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authorAdrian Bunk <bunk@kernel.org>2008-02-07 00:13:33 -0800
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@woody.linux-foundation.org>2008-02-07 08:42:17 -0800
commit4a6b88ca3d9a301b496d6bfc18bc40c78fbb3669 (patch)
tree25f076a3f419835d58940af59fb4fc25cfe9d39d /Documentation/drivers/edac
parent41eaa2dcb98977b3824b8a4c12b5030af7bb0b29 (diff)
move edac.txt two levels up
There's no reason for edac.txt for being at this unusual place. Signed-off-by: Adrian Bunk <bunk@kernel.org> Acked-by: Alan Cox <alan@redhat.com> Cc: Doug Thompson <norsk5@yahoo.com> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
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-
-
-EDAC - Error Detection And Correction
-
-Written by Doug Thompson <dougthompson@xmission.com>
-7 Dec 2005
-17 Jul 2007 Updated
-
-
-EDAC is maintained and written by:
-
- Doug Thompson, Dave Jiang, Dave Peterson et al,
- original author: Thayne Harbaugh,
-
-Contact:
- website: bluesmoke.sourceforge.net
- mailing list: bluesmoke-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
-
-"bluesmoke" was the name for this device driver when it was "out-of-tree"
-and maintained at sourceforge.net. When it was pushed into 2.6.16 for the
-first time, it was renamed to 'EDAC'.
-
-The bluesmoke project at sourceforge.net is now utilized as a 'staging area'
-for EDAC development, before it is sent upstream to kernel.org
-
-At the bluesmoke/EDAC project site, is a series of quilt patches against
-recent kernels, stored in a SVN respository. For easier downloading, there
-is also a tarball snapshot available.
-
-============================================================================
-EDAC PURPOSE
-
-The 'edac' kernel module goal is to detect and report errors that occur
-within the computer system running under linux.
-
-MEMORY
-
-In the initial release, memory Correctable Errors (CE) and Uncorrectable
-Errors (UE) are the primary errors being harvested. These types of errors
-are harvested by the 'edac_mc' class of device.
-
-Detecting CE events, then harvesting those events and reporting them,
-CAN be a predictor of future UE events. With CE events, the system can
-continue to operate, but with less safety. Preventive maintenance and
-proactive part replacement of memory DIMMs exhibiting CEs can reduce
-the likelihood of the dreaded UE events and system 'panics'.
-
-NON-MEMORY
-
-A new feature for EDAC, the edac_device class of device, was added in
-the 2.6.23 version of the kernel.
-
-This new device type allows for non-memory type of ECC hardware detectors
-to have their states harvested and presented to userspace via the sysfs
-interface.
-
-Some architectures have ECC detectors for L1, L2 and L3 caches, along with DMA
-engines, fabric switches, main data path switches, interconnections,
-and various other hardware data paths. If the hardware reports it, then
-a edac_device device probably can be constructed to harvest and present
-that to userspace.
-
-
-PCI BUS SCANNING
-
-In addition, PCI Bus Parity and SERR Errors are scanned for on PCI devices
-in order to determine if errors are occurring on data transfers.
-
-The presence of PCI Parity errors must be examined with a grain of salt.
-There are several add-in adapters that do NOT follow the PCI specification
-with regards to Parity generation and reporting. The specification says
-the vendor should tie the parity status bits to 0 if they do not intend
-to generate parity. Some vendors do not do this, and thus the parity bit
-can "float" giving false positives.
-
-In the kernel there is a pci device attribute located in sysfs that is
-checked by the EDAC PCI scanning code. If that attribute is set,
-PCI parity/error scannining is skipped for that device. The attribute
-is:
-
- broken_parity_status
-
-as is located in /sys/devices/pci<XXX>/0000:XX:YY.Z directorys for
-PCI devices.
-
-FUTURE HARDWARE SCANNING
-
-EDAC will have future error detectors that will be integrated with
-EDAC or added to it, in the following list:
-
- MCE Machine Check Exception
- MCA Machine Check Architecture
- NMI NMI notification of ECC errors
- MSRs Machine Specific Register error cases
- and other mechanisms.
-
-These errors are usually bus errors, ECC errors, thermal throttling
-and the like.
-
-
-============================================================================
-EDAC VERSIONING
-
-EDAC is composed of a "core" module (edac_core.ko) and several Memory
-Controller (MC) driver modules. On a given system, the CORE
-is loaded and one MC driver will be loaded. Both the CORE and
-the MC driver (or edac_device driver) have individual versions that reflect
-current release level of their respective modules.
-
-Thus, to "report" on what version a system is running, one must report both
-the CORE's and the MC driver's versions.
-
-
-LOADING
-
-If 'edac' was statically linked with the kernel then no loading is
-necessary. If 'edac' was built as modules then simply modprobe the
-'edac' pieces that you need. You should be able to modprobe
-hardware-specific modules and have the dependencies load the necessary core
-modules.
-
-Example:
-
-$> modprobe amd76x_edac
-
-loads both the amd76x_edac.ko memory controller module and the edac_mc.ko
-core module.
-
-
-============================================================================
-EDAC sysfs INTERFACE
-
-EDAC presents a 'sysfs' interface for control, reporting and attribute
-reporting purposes.
-
-EDAC lives in the /sys/devices/system/edac directory.
-
-Within this directory there currently reside 2 'edac' components:
-
- mc memory controller(s) system
- pci PCI control and status system
-
-
-============================================================================
-Memory Controller (mc) Model
-
-First a background on the memory controller's model abstracted in EDAC.
-Each 'mc' device controls a set of DIMM memory modules. These modules are
-laid out in a Chip-Select Row (csrowX) and Channel table (chX). There can
-be multiple csrows and multiple channels.
-
-Memory controllers allow for several csrows, with 8 csrows being a typical value.
-Yet, the actual number of csrows depends on the electrical "loading"
-of a given motherboard, memory controller and DIMM characteristics.
-
-Dual channels allows for 128 bit data transfers to the CPU from memory.
-Some newer chipsets allow for more than 2 channels, like Fully Buffered DIMMs
-(FB-DIMMs). The following example will assume 2 channels:
-
-
- Channel 0 Channel 1
- ===================================
- csrow0 | DIMM_A0 | DIMM_B0 |
- csrow1 | DIMM_A0 | DIMM_B0 |
- ===================================
-
- ===================================
- csrow2 | DIMM_A1 | DIMM_B1 |
- csrow3 | DIMM_A1 | DIMM_B1 |
- ===================================
-
-In the above example table there are 4 physical slots on the motherboard
-for memory DIMMs:
-
- DIMM_A0
- DIMM_B0
- DIMM_A1
- DIMM_B1
-
-Labels for these slots are usually silk screened on the motherboard. Slots
-labeled 'A' are channel 0 in this example. Slots labeled 'B'
-are channel 1. Notice that there are two csrows possible on a
-physical DIMM. These csrows are allocated their csrow assignment
-based on the slot into which the memory DIMM is placed. Thus, when 1 DIMM
-is placed in each Channel, the csrows cross both DIMMs.
-
-Memory DIMMs come single or dual "ranked". A rank is a populated csrow.
-Thus, 2 single ranked DIMMs, placed in slots DIMM_A0 and DIMM_B0 above
-will have 1 csrow, csrow0. csrow1 will be empty. On the other hand,
-when 2 dual ranked DIMMs are similarly placed, then both csrow0 and
-csrow1 will be populated. The pattern repeats itself for csrow2 and
-csrow3.
-
-The representation of the above is reflected in the directory tree
-in EDAC's sysfs interface. Starting in directory
-/sys/devices/system/edac/mc each memory controller will be represented
-by its own 'mcX' directory, where 'X" is the index of the MC.
-
-
- ..../edac/mc/
- |
- |->mc0
- |->mc1
- |->mc2
- ....
-
-Under each 'mcX' directory each 'csrowX' is again represented by a
-'csrowX', where 'X" is the csrow index:
-
-
- .../mc/mc0/
- |
- |->csrow0
- |->csrow2
- |->csrow3
- ....
-
-Notice that there is no csrow1, which indicates that csrow0 is
-composed of a single ranked DIMMs. This should also apply in both
-Channels, in order to have dual-channel mode be operational. Since
-both csrow2 and csrow3 are populated, this indicates a dual ranked
-set of DIMMs for channels 0 and 1.
-
-
-Within each of the 'mc','mcX' and 'csrowX' directories are several
-EDAC control and attribute files.
-
-
-============================================================================
-DIRECTORY 'mc'
-
-In directory 'mc' are EDAC system overall control and attribute files:
-
-
-Panic on UE control file:
-
- 'edac_mc_panic_on_ue'
-
- An uncorrectable error will cause a machine panic. This is usually
- desirable. It is a bad idea to continue when an uncorrectable error
- occurs - it is indeterminate what was uncorrected and the operating
- system context might be so mangled that continuing will lead to further
- corruption. If the kernel has MCE configured, then EDAC will never
- notice the UE.
-
- LOAD TIME: module/kernel parameter: panic_on_ue=[0|1]
-
- RUN TIME: echo "1" >/sys/devices/system/edac/mc/edac_mc_panic_on_ue
-
-
-Log UE control file:
-
- 'edac_mc_log_ue'
-
- Generate kernel messages describing uncorrectable errors. These errors
- are reported through the system message log system. UE statistics
- will be accumulated even when UE logging is disabled.
-
- LOAD TIME: module/kernel parameter: log_ue=[0|1]
-
- RUN TIME: echo "1" >/sys/devices/system/edac/mc/edac_mc_log_ue
-
-
-Log CE control file:
-
- 'edac_mc_log_ce'
-
- Generate kernel messages describing correctable errors. These
- errors are reported through the system message log system.
- CE statistics will be accumulated even when CE logging is disabled.
-
- LOAD TIME: module/kernel parameter: log_ce=[0|1]
-
- RUN TIME: echo "1" >/sys/devices/system/edac/mc/edac_mc_log_ce
-
-
-Polling period control file:
-
- 'edac_mc_poll_msec'
-
- The time period, in milliseconds, for polling for error information.
- Too small a value wastes resources. Too large a value might delay
- necessary handling of errors and might loose valuable information for
- locating the error. 1000 milliseconds (once each second) is the current
- default. Systems which require all the bandwidth they can get, may
- increase this.
-
- LOAD TIME: module/kernel parameter: poll_msec=[0|1]
-
- RUN TIME: echo "1000" >/sys/devices/system/edac/mc/edac_mc_poll_msec
-
-
-============================================================================
-'mcX' DIRECTORIES
-
-
-In 'mcX' directories are EDAC control and attribute files for
-this 'X" instance of the memory controllers:
-
-
-Counter reset control file:
-
- 'reset_counters'
-
- This write-only control file will zero all the statistical counters
- for UE and CE errors. Zeroing the counters will also reset the timer
- indicating how long since the last counter zero. This is useful
- for computing errors/time. Since the counters are always reset at
- driver initialization time, no module/kernel parameter is available.
-
- RUN TIME: echo "anything" >/sys/devices/system/edac/mc/mc0/counter_reset
-
- This resets the counters on memory controller 0
-
-
-Seconds since last counter reset control file:
-
- 'seconds_since_reset'
-
- This attribute file displays how many seconds have elapsed since the
- last counter reset. This can be used with the error counters to
- measure error rates.
-
-
-
-Memory Controller name attribute file:
-
- 'mc_name'
-
- This attribute file displays the type of memory controller
- that is being utilized.
-
-
-Total memory managed by this memory controller attribute file:
-
- 'size_mb'
-
- This attribute file displays, in count of megabytes, of memory
- that this instance of memory controller manages.
-
-
-Total Uncorrectable Errors count attribute file:
-
- 'ue_count'
-
- This attribute file displays the total count of uncorrectable
- errors that have occurred on this memory controller. If panic_on_ue
- is set this counter will not have a chance to increment,
- since EDAC will panic the system.
-
-
-Total UE count that had no information attribute fileY:
-
- 'ue_noinfo_count'
-
- This attribute file displays the number of UEs that
- have occurred have occurred with no informations as to which DIMM
- slot is having errors.
-
-
-Total Correctable Errors count attribute file:
-
- 'ce_count'
-
- This attribute file displays the total count of correctable
- errors that have occurred on this memory controller. This
- count is very important to examine. CEs provide early
- indications that a DIMM is beginning to fail. This count
- field should be monitored for non-zero values and report
- such information to the system administrator.
-
-
-Total Correctable Errors count attribute file:
-
- 'ce_noinfo_count'
-
- This attribute file displays the number of CEs that
- have occurred wherewith no informations as to which DIMM slot
- is having errors. Memory is handicapped, but operational,
- yet no information is available to indicate which slot
- the failing memory is in. This count field should be also
- be monitored for non-zero values.
-
-Device Symlink:
-
- 'device'
-
- Symlink to the memory controller device.
-
-Sdram memory scrubbing rate:
-
- 'sdram_scrub_rate'
-
- Read/Write attribute file that controls memory scrubbing. The scrubbing
- rate is set by writing a minimum bandwith in bytes/sec to the attribute
- file. The rate will be translated to an internal value that gives at
- least the specified rate.
-
- Reading the file will return the actual scrubbing rate employed.
-
- If configuration fails or memory scrubbing is not implemented, the value
- of the attribute file will be -1.
-
-
-
-============================================================================
-'csrowX' DIRECTORIES
-
-In the 'csrowX' directories are EDAC control and attribute files for
-this 'X" instance of csrow:
-
-
-Total Uncorrectable Errors count attribute file:
-
- 'ue_count'
-
- This attribute file displays the total count of uncorrectable
- errors that have occurred on this csrow. If panic_on_ue is set
- this counter will not have a chance to increment, since EDAC
- will panic the system.
-
-
-Total Correctable Errors count attribute file:
-
- 'ce_count'
-
- This attribute file displays the total count of correctable
- errors that have occurred on this csrow. This
- count is very important to examine. CEs provide early
- indications that a DIMM is beginning to fail. This count
- field should be monitored for non-zero values and report
- such information to the system administrator.
-
-
-Total memory managed by this csrow attribute file:
-
- 'size_mb'
-
- This attribute file displays, in count of megabytes, of memory
- that this csrow contains.
-
-
-Memory Type attribute file:
-
- 'mem_type'
-
- This attribute file will display what type of memory is currently
- on this csrow. Normally, either buffered or unbuffered memory.
- Examples:
- Registered-DDR
- Unbuffered-DDR
-
-
-EDAC Mode of operation attribute file:
-
- 'edac_mode'
-
- This attribute file will display what type of Error detection
- and correction is being utilized.
-
-
-Device type attribute file:
-
- 'dev_type'
-
- This attribute file will display what type of DRAM device is
- being utilized on this DIMM.
- Examples:
- x1
- x2
- x4
- x8
-
-
-Channel 0 CE Count attribute file:
-
- 'ch0_ce_count'
-
- This attribute file will display the count of CEs on this
- DIMM located in channel 0.
-
-
-Channel 0 UE Count attribute file:
-
- 'ch0_ue_count'
-
- This attribute file will display the count of UEs on this
- DIMM located in channel 0.
-
-
-Channel 0 DIMM Label control file:
-
- 'ch0_dimm_label'
-
- This control file allows this DIMM to have a label assigned
- to it. With this label in the module, when errors occur
- the output can provide the DIMM label in the system log.
- This becomes vital for panic events to isolate the
- cause of the UE event.
-
- DIMM Labels must be assigned after booting, with information
- that correctly identifies the physical slot with its
- silk screen label. This information is currently very
- motherboard specific and determination of this information
- must occur in userland at this time.
-
-
-Channel 1 CE Count attribute file:
-
- 'ch1_ce_count'
-
- This attribute file will display the count of CEs on this
- DIMM located in channel 1.
-
-
-Channel 1 UE Count attribute file:
-
- 'ch1_ue_count'
-
- This attribute file will display the count of UEs on this
- DIMM located in channel 0.
-
-
-Channel 1 DIMM Label control file:
-
- 'ch1_dimm_label'
-
- This control file allows this DIMM to have a label assigned
- to it. With this label in the module, when errors occur
- the output can provide the DIMM label in the system log.
- This becomes vital for panic events to isolate the
- cause of the UE event.
-
- DIMM Labels must be assigned after booting, with information
- that correctly identifies the physical slot with its
- silk screen label. This information is currently very
- motherboard specific and determination of this information
- must occur in userland at this time.
-
-
-============================================================================
-SYSTEM LOGGING
-
-If logging for UEs and CEs are enabled then system logs will have
-error notices indicating errors that have been detected:
-
-EDAC MC0: CE page 0x283, offset 0xce0, grain 8, syndrome 0x6ec3, row 0,
-channel 1 "DIMM_B1": amd76x_edac
-
-EDAC MC0: CE page 0x1e5, offset 0xfb0, grain 8, syndrome 0xb741, row 0,
-channel 1 "DIMM_B1": amd76x_edac
-
-
-The structure of the message is:
- the memory controller (MC0)
- Error type (CE)
- memory page (0x283)
- offset in the page (0xce0)
- the byte granularity (grain 8)
- or resolution of the error
- the error syndrome (0xb741)
- memory row (row 0)
- memory channel (channel 1)
- DIMM label, if set prior (DIMM B1
- and then an optional, driver-specific message that may
- have additional information.
-
-Both UEs and CEs with no info will lack all but memory controller,
-error type, a notice of "no info" and then an optional,
-driver-specific error message.
-
-
-
-============================================================================
-PCI Bus Parity Detection
-
-
-On Header Type 00 devices the primary status is looked at
-for any parity error regardless of whether Parity is enabled on the
-device. (The spec indicates parity is generated in some cases).
-On Header Type 01 bridges, the secondary status register is also
-looked at to see if parity occurred on the bus on the other side of
-the bridge.
-
-
-SYSFS CONFIGURATION
-
-Under /sys/devices/system/edac/pci are control and attribute files as follows:
-
-
-Enable/Disable PCI Parity checking control file:
-
- 'check_pci_parity'
-
-
- This control file enables or disables the PCI Bus Parity scanning
- operation. Writing a 1 to this file enables the scanning. Writing
- a 0 to this file disables the scanning.
-
- Enable:
- echo "1" >/sys/devices/system/edac/pci/check_pci_parity
-
- Disable:
- echo "0" >/sys/devices/system/edac/pci/check_pci_parity
-
-
-
-Panic on PCI PARITY Error:
-
- 'panic_on_pci_parity'
-
-
- This control files enables or disables panicking when a parity
- error has been detected.
-
-
- module/kernel parameter: panic_on_pci_parity=[0|1]
-
- Enable:
- echo "1" >/sys/devices/system/edac/pci/panic_on_pci_parity
-
- Disable:
- echo "0" >/sys/devices/system/edac/pci/panic_on_pci_parity
-
-
-Parity Count:
-
- 'pci_parity_count'
-
- This attribute file will display the number of parity errors that
- have been detected.
-
-
-
-=======================================================================
-
-
-EDAC_DEVICE type of device
-
-In the header file, edac_core.h, there is a series of edac_device structures
-and APIs for the EDAC_DEVICE.
-
-User space access to an edac_device is through the sysfs interface.
-
-At the location /sys/devices/system/edac (sysfs) new edac_device devices will
-appear.
-
-There is a three level tree beneath the above 'edac' directory. For example,
-the 'test_device_edac' device (found at the bluesmoke.sourceforget.net website)
-installs itself as:
-
- /sys/devices/systm/edac/test-instance
-
-in this directory are various controls, a symlink and one or more 'instance'
-directorys.
-
-The standard default controls are:
-
- log_ce boolean to log CE events
- log_ue boolean to log UE events
- panic_on_ue boolean to 'panic' the system if an UE is encountered
- (default off, can be set true via startup script)
- poll_msec time period between POLL cycles for events
-
-The test_device_edac device adds at least one of its own custom control:
-
- test_bits which in the current test driver does nothing but
- show how it is installed. A ported driver can
- add one or more such controls and/or attributes
- for specific uses.
- One out-of-tree driver uses controls here to allow
- for ERROR INJECTION operations to hardware
- injection registers
-
-The symlink points to the 'struct dev' that is registered for this edac_device.
-
-INSTANCES
-
-One or more instance directories are present. For the 'test_device_edac' case:
-
- test-instance0
-
-
-In this directory there are two default counter attributes, which are totals of
-counter in deeper subdirectories.
-
- ce_count total of CE events of subdirectories
- ue_count total of UE events of subdirectories
-
-BLOCKS
-
-At the lowest directory level is the 'block' directory. There can be 0, 1
-or more blocks specified in each instance.
-
- test-block0
-
-
-In this directory the default attributes are:
-
- ce_count which is counter of CE events for this 'block'
- of hardware being monitored
- ue_count which is counter of UE events for this 'block'
- of hardware being monitored
-
-
-The 'test_device_edac' device adds 4 attributes and 1 control:
-
- test-block-bits-0 for every POLL cycle this counter
- is incremented
- test-block-bits-1 every 10 cycles, this counter is bumped once,
- and test-block-bits-0 is set to 0
- test-block-bits-2 every 100 cycles, this counter is bumped once,
- and test-block-bits-1 is set to 0
- test-block-bits-3 every 1000 cycles, this counter is bumped once,
- and test-block-bits-2 is set to 0
-
-
- reset-counters writing ANY thing to this control will
- reset all the above counters.
-
-
-Use of the 'test_device_edac' driver should any others to create their own
-unique drivers for their hardware systems.
-
-The 'test_device_edac' sample driver is located at the
-bluesmoke.sourceforge.net project site for EDAC.
-