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diff --git a/Documentation/device-mapper/snapshot.rst b/Documentation/device-mapper/snapshot.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..4c53304e72f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/device-mapper/snapshot.rst @@ -0,0 +1,180 @@ +============================== +Device-mapper snapshot support +============================== + +Device-mapper allows you, without massive data copying: + +- To create snapshots of any block device i.e. mountable, saved states of + the block device which are also writable without interfering with the + original content; +- To create device "forks", i.e. multiple different versions of the + same data stream. +- To merge a snapshot of a block device back into the snapshot's origin + device. + +In the first two cases, dm copies only the chunks of data that get +changed and uses a separate copy-on-write (COW) block device for +storage. + +For snapshot merge the contents of the COW storage are merged back into +the origin device. + + +There are three dm targets available: +snapshot, snapshot-origin, and snapshot-merge. + +- snapshot-origin <origin> + +which will normally have one or more snapshots based on it. +Reads will be mapped directly to the backing device. For each write, the +original data will be saved in the <COW device> of each snapshot to keep +its visible content unchanged, at least until the <COW device> fills up. + + +- snapshot <origin> <COW device> <persistent?> <chunksize> + +A snapshot of the <origin> block device is created. Changed chunks of +<chunksize> sectors will be stored on the <COW device>. Writes will +only go to the <COW device>. Reads will come from the <COW device> or +from <origin> for unchanged data. <COW device> will often be +smaller than the origin and if it fills up the snapshot will become +useless and be disabled, returning errors. So it is important to monitor +the amount of free space and expand the <COW device> before it fills up. + +<persistent?> is P (Persistent) or N (Not persistent - will not survive +after reboot). O (Overflow) can be added as a persistent store option +to allow userspace to advertise its support for seeing "Overflow" in the +snapshot status. So supported store types are "P", "PO" and "N". + +The difference between persistent and transient is with transient +snapshots less metadata must be saved on disk - they can be kept in +memory by the kernel. + +When loading or unloading the snapshot target, the corresponding +snapshot-origin or snapshot-merge target must be suspended. A failure to +suspend the origin target could result in data corruption. + + +* snapshot-merge <origin> <COW device> <persistent> <chunksize> + +takes the same table arguments as the snapshot target except it only +works with persistent snapshots. This target assumes the role of the +"snapshot-origin" target and must not be loaded if the "snapshot-origin" +is still present for <origin>. + +Creates a merging snapshot that takes control of the changed chunks +stored in the <COW device> of an existing snapshot, through a handover +procedure, and merges these chunks back into the <origin>. Once merging +has started (in the background) the <origin> may be opened and the merge +will continue while I/O is flowing to it. Changes to the <origin> are +deferred until the merging snapshot's corresponding chunk(s) have been +merged. Once merging has started the snapshot device, associated with +the "snapshot" target, will return -EIO when accessed. + + +How snapshot is used by LVM2 +============================ +When you create the first LVM2 snapshot of a volume, four dm devices are used: + +1) a device containing the original mapping table of the source volume; +2) a device used as the <COW device>; +3) a "snapshot" device, combining #1 and #2, which is the visible snapshot + volume; +4) the "original" volume (which uses the device number used by the original + source volume), whose table is replaced by a "snapshot-origin" mapping + from device #1. + +A fixed naming scheme is used, so with the following commands:: + + lvcreate -L 1G -n base volumeGroup + lvcreate -L 100M --snapshot -n snap volumeGroup/base + +we'll have this situation (with volumes in above order):: + + # dmsetup table|grep volumeGroup + + volumeGroup-base-real: 0 2097152 linear 8:19 384 + volumeGroup-snap-cow: 0 204800 linear 8:19 2097536 + volumeGroup-snap: 0 2097152 snapshot 254:11 254:12 P 16 + volumeGroup-base: 0 2097152 snapshot-origin 254:11 + + # ls -lL /dev/mapper/volumeGroup-* + brw------- 1 root root 254, 11 29 ago 18:15 /dev/mapper/volumeGroup-base-real + brw------- 1 root root 254, 12 29 ago 18:15 /dev/mapper/volumeGroup-snap-cow + brw------- 1 root root 254, 13 29 ago 18:15 /dev/mapper/volumeGroup-snap + brw------- 1 root root 254, 10 29 ago 18:14 /dev/mapper/volumeGroup-base + + +How snapshot-merge is used by LVM2 +================================== +A merging snapshot assumes the role of the "snapshot-origin" while +merging. As such the "snapshot-origin" is replaced with +"snapshot-merge". The "-real" device is not changed and the "-cow" +device is renamed to <origin name>-cow to aid LVM2's cleanup of the +merging snapshot after it completes. The "snapshot" that hands over its +COW device to the "snapshot-merge" is deactivated (unless using lvchange +--refresh); but if it is left active it will simply return I/O errors. + +A snapshot will merge into its origin with the following command:: + + lvconvert --merge volumeGroup/snap + +we'll now have this situation:: + + # dmsetup table|grep volumeGroup + + volumeGroup-base-real: 0 2097152 linear 8:19 384 + volumeGroup-base-cow: 0 204800 linear 8:19 2097536 + volumeGroup-base: 0 2097152 snapshot-merge 254:11 254:12 P 16 + + # ls -lL /dev/mapper/volumeGroup-* + brw------- 1 root root 254, 11 29 ago 18:15 /dev/mapper/volumeGroup-base-real + brw------- 1 root root 254, 12 29 ago 18:16 /dev/mapper/volumeGroup-base-cow + brw------- 1 root root 254, 10 29 ago 18:16 /dev/mapper/volumeGroup-base + + +How to determine when a merging is complete +=========================================== +The snapshot-merge and snapshot status lines end with: + + <sectors_allocated>/<total_sectors> <metadata_sectors> + +Both <sectors_allocated> and <total_sectors> include both data and metadata. +During merging, the number of sectors allocated gets smaller and +smaller. Merging has finished when the number of sectors holding data +is zero, in other words <sectors_allocated> == <metadata_sectors>. + +Here is a practical example (using a hybrid of lvm and dmsetup commands):: + + # lvs + LV VG Attr LSize Origin Snap% Move Log Copy% Convert + base volumeGroup owi-a- 4.00g + snap volumeGroup swi-a- 1.00g base 18.97 + + # dmsetup status volumeGroup-snap + 0 8388608 snapshot 397896/2097152 1560 + ^^^^ metadata sectors + + # lvconvert --merge -b volumeGroup/snap + Merging of volume snap started. + + # lvs volumeGroup/snap + LV VG Attr LSize Origin Snap% Move Log Copy% Convert + base volumeGroup Owi-a- 4.00g 17.23 + + # dmsetup status volumeGroup-base + 0 8388608 snapshot-merge 281688/2097152 1104 + + # dmsetup status volumeGroup-base + 0 8388608 snapshot-merge 180480/2097152 712 + + # dmsetup status volumeGroup-base + 0 8388608 snapshot-merge 16/2097152 16 + +Merging has finished. + +:: + + # lvs + LV VG Attr LSize Origin Snap% Move Log Copy% Convert + base volumeGroup owi-a- 4.00g |