Re: [PATCH v4] scsi: sas: skip opt_sectors when DMA reports no real optimization hint

From: Damien Le Moal

Date: Thu Mar 19 2026 - 07:06:20 EST


On 3/19/26 17:39, Ionut Nechita (Wind River) wrote:
> From: Ionut Nechita <ionut.nechita@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> sas_host_setup() unconditionally sets shost->opt_sectors from
> dma_opt_mapping_size(). When the IOMMU is disabled or in passthrough
> mode and no DMA ops provide an opt_mapping_size callback,
> dma_opt_mapping_size() returns min(dma_max_mapping_size(), SIZE_MAX)
> which equals dma_max_mapping_size() — a hard upper bound, not an
> optimization hint.

Please reduce the distribution list. This is now a scsi patch. Nothing to do
with iommu or nvme.

>
> On a Dell PowerEdge R750 with mpt3sas (Broadcom SAS3816, FW 33.15.00.00)
> and intel_iommu=off the following values are observed:
>
> dma_opt_mapping_size() = dma_max_mapping_size() (no real hint)
> shost->max_sectors = 32767
> opt_sectors = min(32767, huge >> 9) = 32767
> optimal_io_size = 32767 << 9 = 16776704
> → round_down(16776704, 4096) = 16773120
>
> The SAS disk (SAMSUNG MZILT800HBHQ0D3) do not report an
> Optimal Transfer Length in VPD page B0,so sdkp->opt_xfer_blocks remains 0.
> sd_revalidate_disk() then uses min_not_zero(0, opt_sectors) = opt_sectors,
> propagating the bogus value into the block device's optimal_io_size
> (visible as OPT-IO = 16773120 in lsblk --topology).
>
> mkfs.xfs picks up optimal_io_size and minimum_io_size and computes:
>
> swidth = 16773120 / 4096 = 4095
> sunit = 8192 / 4096 = 2
>
> Since 4095 % 2 != 0, XFS rejects the geometry:
>
> SB stripe unit sanity check failed
>
> This makes it impossible to create XFS filesystems (e.g. for
> /var/lib/docker) during system bootstrap.
>
> Fix this by introducing a sas_dma_opt_sectors() helper that only returns
> a non-zero opt_sectors when dma_opt_mapping_size() is strictly less than
> dma_max_mapping_size(), indicating a genuine DMA optimization constraint
> from an IOMMU or DMA ops backend. The helper also rounds the value down
> to a power of two so that filesystem geometry calculations always produce
> clean results. When the two DMA values are equal, no backend provided a
> real hint, so opt_sectors stays at 0 ("no preference").
>
> A WARN_ONCE guards against dma_opt_mapping_size() returning a value
> larger than dma_max_mapping_size(), which would indicate a driver bug.
> The return value uses min_t(unsigned int, ...) to avoid any potential
> overflow when shifting the size_t opt value down to sectors.
>
> Fixes: 4cbfca5f7750 ("scsi: scsi_transport_sas: cap shost opt_sectors according to DMA optimal limit")
> Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Signed-off-by: Ionut Nechita <ionut.nechita@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> drivers/scsi/scsi_transport_sas.c | 40 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++----
> 1 file changed, 36 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/drivers/scsi/scsi_transport_sas.c b/drivers/scsi/scsi_transport_sas.c
> index 12124f9d5ccd0..696627b6fe2c3 100644
> --- a/drivers/scsi/scsi_transport_sas.c
> +++ b/drivers/scsi/scsi_transport_sas.c
> @@ -27,6 +27,7 @@
> #include <linux/module.h>
> #include <linux/jiffies.h>
> #include <linux/err.h>
> +#include <linux/log2.h>
> #include <linux/slab.h>
> #include <linux/string.h>
> #include <linux/blkdev.h>
> @@ -222,6 +223,38 @@ static int sas_bsg_initialize(struct Scsi_Host *shost, struct sas_rphy *rphy)
> * SAS host attributes
> */
>
> +/**
> + * sas_dma_opt_sectors - derive opt_sectors from DMA optimal mapping size
> + * @dma_dev: device to query DMA parameters for
> + * @max_sectors: upper bound from the host adapter
> + *
> + * When the DMA layer reports a genuine optimization constraint (i.e.
> + * dma_opt_mapping_size() < dma_max_mapping_size()), convert it to a
> + * sector count, round it down to a power of two so that filesystem
> + * geometry calculations stay sane, and cap it at @max_sectors.
> + *
> + * When the two values are equal no backend provided a real hint and
> + * the function returns 0 ("no preference").
> + */
> +static unsigned int sas_dma_opt_sectors(struct device *dma_dev,
> + unsigned int max_sectors)
> +{
> + size_t opt = dma_opt_mapping_size(dma_dev);
> + size_t max = dma_max_mapping_size(dma_dev);
> +
> + if (WARN_ONCE(opt > max,
> + "dma_opt_mapping_size (%zu) > dma_max_mapping_size (%zu)\n",
> + opt, max))
> + return 0;
> +
> + if (opt == max)
> + return 0;
> +
> + opt = rounddown_pow_of_two(opt);
> +
> + return min_t(unsigned int, opt >> SECTOR_SHIFT, max_sectors);
> +}
> +
> static int sas_host_setup(struct transport_container *tc, struct device *dev,
> struct device *cdev)
> {
> @@ -239,10 +272,9 @@ static int sas_host_setup(struct transport_container *tc, struct device *dev,
> dev_printk(KERN_ERR, dev, "fail to a bsg device %d\n",
> shost->host_no);
>
> - if (dma_dev->dma_mask) {
> - shost->opt_sectors = min_t(unsigned int, shost->max_sectors,
> - dma_opt_mapping_size(dma_dev) >> SECTOR_SHIFT);
> - }
> + if (dma_dev->dma_mask)
> + shost->opt_sectors =
> + sas_dma_opt_sectors(dma_dev, shost->max_sectors);
>
> return 0;
> }


--
Damien Le Moal
Western Digital Research