summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/Documentation
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2014-03-07 15:17:36 -0800
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2014-03-07 15:17:36 -0800
commit2ef176f11a40d21e8d6c5d98a3c09d57c861fac6 (patch)
treebfac92c332d83f77a97514648e8b45b096d2a35c /Documentation
parentb053940df41808f0f27568eb36820d10a8a987f8 (diff)
parentcebc2de44d3bce53e46476e774126c298ca2c8a9 (diff)
Merge tag 'dm-3.14-fixes-3' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/device-mapper/linux-dm
Pull device mapper fixes from Mike Snitzer: - dm-cache memory allocation failure fix - fix DM's Kconfig identation - dm-snapshot metadata corruption fix for bug introduced in 3.14-rc1 - important refcount < 0 fix for the DM persistent data library's space map metadata interface which fixes corruption reported by a few dm-thinp users and last but not least: - more extensive fixes than ideal for dm-thinp's data resize capability (which has had growing pain much like we've seen from -ENOSPC handling of filesystems that mature). The end result is dm-thinp now handles metadata operation failure and no data space error conditions much better than before. * tag 'dm-3.14-fixes-3' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/device-mapper/linux-dm: dm space map metadata: fix refcount decrement below 0 which caused corruption dm thin: fix Documentation for held metadata root feature dm thin: fix noflush suspend IO queueing dm thin: fix deadlock in __requeue_bio_list dm thin: fix out of data space handling dm thin: ensure user takes action to validate data and metadata consistency dm thin: synchronize the pool mode during suspend dm snapshot: fix metadata corruption dm: fix Kconfig indentation dm cache mq: fix memory allocation failure for large cache devices
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/device-mapper/cache.txt11
-rw-r--r--Documentation/device-mapper/thin-provisioning.txt34
2 files changed, 36 insertions, 9 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/device-mapper/cache.txt b/Documentation/device-mapper/cache.txt
index e6b72d355151..68c0f517c60e 100644
--- a/Documentation/device-mapper/cache.txt
+++ b/Documentation/device-mapper/cache.txt
@@ -124,12 +124,11 @@ the default being 204800 sectors (or 100MB).
Updating on-disk metadata
-------------------------
-On-disk metadata is committed every time a REQ_SYNC or REQ_FUA bio is
-written. If no such requests are made then commits will occur every
-second. This means the cache behaves like a physical disk that has a
-write cache (the same is true of the thin-provisioning target). If
-power is lost you may lose some recent writes. The metadata should
-always be consistent in spite of any crash.
+On-disk metadata is committed every time a FLUSH or FUA bio is written.
+If no such requests are made then commits will occur every second. This
+means the cache behaves like a physical disk that has a volatile write
+cache. If power is lost you may lose some recent writes. The metadata
+should always be consistent in spite of any crash.
The 'dirty' state for a cache block changes far too frequently for us
to keep updating it on the fly. So we treat it as a hint. In normal
diff --git a/Documentation/device-mapper/thin-provisioning.txt b/Documentation/device-mapper/thin-provisioning.txt
index 8a7a3d46e0da..05a27e9442bd 100644
--- a/Documentation/device-mapper/thin-provisioning.txt
+++ b/Documentation/device-mapper/thin-provisioning.txt
@@ -116,6 +116,35 @@ 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.
+A low water mark for the metadata device is maintained in the kernel and
+will trigger a dm event if free space on the metadata device drops below
+it.
+
+Updating on-disk metadata
+-------------------------
+
+On-disk metadata is committed every time a FLUSH or FUA bio is written.
+If no such requests are made then commits will occur every second. This
+means the thin-provisioning target behaves like a physical disk that has
+a volatile write cache. If power is lost you may lose some recent
+writes. The metadata should always be consistent in spite of any crash.
+
+If data space is exhausted the pool will either error or queue IO
+according to the configuration (see: error_if_no_space). If metadata
+space is exhausted or a metadata operation fails: the pool will error IO
+until the pool is taken offline and repair is performed to 1) fix any
+potential inconsistencies and 2) clear the flag that imposes repair.
+Once the pool's metadata device is repaired it may be resized, which
+will allow the pool to return to normal operation. Note that if a pool
+is flagged as needing repair, the pool's data and metadata devices
+cannot be resized until repair is performed. It should also be noted
+that when the pool's metadata space is exhausted the current metadata
+transaction is aborted. Given that the pool will cache IO whose
+completion may have already been acknowledged to upper IO layers
+(e.g. filesystem) it is strongly suggested that consistency checks
+(e.g. fsck) be performed on those layers when repair of the pool is
+required.
+
Thin provisioning
-----------------
@@ -258,10 +287,9 @@ ii) Status
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
+ The location, in blocks, 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.
+ held root.
discard_passdown|no_discard_passdown
Whether or not discards are actually being passed down to the