| ################################################################################ | 
 | #									       # | 
 | #				NFS/RDMA README				       # | 
 | #									       # | 
 | ################################################################################ | 
 |  | 
 |  Author: NetApp and Open Grid Computing | 
 |  Date: May 29, 2008 | 
 |  | 
 | Table of Contents | 
 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | 
 |  - Overview | 
 |  - Getting Help | 
 |  - Installation | 
 |  - Check RDMA and NFS Setup | 
 |  - NFS/RDMA Setup | 
 |  | 
 | Overview | 
 | ~~~~~~~~ | 
 |  | 
 |   This document describes how to install and setup the Linux NFS/RDMA client | 
 |   and server software. | 
 |  | 
 |   The NFS/RDMA client was first included in Linux 2.6.24. The NFS/RDMA server | 
 |   was first included in the following release, Linux 2.6.25. | 
 |  | 
 |   In our testing, we have obtained excellent performance results (full 10Gbit | 
 |   wire bandwidth at minimal client CPU) under many workloads. The code passes | 
 |   the full Connectathon test suite and operates over both Infiniband and iWARP | 
 |   RDMA adapters. | 
 |  | 
 | Getting Help | 
 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~ | 
 |  | 
 |   If you get stuck, you can ask questions on the | 
 |  | 
 |                 nfs-rdma-devel@lists.sourceforge.net | 
 |  | 
 |   mailing list. | 
 |  | 
 | Installation | 
 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~ | 
 |  | 
 |   These instructions are a step by step guide to building a machine for | 
 |   use with NFS/RDMA. | 
 |  | 
 |   - Install an RDMA device | 
 |  | 
 |     Any device supported by the drivers in drivers/infiniband/hw is acceptable. | 
 |  | 
 |     Testing has been performed using several Mellanox-based IB cards, the | 
 |     Ammasso AMS1100 iWARP adapter, and the Chelsio cxgb3 iWARP adapter. | 
 |  | 
 |   - Install a Linux distribution and tools | 
 |  | 
 |     The first kernel release to contain both the NFS/RDMA client and server was | 
 |     Linux 2.6.25  Therefore, a distribution compatible with this and subsequent | 
 |     Linux kernel release should be installed. | 
 |  | 
 |     The procedures described in this document have been tested with | 
 |     distributions from Red Hat's Fedora Project (http://fedora.redhat.com/). | 
 |  | 
 |   - Install nfs-utils-1.1.2 or greater on the client | 
 |  | 
 |     An NFS/RDMA mount point can be obtained by using the mount.nfs command in | 
 |     nfs-utils-1.1.2 or greater (nfs-utils-1.1.1 was the first nfs-utils | 
 |     version with support for NFS/RDMA mounts, but for various reasons we | 
 |     recommend using nfs-utils-1.1.2 or greater). To see which version of | 
 |     mount.nfs you are using, type: | 
 |  | 
 |     $ /sbin/mount.nfs -V | 
 |  | 
 |     If the version is less than 1.1.2 or the command does not exist, | 
 |     you should install the latest version of nfs-utils. | 
 |  | 
 |     Download the latest package from: | 
 |  | 
 |     http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/nfs | 
 |  | 
 |     Uncompress the package and follow the installation instructions. | 
 |  | 
 |     If you will not need the idmapper and gssd executables (you do not need | 
 |     these to create an NFS/RDMA enabled mount command), the installation | 
 |     process can be simplified by disabling these features when running | 
 |     configure: | 
 |  | 
 |     $ ./configure --disable-gss --disable-nfsv4 | 
 |  | 
 |     To build nfs-utils you will need the tcp_wrappers package installed. For | 
 |     more information on this see the package's README and INSTALL files. | 
 |  | 
 |     After building the nfs-utils package, there will be a mount.nfs binary in | 
 |     the utils/mount directory. This binary can be used to initiate NFS v2, v3, | 
 |     or v4 mounts. To initiate a v4 mount, the binary must be called | 
 |     mount.nfs4.  The standard technique is to create a symlink called | 
 |     mount.nfs4 to mount.nfs. | 
 |  | 
 |     This mount.nfs binary should be installed at /sbin/mount.nfs as follows: | 
 |  | 
 |     $ sudo cp utils/mount/mount.nfs /sbin/mount.nfs | 
 |  | 
 |     In this location, mount.nfs will be invoked automatically for NFS mounts | 
 |     by the system mount command. | 
 |  | 
 |     NOTE: mount.nfs and therefore nfs-utils-1.1.2 or greater is only needed | 
 |     on the NFS client machine. You do not need this specific version of | 
 |     nfs-utils on the server. Furthermore, only the mount.nfs command from | 
 |     nfs-utils-1.1.2 is needed on the client. | 
 |  | 
 |   - Install a Linux kernel with NFS/RDMA | 
 |  | 
 |     The NFS/RDMA client and server are both included in the mainline Linux | 
 |     kernel version 2.6.25 and later. This and other versions of the 2.6 Linux | 
 |     kernel can be found at: | 
 |  | 
 |     ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/ | 
 |  | 
 |     Download the sources and place them in an appropriate location. | 
 |  | 
 |   - Configure the RDMA stack | 
 |  | 
 |     Make sure your kernel configuration has RDMA support enabled. Under | 
 |     Device Drivers -> InfiniBand support, update the kernel configuration | 
 |     to enable InfiniBand support [NOTE: the option name is misleading. Enabling | 
 |     InfiniBand support is required for all RDMA devices (IB, iWARP, etc.)]. | 
 |  | 
 |     Enable the appropriate IB HCA support (mlx4, mthca, ehca, ipath, etc.) or | 
 |     iWARP adapter support (amso, cxgb3, etc.). | 
 |  | 
 |     If you are using InfiniBand, be sure to enable IP-over-InfiniBand support. | 
 |  | 
 |   - Configure the NFS client and server | 
 |  | 
 |     Your kernel configuration must also have NFS file system support and/or | 
 |     NFS server support enabled. These and other NFS related configuration | 
 |     options can be found under File Systems -> Network File Systems. | 
 |  | 
 |   - Build, install, reboot | 
 |  | 
 |     The NFS/RDMA code will be enabled automatically if NFS and RDMA | 
 |     are turned on. The NFS/RDMA client and server are configured via the hidden | 
 |     SUNRPC_XPRT_RDMA config option that depends on SUNRPC and INFINIBAND. The | 
 |     value of SUNRPC_XPRT_RDMA will be: | 
 |  | 
 |      - N if either SUNRPC or INFINIBAND are N, in this case the NFS/RDMA client | 
 |        and server will not be built | 
 |      - M if both SUNRPC and INFINIBAND are on (M or Y) and at least one is M, | 
 |        in this case the NFS/RDMA client and server will be built as modules | 
 |      - Y if both SUNRPC and INFINIBAND are Y, in this case the NFS/RDMA client | 
 |        and server will be built into the kernel | 
 |  | 
 |     Therefore, if you have followed the steps above and turned no NFS and RDMA, | 
 |     the NFS/RDMA client and server will be built. | 
 |  | 
 |     Build a new kernel, install it, boot it. | 
 |  | 
 | Check RDMA and NFS Setup | 
 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | 
 |  | 
 |     Before configuring the NFS/RDMA software, it is a good idea to test | 
 |     your new kernel to ensure that the kernel is working correctly. | 
 |     In particular, it is a good idea to verify that the RDMA stack | 
 |     is functioning as expected and standard NFS over TCP/IP and/or UDP/IP | 
 |     is working properly. | 
 |  | 
 |   - Check RDMA Setup | 
 |  | 
 |     If you built the RDMA components as modules, load them at | 
 |     this time. For example, if you are using a Mellanox Tavor/Sinai/Arbel | 
 |     card: | 
 |  | 
 |     $ modprobe ib_mthca | 
 |     $ modprobe ib_ipoib | 
 |  | 
 |     If you are using InfiniBand, make sure there is a Subnet Manager (SM) | 
 |     running on the network. If your IB switch has an embedded SM, you can | 
 |     use it. Otherwise, you will need to run an SM, such as OpenSM, on one | 
 |     of your end nodes. | 
 |  | 
 |     If an SM is running on your network, you should see the following: | 
 |  | 
 |     $ cat /sys/class/infiniband/driverX/ports/1/state | 
 |     4: ACTIVE | 
 |  | 
 |     where driverX is mthca0, ipath5, ehca3, etc. | 
 |  | 
 |     To further test the InfiniBand software stack, use IPoIB (this | 
 |     assumes you have two IB hosts named host1 and host2): | 
 |  | 
 |     host1$ ifconfig ib0 a.b.c.x | 
 |     host2$ ifconfig ib0 a.b.c.y | 
 |     host1$ ping a.b.c.y | 
 |     host2$ ping a.b.c.x | 
 |  | 
 |     For other device types, follow the appropriate procedures. | 
 |  | 
 |   - Check NFS Setup | 
 |  | 
 |     For the NFS components enabled above (client and/or server), | 
 |     test their functionality over standard Ethernet using TCP/IP or UDP/IP. | 
 |  | 
 | NFS/RDMA Setup | 
 | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | 
 |  | 
 |   We recommend that you use two machines, one to act as the client and | 
 |   one to act as the server. | 
 |  | 
 |   One time configuration: | 
 |  | 
 |   - On the server system, configure the /etc/exports file and | 
 |     start the NFS/RDMA server. | 
 |  | 
 |     Exports entries with the following formats have been tested: | 
 |  | 
 |     /vol0   192.168.0.47(fsid=0,rw,async,insecure,no_root_squash) | 
 |     /vol0   192.168.0.0/255.255.255.0(fsid=0,rw,async,insecure,no_root_squash) | 
 |  | 
 |     The IP address(es) is(are) the client's IPoIB address for an InfiniBand | 
 |     HCA or the cleint's iWARP address(es) for an RNIC. | 
 |  | 
 |     NOTE: The "insecure" option must be used because the NFS/RDMA client does | 
 |     not use a reserved port. | 
 |  | 
 |  Each time a machine boots: | 
 |  | 
 |   - Load and configure the RDMA drivers | 
 |  | 
 |     For InfiniBand using a Mellanox adapter: | 
 |  | 
 |     $ modprobe ib_mthca | 
 |     $ modprobe ib_ipoib | 
 |     $ ifconfig ib0 a.b.c.d | 
 |  | 
 |     NOTE: use unique addresses for the client and server | 
 |  | 
 |   - Start the NFS server | 
 |  | 
 |     If the NFS/RDMA server was built as a module (CONFIG_SUNRPC_XPRT_RDMA=m in | 
 |     kernel config), load the RDMA transport module: | 
 |  | 
 |     $ modprobe svcrdma | 
 |  | 
 |     Regardless of how the server was built (module or built-in), start the | 
 |     server: | 
 |  | 
 |     $ /etc/init.d/nfs start | 
 |  | 
 |     or | 
 |  | 
 |     $ service nfs start | 
 |  | 
 |     Instruct the server to listen on the RDMA transport: | 
 |  | 
 |     $ echo rdma 20049 > /proc/fs/nfsd/portlist | 
 |  | 
 |   - On the client system | 
 |  | 
 |     If the NFS/RDMA client was built as a module (CONFIG_SUNRPC_XPRT_RDMA=m in | 
 |     kernel config), load the RDMA client module: | 
 |  | 
 |     $ modprobe xprtrdma.ko | 
 |  | 
 |     Regardless of how the client was built (module or built-in), use this | 
 |     command to mount the NFS/RDMA server: | 
 |  | 
 |     $ mount -o rdma,port=20049 <IPoIB-server-name-or-address>:/<export> /mnt | 
 |  | 
 |     To verify that the mount is using RDMA, run "cat /proc/mounts" and check | 
 |     the "proto" field for the given mount. | 
 |  | 
 |   Congratulations! You're using NFS/RDMA! |