Ubuntu Manpage: fi_provider - Fabric Interface Providers

Provided by: libfabric-dev_1.11.0-3_amd64

NAME

       fi_provider - Fabric Interface Providers

OVERVIEW

Conceptually, a fabric provider may be viewed as a local hardware NIC driver, though a
provider is not limited by this definition. The first component of libfabric is a general
purpose framework that is capable of handling different types of fabric hardware. All
fabric hardware devices and their software drivers are required to support this framework.
Devices and the drivers that plug into the libfabric framework are referred to as fabric
providers, or simply providers.

This distribution of libfabric contains the following providers (although more may be
available via run-time plug-ins):

Core providers
GNI A provider for the Aries interconnect in Cray XC(TM) systems utilizing the
user-space Generic Networking Interface. See fi_gni(7) for more information.

PSM High-speed InfiniBand networking from Intel. See fi_psm(7) for more information.

Sockets
A general purpose provider that can be used on any network that supports TCP/UDP
sockets. This provider is not intended to provide performance improvements over
regular TCP/UDP sockets, but rather to allow developers to write, test, and debug
application code even on platforms that do not have high-speed networking. See
fi_sockets(7) for more information.

usNIC Ultra low latency Ethernet networking over Cisco userspace VIC adapters. See
fi_usnic(7) for more information.

Verbs This provider uses the Linux Verbs API for network transport. Application
performance is, obviously expected to be similar to that of the native Linux Verbs
API. Analogous to the Sockets provider, the Verbs provider is intended to enable
developers to write, test, and debug application code on platforms that only have
Linux Verbs-based networking. See fi_verbs(7) for more information.

Blue Gene/Q
See fi_bgq(7) for more information.

EFA A provider for the Amazon EC2 Elastic Fabric Adapter (EFA)
(https://aws.amazon.com/hpc/efa/), a custom-built OS bypass hardware interface for
inter-instance communication on EC2. See fi_efa(7) for more information.

SHM A provider for intranode communication using shared memory. The provider makes use
of the Linux kernel feature Cross Memory Attach (CMA) which allows processes to
have full access to another process' address space. See fi_shm(7) for more
information.

Utility providers
RxM The RxM provider (ofi_rxm) is an utility provider that supports RDM endpoints
emulated over MSG endpoints of a core provider. See fi_rxm(7) for more
information.

RxD The RxD provider (ofi_rxd) is a utility provider that supports RDM endpoints
emulated over DGRAM endpoints of a core provider. See fi_rxd(7) for more
information.

Special providers
Hook The hook provider is a special type of provider that can layer over any other
provider, unless FI_FABRIC_DIRECT is used. The hook provider is always available,
but has no impact unless enabled. When enabled, the hook provider will intercept
all calls to the underlying core or utility provider(s). The hook provider is
useful for capturing performance data or providing debugging information, even in
release builds of the library. See fi_hook(7) for more information.

CORE VERSUS UTILITY PROVIDERS

       Core  providers  implement  the  libfabric interfaces directly over low-level hardware and
       software interfaces.  They are designed to support a specific class of hardware,  and  may
       be  limited  to  supporting  a  single  NIC.   Core providers often only support libfabric
       features and interfaces that map efficiently to their underlying hardware.

       Utility providers are distinct from core providers in that they are  not  associated  with
       specific  classes  of  devices.   They  instead  work  with core providers to expand their
       features, and interact  with  core  providers  through  libfabric  interfaces  internally.
       Utility  providers  are  often  used  to  support  a specific endpoint type over a simpler
       endpoint type.  For example, the  RXD  provider  implements  reliability  over  unreliable
       datagram endpoints.  The utility providers will not layer over the sockets provider unless
       it is explicitly requested.

       Utility providers show up as a component in  the  core  provider's  component  list.   See
       fi_fabric(3).   Utility providers are enabled automatically for core providers that do not
       support the feature set requested by an application.

PROVIDER REQUIREMENTS

Libfabric provides a general framework for supporting multiple types of fabric objects and
their related interfaces. Fabric providers have a large amount of flexibility in
selecting which components they are able and willing to support, based on specific
hardware constraints. Provider developers should refer to docs/provider for information
on functionality supplied by the framework to assist in provider implementation. To
assist in the development of applications, libfabric specifies the following requirements
that must be met by any fabric provider, if requested by an application.

Note that the instantiation of a specific fabric object is subject to application
configuration parameters and need not meet these requirements.

· A fabric provider must support at least one endpoint type.

· All endpoints must support the message queue data transfer interface (fi_ops_msg).

· An endpoint that advertises support for a specific endpoint capability must support the
corresponding data transfer interface.

· FI_ATOMIC - fi_ops_atomic

· FI_RMA - fi_ops_rma

· FI_TAGGED - fi_ops_tagged

· Endpoints must support all transmit and receive operations for any data transfer
interface that they support.

· Exception: If an operation is only usable for an operation that the provider does not
support, and support for that operation is conveyed using some other mechanism, the
operation may return

· FI_ENOSYS. For example, if the provider does not support injected data, it can set
the attribute inject_size = 0, and fail all fi_inject operations.

· The framework supplies wrappers around the 'msg' operations that can be used. For
example, the framework implements the sendv() msg operation by calling sendmsg().
Providers may reference the general operation, and supply on the sendmsg()
implementation.

· Providers must set all operations to an implementation. Function pointers may not be
left NULL or uninitialized. The framework supplies empty functions that return
-FI_ENOSYS which can be used for this purpose.

· Endpoints must support the CM interface as follows:

· FI_EP_MSG endpoints must support all CM operations.

· FI_EP_DGRAM endpoints must support CM getname and setname.

· FI_EP_RDM endpoints must support CM getname and setname.

· Providers that support connectionless endpoints must support all AV operations
(fi_ops_av).

· Providers that support memory registration, must support all MR operations (fi_ops_mr).

· Providers should support both completion queues and counters.

· If FI_RMA_EVENT is not supported, counter support is limited to local events only.

· Completion queues must support the FI_CQ_FORMAT_CONTEXT and FI_CQ_FORMAT_MSG.

· Providers that support FI_REMOTE_CQ_DATA shall support FI_CQ_FORMAT_DATA.

· Providers that support FI_TAGGED shall support FI_CQ_FORMAT_TAGGED.

· A provider is expected to be forward compatible, and must be able to be compiled against
expanded fi_xxx_ops structures that define new functions added after the provider was
written. Any unknown functions must be set to NULL.

· Providers shall document in their man page which features they support, and any missing
requirements.

Future versions of libfabric will automatically enable a more complete set of features for
providers that focus their implementation on a narrow subset of libfabric capabilities.

LOGGING INTERFACE

       Logging is performed using the FI_ERR, FI_LOG, and FI_DEBUG macros.

   DEFINITIONS
              #define FI_ERR(prov_name, subsystem, ...)

              #define FI_LOG(prov_name, prov, level, subsystem, ...)

              #define FI_DEBUG(prov_name, subsystem, ...)

   ARGUMENTS
       prov_name
              String representing the provider name.

       prov   Provider context structure.

       level  Log level associated with log statement.

       subsystem
              Subsystem being logged from.

   DESCRIPTION
       FI_ERR Always logged.

       FI_LOG Logged if the intended provider, log level, and subsystem parameters match the user
              supplied values.

       FI_DEBUG
              Logged if configured with the --enable-debug flag.

AUTHORS