xprtrdma: Fix XDR tail buffer marshalling

Currently xprtrdma appends an extra chunk element to the RPC/RDMA
read chunk list of each NFSv4 WRITE compound. The extra element
contains the final GETATTR operation in the compound.

The result is an extra RDMA READ operation to transfer a very short
piece of each NFS WRITE compound (typically 16 bytes). This is
inefficient.

It is also incorrect.

The client is sending the trailing GETATTR at the same Position as
the preceding WRITE data payload. Whether or not RFC 5667 allows
the GETATTR to appear in a read chunk, RFC 5666 requires that these
two separate RPC arguments appear at two distinct Positions.

It can also be argued that the GETATTR operation is not bulk data,
and therefore RFC 5667 forbids its appearance in a read chunk at
all.

Although RFC 5667 is not precise about when using a read list with
NFSv4 COMPOUND is allowed, the intent is that only data arguments
not touched by NFS (ie, read and write payloads) are to be sent
using RDMA READ or WRITE.

The NFS client constructs GETATTR arguments itself, and therefore is
required to send the trailing GETATTR operation as additional inline
content, not as a data payload.

NB: This change is not backwards compatible. Some older servers do
not accept inline content following the read list. The Linux NFS
server should handle this content correctly as of commit
a97c331f9aa9 ("svcrdma: Handle additional inline content").

Signed-off-by: Chuck Lever <chuck.lever@oracle.com>
Tested-by: Devesh Sharma <devesh.sharma@avagotech.com>
Signed-off-by: Anna Schumaker <Anna.Schumaker@Netapp.com>
1 file changed