oxidecomputer / oxidecomputer/omicron

libtopo should probably be "not optional" to view disks

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fault-management Sled Agent
Dominant language
Rust
Stars
572
Forks
97
Avg merge
2d 12h
Merged PRs (30d)
96

Description

History lesson: when we wrote sled agent scanning for disks, we used libdevinfo, monitoring device drivers, as a proxy for "what disks exist". This sorta works, but has the downside that "disks which are physically attached, but have problematic drivers" may not actually be visible.

Now that we're integrating libtopo (https://github.com/oxidecomputer/omicron/pull/11279) it seems worthwhile re-visiting this disposition. #11279 took the additive incremental approach of "add libtopo as an optional extra step, to access label information", but this integration should, if possible, be "non-optional".

Ideally, we should:

  • Scan libtopo to get a view of hardware occupancy
  • Scan libdevinfo to get a view of drivers
  • Synchronize the two, and treat "abscence from libtopo" as a non-nullable pathway

Contributor guide

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First steps

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  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the libtopo integration described in #11279 and trace the existing sled agent scans using libtopo and libdevinfo. The work is done when hardware occupancy and driver views are synchronized, with absence from libtopo handled as a non-nullable case.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
operating-systems
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
42/100

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