Add "multipath-bio" target that offers a bio-based multipath target as
an alternative to the request-based "multipath" target -- but in a
following commit "multipath-bio" will immediately be replaced by a new
"queue_mode" feature for the "multipath" target which will allow
bio-based mode to be selected.
When DM multipath was originally converted from bio-based to
request-based the motivation for the change was better dynamic load
balancing (by leveraging block core's request-based IO schedulers, for
merging and sorting, _before_ DM multipath would make the decision on
where to steer the IO -- based on path load and/or availability).
More background is available in this "Request-based Device-mapper
multipath and Dynamic load balancing" paper:
https://www.kernel.org/doc/ols/2007/ols2007v2-pages-235-244.pdf
But we've now come full circle where significantly faster storage
devices no longer need IOs to be made larger to drive optimal IO
performance. And even if they do there have been changes to the block
and filesystem layers that help ensure upper layers are constructing
larger IOs. In addition, SCSI's differentiated IO errors will propagate
through to bio-based IO completion hooks -- so that eliminates another
historic justiciation for request-based DM multipath. Lastly, the block
layer's immutable biovec changes have made bio cloning cheaper than it
has ever been; whereas request cloning is still relatively expensive
(both on a CPU usage and memory footprint level).
As such, bio-based DM multipath offers the promise of a more efficient
IO path for high IOPs devices that are, or will be, emerging.
Signed-off-by: Mike Snitzer <snitzer@redhat.com>
76e33fe4e2