Provider
    In order to use the provider the user needs to set FI_LNX_PROV_LINKS environment variable to the linked providers; see syntax under variable description. This allows the definition of multiple links. Each link defines the provider to add to the link along with an explicit list of domains. If only the provider name is specified then all the domains are added to the link. The provider returns the list of links specified to the application in the fi_getinfo() call. Since there could be multiple providers in the link, the first domain of the first non-shm provider fi_info is used as the link info. This means that if a link is defined as follows: - shm+cxi:cxi0,cxi1 The cxi0 fi_info information is used as the link fi_info with the modification of the provider and domain names. This is important since the PCI information is part of the fi_info and some applications might use the PCI information to decide which link to use. A common selection criteria is the interface nearest the core the process is bound to. In order to make this determination, the application requires the interface’s PCI information

LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE WORK

Hardware Support
    LNX doesn’t support hardware offload; ex hardware tag matching. This is an inherit limitation when using the peer infrastructure. Due to the use of a shared receive queue which linked providers need to query when a message is received, any hardware offload which requires sending the receive buffers to the hardware directly will not work with the shared receive queue. The shared receive queue provides two advantages; 1) reduce memory usage, 2) coordinate the receive operations. For #2 this is needed when receiving from FI_ADDR_UNSPEC. In this case both providers which are part of the link can race to gain access to the receive buffer. It is a future effort to determine a way to use hardware tag matching and other hardware offload capability with LNX

Memory Registration
    As part of the memory registration operation, varying hardware can perform hardware specific steps such as memory pinning. Due to the fact that memory registration APIs do not specify the source or destination addresses it is not possible for LNX to determine which provider to forward the memory registration to. LNX, therefore, registers the memory with all linked providers. This might not be efficient and might have unforeseen side effects. A better method is needed to support memory registration. One option is to have memory registration cache in lnx to avoid expensive operations.

Operation Types
    This release of LNX supports tagged operations only. Future releases will expand the support to other operation types.

Multi-Rail
    LNX implements a multi-rail feature that enables messages to be transmitted across multiple interfaces, driven by the link configuration. It supports configuring multiple provider domains within a single link. For example, the following configuration: FI_LNX_PROV_LINKS=“cxi:cxi0,cxi1” Defines a link that includes the cxi0 and cxi1 domains. When an application utilizes this link, messages are distributed in a round-robin fashion across both domains. Similarly, all available peer addresses are used in a round-robin manner, ensuring balanced communication. An exception applies to the shm provider: if included in the link, all intra-node traffic is routed through the shm provider. For the following configuration: FI_LNX_PROV_LINKS=“tcp;ofi_rxm+cxi:cxi0” The link consists of all tcp domains associated with the tcp;ofi_rxm provider, along with cxi0. Messages are evenly distributed across all domain endpoints and peer addresses. The provider ensures that local endpoint types match corresponding remote addresses—for instance, if the tcp provider is used, messages are directed to the peer’s tcp address.

RUNTIME PARAMETERS

The LNX provider checks for the following environment variables:

FI_LNX_PROV_LINKS
    This environment variable is used to specify which providers to link. This must be set in order for the LNX provider to return a list of fi_info blocks in the fi_getinfo() call. The format which must be used is: link ::= group [`|' group] group ::= provider [`+' provider [`:' provider_list]] provider_list ::= provider [`,' provider] provider ::= [a-zA-Z0-9_]+ Examples: - shm+cxi:cxi0 - shm+cxi:cxi0,cxi1 - shm+cxi:cxi0|shm+cxi:cxi1 - shm+cxi On a system with four cxi domains, the last example is equivalent to: - shm+cxi:cxi0,cxi1,cxi2,cxi3

FI_LNX_DISABLE_SHM
    By default this environment variable is set to 0. However, the user can set it to one and then the SHM provider will not be used. This can be useful for debugging and performance analysis. The SHM provider will naturally be used for all intra-node operations. Therefore, to test SHM in isolation with LNX, the processes can be limited to the same node only.

SEE ALSO

fabric(7), fi_provider(7), fi_getinfo(3)

AUTHORS
OpenFabrics.