.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0

====================
Linux NVMe multipath
====================

This document describes NVMe multipath and its path selection policies supported
by the Linux NVMe host driver.


Introduction
============

The NVMe multipath feature in Linux integrates namespaces with the same
identifier into a single block device. Using multipath enhances the reliability
and stability of I/O access while improving bandwidth performance. When a user
sends I/O to this merged block device, the multipath mechanism selects one of
the underlying block devices (paths) according to the configured policy.
Different policies result in different path selections.


Policies
========

All policies follow the ANA (Asymmetric Namespace Access) mechanism, meaning
that when an optimized path is available, it will be chosen over a non-optimized
one. Current the NVMe multipath policies include numa(default), round-robin and
queue-depth.

To set the desired policy (e.g., round-robin), use one of the following methods:
   1. echo -n "round-robin" > /sys/module/nvme_core/parameters/iopolicy
   2. or add the "nvme_core.iopolicy=round-robin" to cmdline.


NUMA
----

The NUMA policy selects the path closest to the NUMA node of the current CPU for
I/O distribution. This policy maintains the nearest paths to each NUMA node
based on network interface connections.

When to use the NUMA policy:
  1. Multi-core Systems: Optimizes memory access in multi-core and
     multi-processor systems, especially under NUMA architecture.
  2. High Affinity Workloads: Binds I/O processing to the CPU to reduce
     communication and data transfer delays across nodes.


Round-Robin
-----------

The round-robin policy distributes I/O requests evenly across all paths to
enhance throughput and resource utilization. Each I/O operation is sent to the
next path in sequence.

When to use the round-robin policy:
  1. Balanced Workloads: Effective for balanced and predictable workloads with
     similar I/O size and type.
  2. Homogeneous Path Performance: Utilizes all paths efficiently when
     performance characteristics (e.g., latency, bandwidth) are similar.


Queue-Depth
-----------

The queue-depth policy manages I/O requests based on the current queue depth
of each path, selecting the path with the least number of in-flight I/Os.

When to use the queue-depth policy:
  1. High load with small I/Os: Effectively balances load across paths when
     the load is high, and I/O operations consist of small, relatively
     fixed-sized requests.