tAdd adds the ability to work with large packets composed of a number of
segments, using the scatter gather feature of the block layer (biovecs)
and the network layer (skb frag array). The motivation is the performance
gained by using a packet data payload greater than a page size and by
using the network card's scatter gather feature.
Users of the out-of-tree aoe driver already had these changes, but since
early 2011, they have complained of increased memory utilization and
higher CPU utilization during heavy writes.[1] The commit below appears
related, as it disables scatter gather on non-IP protocols inside the
harmonize_features function, even when the NIC supports sg.
commit f01a5236bd
Author: Jesse Gross <jesse@nicira.com>
Date: Sun Jan 9 06:23:31 2011 +0000
net offloading: Generalize netif_get_vlan_features().
With that regression in place, transmits always linearize sg AoE packets,
but in-kernel users did not have this patch. Before 2.6.38, though, these
changes were working to allow sg to increase performance.
1. http://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-mm/msg15184.html
Signed-off-by: Ed Cashin <ecashin@coraid.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
3d5b06051c