[PATCH 2/2] nvme/host: add delayed retries upon non-fatal error during ns validation

[Sagi Grimberg]

On 21/12/2025 23:26, Alex Tran wrote:
> If a non-fatal error is received during nvme namespace validation, it
> should not be ignored and the namespace should not be removed immediately.
> Rather, delayed retires should be performed on the namespace validation
> process.
>
> This handles non-fatal issues more robustly, by retrying a few times before
> giving up and removing the namespace. The number of retries is set
> to 3 and the interval between retries is set to 3 seconds.
>
> Signed-off-by: Alex Tran <alex.t.tran at gmail.com>
> ---
>   drivers/nvme/host/core.c | 43 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----
>   drivers/nvme/host/nvme.h |  9 +++++++++
>   2 files changed, 48 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/drivers/nvme/host/core.c b/drivers/nvme/host/core.c
> index fab321e79b7cdbb89d96d950c1cc8c1128906770..2e208d894b27f85f7f6358eb697be262ce45aed6 100644
> --- a/drivers/nvme/host/core.c
> +++ b/drivers/nvme/host/core.c
> @@ -139,6 +139,7 @@ static void nvme_update_keep_alive(struct nvme_ctrl *ctrl,
>   				   struct nvme_command *cmd);
>   static int nvme_get_log_lsi(struct nvme_ctrl *ctrl, u32 nsid, u8 log_page,
>   		u8 lsp, u8 csi, void *log, size_t size, u64 offset, u16 lsi);
> +static void nvme_validate_ns_work(struct work_struct *work);
>   
>   void nvme_queue_scan(struct nvme_ctrl *ctrl)
>   {
> @@ -4118,6 +4119,8 @@ static void nvme_alloc_ns(struct nvme_ctrl *ctrl, struct nvme_ns_info *info)
>   	ns->ctrl = ctrl;
>   	kref_init(&ns->kref);
>   
> +	INIT_DELAYED_WORK(&ns->validate_work, nvme_validate_ns_work);
> +
>   	if (nvme_init_ns_head(ns, info))
>   		goto out_cleanup_disk;
>   
> @@ -4215,6 +4218,8 @@ static void nvme_ns_remove(struct nvme_ns *ns)
>   {
>   	bool last_path = false;
>   
> +	cancel_delayed_work_sync(&ns->validate_work);
> +
>   	if (test_and_set_bit(NVME_NS_REMOVING, &ns->flags))
>   		return;
>   
> @@ -4285,12 +4290,42 @@ static void nvme_validate_ns(struct nvme_ns *ns, struct nvme_ns_info *info)
>   out:
>   	/*
>   	 * Only remove the namespace if we got a fatal error back from the
> -	 * device, otherwise ignore the error and just move on.
> -	 *
> -	 * TODO: we should probably schedule a delayed retry here.
> +	 * device, otherwise delayed retries are performed.
>   	 */
> -	if (ret > 0 && (ret & NVME_STATUS_DNR))
> +	if (ret > 0 && (ret & NVME_STATUS_DNR)) {
>   		nvme_ns_remove(ns);
> +	} else if (ret > 0) {
> +		if (ns->validate_retries < NVME_NS_VALIDATION_MAX_RETRIES) {
> +			ns->validate_retries++;
> +
> +			if (!nvme_get_ns(ns))
> +				return;
> +
> +			dev_warn(
> +				ns->ctrl->device,
> +				"validation failed for nsid %d, retry %d/%d in %ds\n",
> +				ns->head->ns_id, ns->validate_retries,
> +				NVME_NS_VALIDATION_MAX_RETRIES,
> +				NVME_NS_VALIDATION_RETRY_INTERVAL);
> +			memcpy(&ns->pending_info, info, sizeof(*info));
> +			schedule_delayed_work(
> +				&ns->validate_work,
> +				NVME_NS_VALIDATION_RETRY_INTERVAL * HZ);

Given that ns scanning is already async, wouldn't it be simpler to 
simply retry locally
in a loop?