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Documentation / block / null_blk.txt


Based on kernel version 4.16.1. Page generated on 2018-04-09 11:52 EST.

1	Null block device driver
2	================================================================================
3	
4	I. Overview
5	
6	The null block device (/dev/nullb*) is used for benchmarking the various
7	block-layer implementations. It emulates a block device of X gigabytes in size.
8	The following instances are possible:
9	
10	  Single-queue block-layer
11	    - Request-based.
12	    - Single submission queue per device.
13	    - Implements IO scheduling algorithms (CFQ, Deadline, noop).
14	  Multi-queue block-layer
15	    - Request-based.
16	    - Configurable submission queues per device.
17	  No block-layer (Known as bio-based)
18	    - Bio-based. IO requests are submitted directly to the device driver.
19	    - Directly accepts bio data structure and returns them.
20	
21	All of them have a completion queue for each core in the system.
22	
23	II. Module parameters applicable for all instances:
24	
25	queue_mode=[0-2]: Default: 2-Multi-queue
26	  Selects which block-layer the module should instantiate with.
27	
28	  0: Bio-based.
29	  1: Single-queue.
30	  2: Multi-queue.
31	
32	home_node=[0--nr_nodes]: Default: NUMA_NO_NODE
33	  Selects what CPU node the data structures are allocated from.
34	
35	gb=[Size in GB]: Default: 250GB
36	  The size of the device reported to the system.
37	
38	bs=[Block size (in bytes)]: Default: 512 bytes
39	  The block size reported to the system.
40	
41	nr_devices=[Number of devices]: Default: 1
42	  Number of block devices instantiated. They are instantiated as /dev/nullb0,
43	  etc.
44	
45	irqmode=[0-2]: Default: 1-Soft-irq
46	  The completion mode used for completing IOs to the block-layer.
47	
48	  0: None.
49	  1: Soft-irq. Uses IPI to complete IOs across CPU nodes. Simulates the overhead
50	     when IOs are issued from another CPU node than the home the device is
51	     connected to.
52	  2: Timer: Waits a specific period (completion_nsec) for each IO before
53	     completion.
54	
55	completion_nsec=[ns]: Default: 10,000ns
56	  Combined with irqmode=2 (timer). The time each completion event must wait.
57	
58	submit_queues=[1..nr_cpus]:
59	  The number of submission queues attached to the device driver. If unset, it
60	  defaults to 1. For multi-queue, it is ignored when use_per_node_hctx module
61	  parameter is 1.
62	
63	hw_queue_depth=[0..qdepth]: Default: 64
64	  The hardware queue depth of the device.
65	
66	III: Multi-queue specific parameters
67	
68	use_per_node_hctx=[0/1]: Default: 0
69	  0: The number of submit queues are set to the value of the submit_queues
70	     parameter.
71	  1: The multi-queue block layer is instantiated with a hardware dispatch
72	     queue for each CPU node in the system.
73	
74	use_lightnvm=[0/1]: Default: 0
75	  Register device with LightNVM. Requires blk-mq and CONFIG_NVM to be enabled.
76	
77	no_sched=[0/1]: Default: 0
78	  0: nullb* use default blk-mq io scheduler.
79	  1: nullb* doesn't use io scheduler.
80	
81	shared_tags=[0/1]: Default: 0
82	  0: Tag set is not shared.
83	  1: Tag set shared between devices for blk-mq. Only makes sense with
84	     nr_devices > 1, otherwise there's no tag set to share.
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