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authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2014-04-05 18:49:31 -0700
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2014-04-05 18:49:31 -0700
commit04535d273ee3edacd9551b2512b4e939ba20277f (patch)
tree262f3df914bfea16b43226fa60c2f43345ee0146 /Documentation
parent3f583bc21977a608908b83d03ee2250426a5695c (diff)
parent0596661f0a16d9d69bf1033320e70b6ff52b5e81 (diff)
downloadlinux-04535d273ee3edacd9551b2512b4e939ba20277f.tar.bz2
Merge tag 'dm-3.15-changes' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/device-mapper/linux-dm
Pull device mapper changes from Mike Snitzer: - Fix dm-cache corruption caused by discard_block_size > cache_block_size - Fix a lock-inversion detected by LOCKDEP in dm-cache - Fix a dangling bio bug in the dm-thinp target's process_deferred_bios error path - Fix corruption due to non-atomic transaction commit which allowed a metadata superblock to be written before all other metadata was successfully written -- this is common to all targets that use the persistent-data library's transaction manager (dm-thinp, dm-cache and dm-era). - Various small cleanups in the DM core - Add the dm-era target which is useful for keeping track of which blocks were written within a user defined period of time called an 'era'. Use cases include tracking changed blocks for backup software, and partially invalidating the contents of a cache to restore cache coherency after rolling back a vendor snapshot. - Improve the on-disk layout of multithreaded writes to the dm-thin-pool by splitting the pool's deferred bio list to be a per-thin device list and then sorting that list using an rb_tree. The subsequent read throughput of the data written via multiple threads improved by ~70%. - Simplify the multipath target's handling of queuing IO by pushing requests back to the request queue rather than queueing the IO internally. * tag 'dm-3.15-changes' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/device-mapper/linux-dm: (24 commits) dm cache: fix a lock-inversion dm thin: sort the per thin deferred bios using an rb_tree dm thin: use per thin device deferred bio lists dm thin: simplify pool_is_congested dm thin: fix dangling bio in process_deferred_bios error path dm mpath: print more useful warnings in multipath_message() dm-mpath: do not activate failed paths dm mpath: remove extra nesting in map function dm mpath: remove map_io() dm mpath: reduce memory pressure when requeuing dm mpath: remove process_queued_ios() dm mpath: push back requests instead of queueing dm table: add dm_table_run_md_queue_async dm mpath: do not call pg_init when it is already running dm: use RCU_INIT_POINTER instead of rcu_assign_pointer in __unbind dm: stop using bi_private dm: remove dm_get_mapinfo dm: make dm_table_alloc_md_mempools static dm: take care to copy the space map roots before locking the superblock dm transaction manager: fix corruption due to non-atomic transaction commit ...
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+Introduction
+============
+
+dm-era is a target that behaves similar to the linear target. In
+addition it keeps track of which blocks were written within a user
+defined period of time called an 'era'. Each era target instance
+maintains the current era as a monotonically increasing 32-bit
+counter.
+
+Use cases include tracking changed blocks for backup software, and
+partially invalidating the contents of a cache to restore cache
+coherency after rolling back a vendor snapshot.
+
+Constructor
+===========
+
+ era <metadata dev> <origin dev> <block size>
+
+ metadata dev : fast device holding the persistent metadata
+ origin dev : device holding data blocks that may change
+ block size : block size of origin data device, granularity that is
+ tracked by the target
+
+Messages
+========
+
+None of the dm messages take any arguments.
+
+checkpoint
+----------
+
+Possibly move to a new era. You shouldn't assume the era has
+incremented. After sending this message, you should check the
+current era via the status line.
+
+take_metadata_snap
+------------------
+
+Create a clone of the metadata, to allow a userland process to read it.
+
+drop_metadata_snap
+------------------
+
+Drop the metadata snapshot.
+
+Status
+======
+
+<metadata block size> <#used metadata blocks>/<#total metadata blocks>
+<current era> <held metadata root | '-'>
+
+metadata block size : Fixed block size for each metadata block in
+ sectors
+#used metadata blocks : Number of metadata blocks used
+#total metadata blocks : Total number of metadata blocks
+current era : The current era
+held metadata root : The location, in blocks, of the metadata root
+ that has been 'held' for userspace read
+ access. '-' indicates there is no held root
+
+Detailed use case
+=================
+
+The scenario of invalidating a cache when rolling back a vendor
+snapshot was the primary use case when developing this target:
+
+Taking a vendor snapshot
+------------------------
+
+- Send a checkpoint message to the era target
+- Make a note of the current era in its status line
+- Take vendor snapshot (the era and snapshot should be forever
+ associated now).
+
+Rolling back to an vendor snapshot
+----------------------------------
+
+- Cache enters passthrough mode (see: dm-cache's docs in cache.txt)
+- Rollback vendor storage
+- Take metadata snapshot
+- Ascertain which blocks have been written since the snapshot was taken
+ by checking each block's era
+- Invalidate those blocks in the caching software
+- Cache returns to writeback/writethrough mode
+
+Memory usage
+============
+
+The target uses a bitset to record writes in the current era. It also
+has a spare bitset ready for switching over to a new era. Other than
+that it uses a few 4k blocks for updating metadata.
+
+ (4 * nr_blocks) bytes + buffers
+
+Resilience
+==========
+
+Metadata is updated on disk before a write to a previously unwritten
+block is performed. As such dm-era should not be effected by a hard
+crash such as power failure.
+
+Userland tools
+==============
+
+Userland tools are found in the increasingly poorly named
+thin-provisioning-tools project:
+
+ https://github.com/jthornber/thin-provisioning-tools