Transport Structure Cloning

Cloning can be useful if an HBA driver needs to maintain per-target private data in the scsi_hba_tran(9S) structure. Cloning can also be used to maintain a more complex address than is provided in the scsi_address(9S) structure.

In the cloning process, the HBA driver must still allocate a scsi_hba_tran structure at attach(9E) time. The HBA driver must also initialize the tran_hba_private soft state pointer and the entry point vectors for the HBA driver. The difference occurs when the framework begins to connect an instance of a target driver to the HBA driver. Before calling the HBA driver's tran_tgt_init(9E) entry point, the framework clones the scsi_hba_tran structure that is associated with that instance of the HBA. Accordingly, each scsi_address structure that is allocated and initialized for a particular target device instance points to a per-target instance copy of the scsi_hba_tran structure. The scsi_address structures do not point to the scsi_hba_tran structure that is allocated by the HBA driver at attach() time.

An HBA driver can use two important pointers when cloning is specified. These pointers are contained in the scsi_hba_tran structure. The first pointer is the tran_tgt_private field, which the driver can use to point to per-target HBA private data. The tran_tgt_private pointer is useful, for example, if an HBA driver needs to maintain a more complex address than a_target and a_lun provide. The second pointer is the tran_sd field, which is a pointer to the scsi_device(9S) structure referring to the particular target device.

When specifying cloning, the HBA driver must allocate and initialize the per-target data. The HBA driver must then initialize the tran_tgt_private field to point to this data during its tran_tgt_init(9E) entry point. The HBA driver must free this per-target data during its tran_tgt_free(9E) entry point.

When cloning, the framework initializes the tran_sd field to point to the scsi_device structure before the HBA driver tran_tgt_init() entry point is called. The driver requests cloning by passing the SCSI_HBA_TRAN_CLONE flag to scsi_hba_attach_setup(9F). The following figure illustrates the HBA data structures for cloning transport operations.

Figure 18-4  Cloning Transport Operation