opensm/doc/opensm_release_notes-3.1.10.txt

                        OpenSM Release Notes 3.1.10
                       =============================

Version: OpenFabrics Enterprise Distribution (OFED) 1.3
Repo:    git://git.openfabrics.org/~ofed_1_3/management.git (release)
         git://git.openfabrics.org/~sashak/management.git (development)
Date:    February 2008

1 Overview
----------
This document describes the contents of the OpenSM OFED 1.3 release.
OpenSM is an InfiniBand compliant Subnet Manager and Administration,
and runs on top of OpenIB. The OpenSM version for this release
is openib-3.1.10

This document includes the following sections:
1 This Overview section (describing new features and software
  dependencies)
2 Known Issues And Limitations
3 Unsupported IB compliance statements
4 Major Bug Fixes
5 Main Verification Flows
6 Qualified software stacks and devices

1.1 Major New Features

* QoS manager (experimental)
  This QoS manager implementation is in accordance with IBA QoS Annex.
  Highly configurable QoS Policy is parsed from OpenSM QoS policy file.
  Valid QoS parameters will be reported in SA PathRecord and
  MultiPathRecord. In addition simple QoS levels per ULPs configuration
  is supported too.

* Performance Manager
  When enabled it collects a fabric port counters and able to log it or
  to pass to external program via event plugin interface. It handles
  counters overflow, supports LID/QP redirection and is able to work
  when OpenSM is in master, standby, and inactive states.

* Dimension Order routing (DOR) algorithm
  DOR Unicast routing algorithm - based on the Min Hop algorithm,  but
  avoids  port  equalization  except for redundant links between the
  same two switches.  This provides deadlock free routes for hypercubes
  when the  fabric  is  cabled  as a hypercube and for meshes when cabled
  as a mesh (see details in OpenSM man page).

* Routing improvements
  Speedup the current routing algorithms default MinHops, Up/Down and
  LASH and lid matrix generation. Fat Tree routing engine is able to work
  with not pure fat free topology.

* Multiple IB routers support
  OpenSM now able to keep configurable subnet prefix to router table.
  SA will report path to this routers when SA PathRecord was issued with
  non-local DGID.

* Node map
  This is possible to name nodes in this config file. Those names will be
  used for logging and by QoS configuration.

* PKey index support
  Proper support for PKey index in GSI queries.

* Incremental LFTs, PKey, SL2VL, and VLarbitration table updates
  OpenSM will only fetch those tables in first heavy sweep and then
  will maintain this internally.

* Fast port and switch detector
  When port and/or switch was externally reset and it was fast so sweep
  doesn't find this device as disconnected OpenSM will detect this by
  changed port states and handle accordingly.

* Duplicated GUIDs/port moving detector
  OpenSM will be able to detect port moving during a fabric discovery
  and will not report duplicated GUIDs in this case.

* Multicast rerouting speedup
  Now OpenSM will calculate and setup multicast forwarding tables for
  all altered multicast groups and not for each one.

* Event plugin API
  OpenSM allows to load dynamically various plugin modules.

* Many generic improvements

1.2 Minor New Features:

* Daemon mode can be activated with -B option.

* Support multiple scopes for IPoIB multicast groups in partition config.

* Loopback connection handling
  Loopback connection is not interpreted as duplicated GUID anymore.

* Connect root nodes option for Up/Down routing engine.
  When this option is specified Up/Down will create routing paths between
  its root nodes.

* Dump and log filenames changed from osm* to opensm*.

* Support loopback console
  Socket console with only local access.

* Configurable config directory (the default value is /etc/opensm) and
  configurable default values of OpenSM config filenames.

* Add option for force SDR link speed
  Add option to opensm.opts to force link speed. Currently, only forcing
  to SDR link speed is supported. This option is not supported as a
  command line option.

* Better packaging
  Building and RPM packaging were improved and simplified.

* Handle "babbling" ports
  When a babbling port (port which causes a frequent trap generation) is
  detected, OpenSM will disable the port which should terminate the trap
  storm.

1.3 Library API Changes

  None

1.4 Software Dependencies

OpenSM depends on the installation of either OFED 1.3, OFED 1.2, OFED 1.1,
OFED 1.0, OpenIB gen2 (e.g. IBG2 distribution), OpenIB gen1 (e.g. IBGD
distribution), or Mellanox VAPI stacks. The qualified driver versions
are provided in Table 2, "Qualified IB Stacks".

Also building of QoS manager policy file parser requires flex, and either
bison or byacc installed.

1.5 Supported Devices Firmware

The main task of OpenSM is to initialize InfiniBand devices. The
qualified devices and their corresponding firmware versions
are listed in Table 3.

2 Known Issues And Limitations
------------------------------

* No Service / Key associations:
  There is no way to manage Service access by Keys.

* No SM to SM SMDB synchronization:
  Puts the burden of re-registering services, multicast groups, and
  inform-info on the client application (or IB access layer core).

3 Unsupported IB Compliance Statements
--------------------------------------
The following section lists all the IB compliance statements which
OpenSM does not support. Please refer to the IB specification for detailed
information regarding each compliance statement.

* C14-22 (Authentication):
  M_Key M_KeyProtectBits and M_KeyLeasePeriod shall be set in one
  SubnSet method. As a work-around, an OpenSM option is provided for
  defining the protect bits.

* C14-67 (Authentication):
  On SubnGet(SMInfo) and SubnSet(SMInfo) - if M_Key is not zero then
  the SM shall generate a SubnGetResp if the M_Key matches, or
  silently drop the packet if M_Key does not match.

* C15-0.1.23.4 (Authentication):
  InformInfoRecords shall always be provided with the QPN set to 0,
  except for the case of a trusted request, in which case the actual
  subscriber QPN shall be returned.

* o13-17.1.2 (Event-FWD):
  If no permission to forward, the subscription should be removed and
  no further forwarding should occur.

* C14-24.1.1.5 and C14-62.1.1.22 (Initialization):
  GUIDInfo - SM should enable assigning Port GUIDInfo.

* C14-44 (Initialization):
  If the SM discovers that it is missing an M_Key to update CA/RT/SW,
  it should notify the higher level.

* C14-62.1.1.12 (Initialization):
  PortInfo:M_Key - Set the M_Key to a node based random value.

* C14-62.1.1.13 (Initialization):
  PortInfo:P_KeyProtectBits - set according to an optional policy.

* C14-62.1.1.24 (Initialization):
  SwitchInfo:DefaultPort - should be configured for random FDB.

* C14-62.1.1.32 (Initialization):
  RandomForwardingTable should be configured.

* o15-0.1.12 (Multicast):
  If the JoinState is SendOnlyNonMember = 1 (only), then the endport
  should join as sender only.

* o15-0.1.8 (Multicast):
  If a request for creating an MCG with fields that cannot be met,
  return ERR_REQ_INVALID (currently ignores SL and FlowLabelTClass).

* C15-0.1.8.6 (SA-Query):
  Respond to SubnAdmGetTraceTable - this is an optional attribute.

* C15-0.1.13 Services:
  Reject ServiceRecord create, modify or delete if the given
  ServiceP_Key does not match the one included in the ServiceGID port
  and the port that sent the request.

* C15-0.1.14 (Services):
  Provide means to associate service name and ServiceKeys.

4 Major Bug Fixes
-----------------

The following is a list of bugs that were fixed. Note that other less critical
or visible bugs were also fixed.

* osm_ucast_ftree.c: do load-leveling of non-CN routes

* osm_ucast_ftree.c: ignore port 0 and loopbacks on switches

* lash: fix possible segfault in osm_get_lash_sl()

* osm_ucast_ftree.c: fixing coredump in fat-tree routing

* osm_sa_slvl_record: fix overflow crash

* Break multicast rerouting requests processing when heavy sweep is
  scheduled.

* updn: report fallback properly

* Fix incorrect identification of routing engine used

* Don't zero base LID when invalid value is received

* lash: fix wrong allocation size

* Fixing broken logic in 'process world' part of LinkRecord processing

* Fix lmc_mask bit order in osm_sa_link_record.c

* Adding missing comparison by to_lid/from_lid in LinkRecord processing

* Broken logic when scanning subnet for PIR request

* No interactive games in daemon mode

* Fixing memory leak in node description

* Fix PortInfo update issues for switch port 0

* Changed method_mask type in user_mad interface in accordance with
  kernel ABI

* Use umad_get_issm_path() in osm_vendor_set_sm()

* Report message fix

* Uninitialized variables usage fix

* osm_ucast_ftree.c: Possible NULL ptr seg fault

* osm_mcast_mgr.c: Possible NULL ptr seg fault

* TrapRepress was failing for mkey != 0

* IB_PR_COMPMASK was used in MPR

* Set hop limit when creating ipoib multicast groups

* Fix outstanding mad counters tracking on the error paths.

* Report new ports before handover mastership

* Fix opvls and neighbormtu when remote port invalid.

* Bug in coding trying to set vl_arb_high_limit when PortInfo.base_lid
  was still zero.

* Protect SMInfo response against port moving issue.

5 Main Verification Flows
-------------------------

OpenSM verification is run using the following activities:
* osmtest - a stand-alone program
* ibmgtsim (IB management simulator) based - a set of flows that
  simulate clusters, inject errors and verify OpenSM capability to
  respond and bring up the network correctly.
* small cluster regression testing - where the SM is used on back to
  back or single switch configurations. The regression includes
  multiple OpenSM dedicated tests.
* cluster testing - when we run OpenSM to setup a large cluster, perform
  hand-off, reboots and reconnects, verify routing correctness and SA
  responsiveness at the ULP level (IPoIB and SDP).

5.1 osmtest

osmtest is an automated verification tool used for OpenSM
testing. Its verification flows are described by list below.

* Inventory File: Obtain and verify all port info, node info, link and path
  records parameters.

* Service Record:
   - Register new service
   - Register another service (with a lease period)
   - Register another service (with service p_key set to zero)
   - Get all services by name
   - Delete the first service
   - Delete the third service
   - Added bad flows of get/delete  non valid service
   - Add / Get same service with different data
   - Add / Get / Delete by different component  mask values (services
     by Name & Key / Name & Data / Name & Id / Id only )

* Multicast Member Record:
   - Query of existing Groups (IPoIB)
   - BAD Join with insufficient comp mask (o15.0.1.3)
   - Create given MGID=0 (o15.0.1.4)
   - Create given MGID=0xFF12A01C,FE800000,00000000,12345678 (o15.0.1.4)
   - Create BAD MGID=0xFA. (o15.0.1.6)
   - Create BAD MGID=0xFF12A01B w/ link-local not set (o15.0.1.6)
   - New MGID with invalid join state (o15.0.1.9)
   - Retry of existing MGID - See JoinState update (o15.0.1.11)
   - BAD RATE when connecting to existing MGID (o15.0.1.13)
   - Partial JoinState delete request - removing FullMember (o15.0.1.14)
   - Full Delete of a group (o15.0.1.14)
   - Verify Delete by trying to Join deleted group (o15.0.1.14)
   - BAD Delete of IPoIB membership (no prev join) (o15.0.1.15)

* GUIDInfo Record:
   - All GUIDInfoRecords in subnet are obtained

* MultiPathRecord:
   - Perform some compliant and noncompliant MultiPathRecord requests
   - Validation is via status in responses and IB analyzer

* PKeyTableRecord:
  - Perform some compliant and noncompliant PKeyTableRecord queries
  - Validation is via status in responses and IB analyzer

* LinearForwardingTableRecord:
  - Perform some compliant and noncompliant LinearForwardingTableRecord queries
  - Validation is via status in responses and IB analyzer

* Event Forwarding: Register for trap forwarding using reports
   - Send a trap and wait for report
   - Unregister non-existing

* Trap 64/65 Flow: Register to Trap 64-65, create traps (by
  disconnecting/connecting ports) and wait for report, then unregister.

* Stress Test: send PortInfoRecord queries, both single and RMPP and
  check for the rate of responses as well as their validity.


5.2 IB Management Simulator OpenSM Test Flows:

The simulator provides ability to simulate the SM handling of virtual
topologies that are not limited to actual lab equipment availability.
OpenSM was simulated to bring up clusters of up to 10,000 nodes. Daily
regressions use smaller (16 and 128 nodes clusters).

The following test flows are run on the IB management simulator:

* Stability:
  Up to 12 links from the fabric are randomly selected to drop packets
  at drop rates up to 90%. The SM is required to succeed in bringing the
  fabric up. The resulting routing is verified to be correct as well.

* LID Manager:
  Using LMC = 2 the fabric is initialized with LIDs. Faults such as
  zero LID, Duplicated LID, non-aligned (to LMC) LIDs are
  randomly assigned to various nodes and other errors are randomly
  output to the guid2lid cache file. The SM sweep is run 5 times and
  after each iteration a complete verification is made to ensure that all
  LIDs that could possibly be maintained are kept, as well as that all nodes
  were assigned a legal LID range.

* Multicast Routing:
  Nodes randomly join the 0xc000 group and eventually the
  resulting routing is verified for completeness and adherence to
  Up/Down routing rules.

* osmtest:
  The complete osmtest flow as described in the previous table is run on
  the simulated fabrics.

* Stress Test:
  This flow merges fabric, LID and stability issues with continuous
  PathRecord, ServiceRecord and Multicast Join/Leave activity to
  stress the SM/SA during continuous sweeps. InformInfo Set/Delete/Get
  were added to the test such both existing and non existing nodes
  perform them in random order.

5.3 OpenSM Regression

Using a back-to-back or single switch connection, the following set of
tests is run nightly on the stacks described in table 2. The included
tests are:

* Stress Testing: Flood the SA with queries from multiple channel
  adapters to check the robustness of the entire stack up to the SA.

* Dynamic Changes: Dynamic Topology changes, through randomly
  dropping SMP packets, used to test OpenSM adaptation to an unstable
  network & verify DB correctness.

* Trap Injection: This flow injects traps to the SM and verifies that it
  handles them gracefully.

* SA Query Test: This test exhaustively checks the SA responses to all
  possible single component mask. To do that the test examines the
  entire set of records the SA can provide, classifies them by their
  field values and then selects every field (using component mask and a
  value) and verifies that the response matches the expected set of records.
  A random selection using multiple component mask bits is also performed.

5.4 Cluster testing:

Cluster testing is usually run before a distribution release. It
involves real hardware setups of 16 to 32 nodes (or more if a beta site
is available). Each test is validated by running all-to-all ping through the IB
interface. The test procedure includes:

* Cluster bringup

* Hand-off between 2 or 3 SM's while performing:
  - Node reboots
  - Switch power cycles (disconnecting the SM's)

* Unresponsive port detection and recovery

* osmtest from multiple nodes

* Trap injection and recovery


6 Qualification
----------------

Table 2 - Qualified IB Stacks
=============================

Stack                                    | Version
-----------------------------------------|--------------------------
OFED                                     |   1.3
OFED                                     |   1.2
OFED                                     |   1.1
OFED                                     |   1.0
OpenIB Gen2 (IBG2 distribution)          |   1.0
OpenIB Gen1 (IBGD distribution)          |   1.8.0
VAPI (Mellanox InfiniBand HCA Driver)    |   3.2 and later

Table 3 - Qualified Devices and Corresponding Firmware
======================================================

Mellanox
Device                              |   FW versions
------------------------------------|-------------------------------
InfiniScale                         | fw-43132  5.2.000 (and later)
InfiniScale III                     | fw-47396  0.5.000 (and later)
InfiniHost                          | fw-23108  3.5.000 (and later)
InfiniHost III Lx                   | fw-25204  1.2.000 (and later)
InfiniHost III Ex (InfiniHost Mode) | fw-25208  4.8.200 (and later)
InfiniHost III Ex (MemFree Mode)    | fw-25218  5.3.000 (and later)
ConnectX IB                         | fw-25408  2.3.000 (and later)

QLogic/PathScale
Device  |   Note
--------|-----------------------------------------------------------
iPath   | QHT6040 (PathScale InfiniPath HT-460)
iPath   | QHT6140 (PathScale InfiniPath HT-465)
iPath   | QLE6140 (PathScale InfiniPath PE-880)
iPath   | QLE7240
iPath   | QLE7280

Note 1: OpenSM does not run on an IBM Galaxy (eHCA) as it does not expose
QP0 and QP1. However, it does support it as a device on the subnet.

Note 2: QoS firmware and Mellanox devices

HCAs: QoS supported by ConnectX. The current FW release
doesn't support QoS. QoS-enabled FW release (2_5_000) is
planned for May. If someone wishes to get QoS-enabled FW
before the official release, they should contact Mellanox FAE.

Switches: QoS supported by InfiniScale III
Any InfiniScale III FW that is supported by OpenSM supports QoS.