Improve zoned (SMR) HDD write throughput

Documentation/ABI/stable/sysfs-block

@@ -886,6 +886,21 @@ Description:
 		zone commands, they will be treated as regular block devices and
 		zoned will report "none".
 
+What:		/sys/block/<disk>/queue/zoned_qd1_writes
+Date:		January 2026
+Contact:	Damien Le Moal <dlemoal@kernel.org>
+Description:
+		[RW] zoned_qd1_writes indicates if write operations to a zoned
+		block device are being handled using a single issuer context (a
+		kernel thread) operating at a maximum queue depth of 1. This
+		attribute is visible only for zoned block devices. The default
+		value for zoned block devices that are not rotational devices
+		(e.g. ZNS SSDs or zoned UFS devices) is 0. For rotational zoned
+		block devices (e.g. SMR HDDs) the default value is 1. Since
+		this default may not be appropriate for some devices, e.g.
+		remotely connected devices over high latency networks, the user
+		can disable this feature by setting this attribute to 0.
+
 
 What:		/sys/block/<disk>/hidden
 Date:		March 2023

block/blk-mq-debugfs.c

@@ -97,6 +97,7 @@ static const char *const blk_queue_flag_name[] = {
 	QUEUE_FLAG_NAME(NO_ELV_SWITCH),
 	QUEUE_FLAG_NAME(QOS_ENABLED),
 	QUEUE_FLAG_NAME(BIO_ISSUE_TIME),
+	QUEUE_FLAG_NAME(ZONED_QD1_WRITES),
 };
 #undef QUEUE_FLAG_NAME
 

block/blk-sysfs.c

@@ -390,6 +390,36 @@ static ssize_t queue_nr_zones_show(struct gendisk *disk, char *page)
 	return queue_var_show(disk_nr_zones(disk), page);
 }
 
+static ssize_t queue_zoned_qd1_writes_show(struct gendisk *disk, char *page)
+{
+	return queue_var_show(!!blk_queue_zoned_qd1_writes(disk->queue),
+			      page);
+}
+
+static ssize_t queue_zoned_qd1_writes_store(struct gendisk *disk,
+					    const char *page, size_t count)
+{
+	struct request_queue *q = disk->queue;
+	unsigned long qd1_writes;
+	unsigned int memflags;
+	ssize_t ret;
+
+	ret = queue_var_store(&qd1_writes, page, count);
+	if (ret < 0)
+		return ret;
+
+	memflags = blk_mq_freeze_queue(q);
+	blk_mq_quiesce_queue(q);
+	if (qd1_writes)
+		blk_queue_flag_set(QUEUE_FLAG_ZONED_QD1_WRITES, q);
+	else
+		blk_queue_flag_clear(QUEUE_FLAG_ZONED_QD1_WRITES, q);
+	blk_mq_unquiesce_queue(q);
+	blk_mq_unfreeze_queue(q, memflags);
+
+	return count;
+}
+
 static ssize_t queue_iostats_passthrough_show(struct gendisk *disk, char *page)
 {
 	return queue_var_show(!!blk_queue_passthrough_stat(disk->queue), page);
@@ -617,6 +647,7 @@ QUEUE_LIM_RO_ENTRY(queue_max_zone_append_sectors, "zone_append_max_bytes");
 QUEUE_LIM_RO_ENTRY(queue_zone_write_granularity, "zone_write_granularity");
 
 QUEUE_LIM_RO_ENTRY(queue_zoned, "zoned");
+QUEUE_RW_ENTRY(queue_zoned_qd1_writes, "zoned_qd1_writes");
 QUEUE_RO_ENTRY(queue_nr_zones, "nr_zones");
 QUEUE_LIM_RO_ENTRY(queue_max_open_zones, "max_open_zones");
 QUEUE_LIM_RO_ENTRY(queue_max_active_zones, "max_active_zones");
@@ -754,6 +785,7 @@ static struct attribute *queue_attrs[] = {
 	&queue_nomerges_entry.attr,
 	&queue_poll_entry.attr,
 	&queue_poll_delay_entry.attr,
+	&queue_zoned_qd1_writes_entry.attr,
 
 	NULL,
 };
@@ -786,7 +818,8 @@ static umode_t queue_attr_visible(struct kobject *kobj, struct attribute *attr,
 	struct request_queue *q = disk->queue;
 
 	if ((attr == &queue_max_open_zones_entry.attr ||
-	     attr == &queue_max_active_zones_entry.attr) &&
+	     attr == &queue_max_active_zones_entry.attr ||
+	     attr == &queue_zoned_qd1_writes_entry.attr) &&
 	    !blk_queue_is_zoned(q))
 		return 0;
 
@@ -934,6 +967,14 @@ int blk_register_queue(struct gendisk *disk)
 		blk_mq_debugfs_register(q);
 	blk_debugfs_unlock(q, memflags);
 
+	/*
+	 * For blk-mq rotational zoned devices, default to using QD=1
+	 * writes. For non-mq rotational zoned devices, the device driver can
+	 * set an appropriate default.
+	 */
+	if (queue_is_mq(q) && blk_queue_rot(q) && blk_queue_is_zoned(q))
+		blk_queue_flag_set(QUEUE_FLAG_ZONED_QD1_WRITES, q);
+
 	ret = disk_register_independent_access_ranges(disk);
 	if (ret)
 		goto out_debugfs_remove;