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diff --git a/Documentation/device-mapper/thin-provisioning.txt b/Documentation/device-mapper/thin-provisioning.txt new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..801d9d1cf82 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/device-mapper/thin-provisioning.txt @@ -0,0 +1,285 @@ +Introduction +============ + +This document descibes a collection of device-mapper targets that +between them implement thin-provisioning and snapshots. + +The main highlight of this implementation, compared to the previous +implementation of snapshots, is that it allows many virtual devices to +be stored on the same data volume. This simplifies administration and +allows the sharing of data between volumes, thus reducing disk usage. + +Another significant feature is support for an arbitrary depth of +recursive snapshots (snapshots of snapshots of snapshots ...). The +previous implementation of snapshots did this by chaining together +lookup tables, and so performance was O(depth). This new +implementation uses a single data structure to avoid this degradation +with depth. Fragmentation may still be an issue, however, in some +scenarios. + +Metadata is stored on a separate device from data, giving the +administrator some freedom, for example to: + +- Improve metadata resilience by storing metadata on a mirrored volume + but data on a non-mirrored one. + +- Improve performance by storing the metadata on SSD. + +Status +====== + +These targets are very much still in the EXPERIMENTAL state. Please +do not yet rely on them in production. But do experiment and offer us +feedback. Different use cases will have different performance +characteristics, for example due to fragmentation of the data volume. + +If you find this software is not performing as expected please mail +dm-devel@redhat.com with details and we'll try our best to improve +things for you. + +Userspace tools for checking and repairing the metadata are under +development. + +Cookbook +======== + +This section describes some quick recipes for using thin provisioning. +They use the dmsetup program to control the device-mapper driver +directly. End users will be advised to use a higher-level volume +manager such as LVM2 once support has been added. + +Pool device +----------- + +The pool device ties together the metadata volume and the data volume. +It maps I/O linearly to the data volume and updates the metadata via +two mechanisms: + +- Function calls from the thin targets + +- Device-mapper 'messages' from userspace which control the creation of new + virtual devices amongst other things. + +Setting up a fresh pool device +------------------------------ + +Setting up a pool device requires a valid metadata device, and a +data device. If you do not have an existing metadata device you can +make one by zeroing the first 4k to indicate empty metadata. + + dd if=/dev/zero of=$metadata_dev bs=4096 count=1 + +The amount of metadata you need will vary according to how many blocks +are shared between thin devices (i.e. through snapshots). If you have +less sharing than average you'll need a larger-than-average metadata device. + +As a guide, we suggest you calculate the number of bytes to use in the +metadata device as 48 * $data_dev_size / $data_block_size but round it up +to 2MB if the answer is smaller. The largest size supported is 16GB. + +If you're creating large numbers of snapshots which are recording large +amounts of change, you may need find you need to increase this. + +Reloading a pool table +---------------------- + +You may reload a pool's table, indeed this is how the pool is resized +if it runs out of space. (N.B. While specifying a different metadata +device when reloading is not forbidden at the moment, things will go +wrong if it does not route I/O to exactly the same on-disk location as +previously.) + +Using an existing pool device +----------------------------- + + dmsetup create pool \ + --table "0 20971520 thin-pool $metadata_dev $data_dev \ + $data_block_size $low_water_mark" + +$data_block_size gives the smallest unit of disk space that can be +allocated at a time expressed in units of 512-byte sectors. People +primarily interested in thin provisioning may want to use a value such +as 1024 (512KB). People doing lots of snapshotting may want a smaller value +such as 128 (64KB). If you are not zeroing newly-allocated data, +a larger $data_block_size in the region of 256000 (128MB) is suggested. +$data_block_size must be the same for the lifetime of the +metadata device. + +$low_water_mark is expressed in blocks of size $data_block_size. If +free space on the data device drops below this level then a dm event +will be triggered which a userspace daemon should catch allowing it to +extend the pool device. Only one such event will be sent. +Resuming a device with a new table itself triggers an event so the +userspace daemon can use this to detect a situation where a new table +already exceeds the threshold. + +Thin provisioning +----------------- + +i) Creating a new thinly-provisioned volume. + + To create a new thinly- provisioned volume you must send a message to an + active pool device, /dev/mapper/pool in this example. + + dmsetup message /dev/mapper/pool 0 "create_thin 0" + + Here '0' is an identifier for the volume, a 24-bit number. It's up + to the caller to allocate and manage these identifiers. If the + identifier is already in use, the message will fail with -EEXIST. + +ii) Using a thinly-provisioned volume. + + Thinly-provisioned volumes are activated using the 'thin' target: + + dmsetup create thin --table "0 2097152 thin /dev/mapper/pool 0" + + The last parameter is the identifier for the thinp device. + +Internal snapshots +------------------ + +i) Creating an internal snapshot. + + Snapshots are created with another message to the pool. + + N.B. If the origin device that you wish to snapshot is active, you + must suspend it before creating the snapshot to avoid corruption. + This is NOT enforced at the moment, so please be careful! + + dmsetup suspend /dev/mapper/thin + dmsetup message /dev/mapper/pool 0 "create_snap 1 0" + dmsetup resume /dev/mapper/thin + + Here '1' is the identifier for the volume, a 24-bit number. '0' is the + identifier for the origin device. + +ii) Using an internal snapshot. + + Once created, the user doesn't have to worry about any connection + between the origin and the snapshot. Indeed the snapshot is no + different from any other thinly-provisioned device and can be + snapshotted itself via the same method. It's perfectly legal to + have only one of them active, and there's no ordering requirement on + activating or removing them both. (This differs from conventional + device-mapper snapshots.) + + Activate it exactly the same way as any other thinly-provisioned volume: + + dmsetup create snap --table "0 2097152 thin /dev/mapper/pool 1" + +Deactivation +------------ + +All devices using a pool must be deactivated before the pool itself +can be. + + dmsetup remove thin + dmsetup remove snap + dmsetup remove pool + +Reference +========= + +'thin-pool' target +------------------ + +i) Constructor + + thin-pool <metadata dev> <data dev> <data block size (sectors)> \ + <low water mark (blocks)> [<number of feature args> [<arg>]*] + + Optional feature arguments: + - 'skip_block_zeroing': skips the zeroing of newly-provisioned blocks. + + Data block size must be between 64KB (128 sectors) and 1GB + (2097152 sectors) inclusive. + + +ii) Status + + <transaction id> <used metadata blocks>/<total metadata blocks> + <used data blocks>/<total data blocks> <held metadata root> + + + transaction id: + A 64-bit number used by userspace to help synchronise with metadata + from volume managers. + + used data blocks / total data blocks + If the number of free blocks drops below the pool's low water mark a + dm event will be sent to userspace. This event is edge-triggered and + it will occur only once after each resume so volume manager writers + should register for the event and then check the target's status. + + held metadata root: + The location, in sectors, of the metadata root that has been + 'held' for userspace read access. '-' indicates there is no + held root. This feature is not yet implemented so '-' is + always returned. + +iii) Messages + + create_thin <dev id> + + Create a new thinly-provisioned device. + <dev id> is an arbitrary unique 24-bit identifier chosen by + the caller. + + create_snap <dev id> <origin id> + + Create a new snapshot of another thinly-provisioned device. + <dev id> is an arbitrary unique 24-bit identifier chosen by + the caller. + <origin id> is the identifier of the thinly-provisioned device + of which the new device will be a snapshot. + + delete <dev id> + + Deletes a thin device. Irreversible. + + trim <dev id> <new size in sectors> + + Delete mappings from the end of a thin device. Irreversible. + You might want to use this if you're reducing the size of + your thinly-provisioned device. In many cases, due to the + sharing of blocks between devices, it is not possible to + determine in advance how much space 'trim' will release. (In + future a userspace tool might be able to perform this + calculation.) + + set_transaction_id <current id> <new id> + + Userland volume managers, such as LVM, need a way to + synchronise their external metadata with the internal metadata of the + pool target. The thin-pool target offers to store an + arbitrary 64-bit transaction id and return it on the target's + status line. To avoid races you must provide what you think + the current transaction id is when you change it with this + compare-and-swap message. + +'thin' target +------------- + +i) Constructor + + thin <pool dev> <dev id> + + pool dev: + the thin-pool device, e.g. /dev/mapper/my_pool or 253:0 + + dev id: + the internal device identifier of the device to be + activated. + +The pool doesn't store any size against the thin devices. If you +load a thin target that is smaller than you've been using previously, +then you'll have no access to blocks mapped beyond the end. If you +load a target that is bigger than before, then extra blocks will be +provisioned as and when needed. + +If you wish to reduce the size of your thin device and potentially +regain some space then send the 'trim' message to the pool. + +ii) Status + + <nr mapped sectors> <highest mapped sector> |