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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/powerpc/eeh-pci-error-recovery.txt')
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diff --git a/Documentation/powerpc/eeh-pci-error-recovery.txt b/Documentation/powerpc/eeh-pci-error-recovery.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..2bfe71beec5 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/powerpc/eeh-pci-error-recovery.txt @@ -0,0 +1,332 @@ + + + PCI Bus EEH Error Recovery + -------------------------- + Linas Vepstas + <linas@austin.ibm.com> + 12 January 2005 + + +Overview: +--------- +The IBM POWER-based pSeries and iSeries computers include PCI bus +controller chips that have extended capabilities for detecting and +reporting a large variety of PCI bus error conditions. These features +go under the name of "EEH", for "Extended Error Handling". The EEH +hardware features allow PCI bus errors to be cleared and a PCI +card to be "rebooted", without also having to reboot the operating +system. + +This is in contrast to traditional PCI error handling, where the +PCI chip is wired directly to the CPU, and an error would cause +a CPU machine-check/check-stop condition, halting the CPU entirely. +Another "traditional" technique is to ignore such errors, which +can lead to data corruption, both of user data or of kernel data, +hung/unresponsive adapters, or system crashes/lockups. Thus, +the idea behind EEH is that the operating system can become more +reliable and robust by protecting it from PCI errors, and giving +the OS the ability to "reboot"/recover individual PCI devices. + +Future systems from other vendors, based on the PCI-E specification, +may contain similar features. + + +Causes of EEH Errors +-------------------- +EEH was originally designed to guard against hardware failure, such +as PCI cards dying from heat, humidity, dust, vibration and bad +electrical connections. The vast majority of EEH errors seen in +"real life" are due to eithr poorly seated PCI cards, or, +unfortunately quite commonly, due device driver bugs, device firmware +bugs, and sometimes PCI card hardware bugs. + +The most common software bug, is one that causes the device to +attempt to DMA to a location in system memory that has not been +reserved for DMA access for that card. This is a powerful feature, +as it prevents what; otherwise, would have been silent memory +corruption caused by the bad DMA. A number of device driver +bugs have been found and fixed in this way over the past few +years. Other possible causes of EEH errors include data or +address line parity errors (for example, due to poor electrical +connectivity due to a poorly seated card), and PCI-X split-completion +errors (due to software, device firmware, or device PCI hardware bugs). +The vast majority of "true hardware failures" can be cured by +physically removing and re-seating the PCI card. + + +Detection and Recovery +---------------------- +In the following discussion, a generic overview of how to detect +and recover from EEH errors will be presented. This is followed +by an overview of how the current implementation in the Linux +kernel does it. The actual implementation is subject to change, +and some of the finer points are still being debated. These +may in turn be swayed if or when other architectures implement +similar functionality. + +When a PCI Host Bridge (PHB, the bus controller connecting the +PCI bus to the system CPU electronics complex) detects a PCI error +condition, it will "isolate" the affected PCI card. Isolation +will block all writes (either to the card from the system, or +from the card to the system), and it will cause all reads to +return all-ff's (0xff, 0xffff, 0xffffffff for 8/16/32-bit reads). +This value was chosen because it is the same value you would +get if the device was physically unplugged from the slot. +This includes access to PCI memory, I/O space, and PCI config +space. Interrupts; however, will continued to be delivered. + +Detection and recovery are performed with the aid of ppc64 +firmware. The programming interfaces in the Linux kernel +into the firmware are referred to as RTAS (Run-Time Abstraction +Services). The Linux kernel does not (should not) access +the EEH function in the PCI chipsets directly, primarily because +there are a number of different chipsets out there, each with +different interfaces and quirks. The firmware provides a +uniform abstraction layer that will work with all pSeries +and iSeries hardware (and be forwards-compatible). + +If the OS or device driver suspects that a PCI slot has been +EEH-isolated, there is a firmware call it can make to determine if +this is the case. If so, then the device driver should put itself +into a consistent state (given that it won't be able to complete any +pending work) and start recovery of the card. Recovery normally +would consist of reseting the PCI device (holding the PCI #RST +line high for two seconds), followed by setting up the device +config space (the base address registers (BAR's), latency timer, +cache line size, interrupt line, and so on). This is followed by a +reinitialization of the device driver. In a worst-case scenario, +the power to the card can be toggled, at least on hot-plug-capable +slots. In principle, layers far above the device driver probably +do not need to know that the PCI card has been "rebooted" in this +way; ideally, there should be at most a pause in Ethernet/disk/USB +I/O while the card is being reset. + +If the card cannot be recovered after three or four resets, the +kernel/device driver should assume the worst-case scenario, that the +card has died completely, and report this error to the sysadmin. +In addition, error messages are reported through RTAS and also through +syslogd (/var/log/messages) to alert the sysadmin of PCI resets. +The correct way to deal with failed adapters is to use the standard +PCI hotplug tools to remove and replace the dead card. + + +Current PPC64 Linux EEH Implementation +-------------------------------------- +At this time, a generic EEH recovery mechanism has been implemented, +so that individual device drivers do not need to be modified to support +EEH recovery. This generic mechanism piggy-backs on the PCI hotplug +infrastructure, and percolates events up through the hotplug/udev +infrastructure. Followiing is a detailed description of how this is +accomplished. + +EEH must be enabled in the PHB's very early during the boot process, +and if a PCI slot is hot-plugged. The former is performed by +eeh_init() in arch/ppc64/kernel/eeh.c, and the later by +drivers/pci/hotplug/pSeries_pci.c calling in to the eeh.c code. +EEH must be enabled before a PCI scan of the device can proceed. +Current Power5 hardware will not work unless EEH is enabled; +although older Power4 can run with it disabled. Effectively, +EEH can no longer be turned off. PCI devices *must* be +registered with the EEH code; the EEH code needs to know about +the I/O address ranges of the PCI device in order to detect an +error. Given an arbitrary address, the routine +pci_get_device_by_addr() will find the pci device associated +with that address (if any). + +The default include/asm-ppc64/io.h macros readb(), inb(), insb(), +etc. include a check to see if the the i/o read returned all-0xff's. +If so, these make a call to eeh_dn_check_failure(), which in turn +asks the firmware if the all-ff's value is the sign of a true EEH +error. If it is not, processing continues as normal. The grand +total number of these false alarms or "false positives" can be +seen in /proc/ppc64/eeh (subject to change). Normally, almost +all of these occur during boot, when the PCI bus is scanned, where +a large number of 0xff reads are part of the bus scan procedure. + +If a frozen slot is detected, code in arch/ppc64/kernel/eeh.c will +print a stack trace to syslog (/var/log/messages). This stack trace +has proven to be very useful to device-driver authors for finding +out at what point the EEH error was detected, as the error itself +usually occurs slightly beforehand. + +Next, it uses the Linux kernel notifier chain/work queue mechanism to +allow any interested parties to find out about the failure. Device +drivers, or other parts of the kernel, can use +eeh_register_notifier(struct notifier_block *) to find out about EEH +events. The event will include a pointer to the pci device, the +device node and some state info. Receivers of the event can "do as +they wish"; the default handler will be described further in this +section. + +To assist in the recovery of the device, eeh.c exports the +following functions: + +rtas_set_slot_reset() -- assert the PCI #RST line for 1/8th of a second +rtas_configure_bridge() -- ask firmware to configure any PCI bridges + located topologically under the pci slot. +eeh_save_bars() and eeh_restore_bars(): save and restore the PCI + config-space info for a device and any devices under it. + + +A handler for the EEH notifier_block events is implemented in +drivers/pci/hotplug/pSeries_pci.c, called handle_eeh_events(). +It saves the device BAR's and then calls rpaphp_unconfig_pci_adapter(). +This last call causes the device driver for the card to be stopped, +which causes hotplug events to go out to user space. This triggers +user-space scripts that might issue commands such as "ifdown eth0" +for ethernet cards, and so on. This handler then sleeps for 5 seconds, +hoping to give the user-space scripts enough time to complete. +It then resets the PCI card, reconfigures the device BAR's, and +any bridges underneath. It then calls rpaphp_enable_pci_slot(), +which restarts the device driver and triggers more user-space +events (for example, calling "ifup eth0" for ethernet cards). + + +Device Shutdown and User-Space Events +------------------------------------- +This section documents what happens when a pci slot is unconfigured, +focusing on how the device driver gets shut down, and on how the +events get delivered to user-space scripts. + +Following is an example sequence of events that cause a device driver +close function to be called during the first phase of an EEH reset. +The following sequence is an example of the pcnet32 device driver. + + rpa_php_unconfig_pci_adapter (struct slot *) // in rpaphp_pci.c + { + calls + pci_remove_bus_device (struct pci_dev *) // in /drivers/pci/remove.c + { + calls + pci_destroy_dev (struct pci_dev *) + { + calls + device_unregister (&dev->dev) // in /drivers/base/core.c + { + calls + device_del (struct device *) + { + calls + bus_remove_device() // in /drivers/base/bus.c + { + calls + device_release_driver() + { + calls + struct device_driver->remove() which is just + pci_device_remove() // in /drivers/pci/pci_driver.c + { + calls + struct pci_driver->remove() which is just + pcnet32_remove_one() // in /drivers/net/pcnet32.c + { + calls + unregister_netdev() // in /net/core/dev.c + { + calls + dev_close() // in /net/core/dev.c + { + calls dev->stop(); + which is just pcnet32_close() // in pcnet32.c + { + which does what you wanted + to stop the device + } + } + } + which + frees pcnet32 device driver memory + } + }}}}}} + + + in drivers/pci/pci_driver.c, + struct device_driver->remove() is just pci_device_remove() + which calls struct pci_driver->remove() which is pcnet32_remove_one() + which calls unregister_netdev() (in net/core/dev.c) + which calls dev_close() (in net/core/dev.c) + which calls dev->stop() which is pcnet32_close() + which then does the appropriate shutdown. + +--- +Following is the analogous stack trace for events sent to user-space +when the pci device is unconfigured. + +rpa_php_unconfig_pci_adapter() { // in rpaphp_pci.c + calls + pci_remove_bus_device (struct pci_dev *) { // in /drivers/pci/remove.c + calls + pci_destroy_dev (struct pci_dev *) { + calls + device_unregister (&dev->dev) { // in /drivers/base/core.c + calls + device_del(struct device * dev) { // in /drivers/base/core.c + calls + kobject_del() { //in /libs/kobject.c + calls + kobject_hotplug() { // in /libs/kobject.c + calls + kset_hotplug() { // in /lib/kobject.c + calls + kset->hotplug_ops->hotplug() which is really just + a call to + dev_hotplug() { // in /drivers/base/core.c + calls + dev->bus->hotplug() which is really just a call to + pci_hotplug () { // in drivers/pci/hotplug.c + which prints device name, etc.... + } + } + then kset_hotplug() calls + call_usermodehelper () with + argv[0]=hotplug_path[] which is "/sbin/hotplug" + --> event to userspace, + } + } + kobject_del() then calls sysfs_remove_dir(), which would + trigger any user-space daemon that was watching /sysfs, + and notice the delete event. + + +Pro's and Con's of the Current Design +------------------------------------- +There are several issues with the current EEH software recovery design, +which may be addressed in future revisions. But first, note that the +big plus of the current design is that no changes need to be made to +individual device drivers, so that the current design throws a wide net. +The biggest negative of the design is that it potentially disturbs +network daemons and file systems that didn't need to be disturbed. + +-- A minor complaint is that resetting the network card causes + user-space back-to-back ifdown/ifup burps that potentially disturb + network daemons, that didn't need to even know that the pci + card was being rebooted. + +-- A more serious concern is that the same reset, for SCSI devices, + causes havoc to mounted file systems. Scripts cannot post-facto + unmount a file system without flushing pending buffers, but this + is impossible, because I/O has already been stopped. Thus, + ideally, the reset should happen at or below the block layer, + so that the file systems are not disturbed. + + Reiserfs does not tolerate errors returned from the block device. + Ext3fs seems to be tolerant, retrying reads/writes until it does + succeed. Both have been only lightly tested in this scenario. + + The SCSI-generic subsystem already has built-in code for performing + SCSI device resets, SCSI bus resets, and SCSI host-bus-adapter + (HBA) resets. These are cascaded into a chain of attempted + resets if a SCSI command fails. These are completely hidden + from the block layer. It would be very natural to add an EEH + reset into this chain of events. + +-- If a SCSI error occurs for the root device, all is lost unless + the sysadmin had the foresight to run /bin, /sbin, /etc, /var + and so on, out of ramdisk/tmpfs. + + +Conclusions +----------- +There's forward progress ... + + |