dm mpath: add queue length load balancer

This patch adds a dynamic load balancer, dm-queue-length, which
balances the number of in-flight I/Os across the paths.

The code is based on the patch posted by Stefan Bader:
https://www.redhat.com/archives/dm-devel/2005-October/msg00050.html

Signed-off-by: Stefan Bader <stefan.bader@canonical.com>
Signed-off-by: Kiyoshi Ueda <k-ueda@ct.jp.nec.com>
Signed-off-by: Jun'ichi Nomura <j-nomura@ce.jp.nec.com>
Signed-off-by: Alasdair G Kergon <agk@redhat.com>

1 files changed, 39 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/device-mapper/dm-queue-length.txt b/Documentation/device-mapper/dm-queue-length.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..f4db2562175c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/device-mapper/dm-queue-length.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+dm-queue-length
+===============
+
+dm-queue-length is a path selector module for device-mapper targets,
+which selects a path with the least number of in-flight I/Os.
+The path selector name is 'queue-length'.
+
+Table parameters for each path: [<repeat_count>]
+        <repeat_count>: The number of I/Os to dispatch using the selected
+                        path before switching to the next path.
+                        If not given, internal default is used. To check
+                        the default value, see the activated table.
+
+Status for each path: <status> <fail-count> <in-flight>
+        <status>: 'A' if the path is active, 'F' if the path is failed.
+        <fail-count>: The number of path failures.
+        <in-flight>: The number of in-flight I/Os on the path.
+
+
+Algorithm
+=========
+
+dm-queue-length increments/decrements 'in-flight' when an I/O is
+dispatched/completed respectively.
+dm-queue-length selects a path with the minimum 'in-flight'.
+
+
+Examples
+========
+In case that 2 paths (sda and sdb) are used with repeat_count == 128.
+
+# echo "0 10 multipath 0 0 1 1 queue-length 0 2 1 8:0 128 8:16 128" \
+  dmsetup create test
+#
+# dmsetup table
+test: 0 10 multipath 0 0 1 1 queue-length 0 2 1 8:0 128 8:16 128
+#
+# dmsetup status
+test: 0 10 multipath 2 0 0 0 1 1 E 0 2 1 8:0 A 0 0 8:16 A 0 0