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diff --git a/Documentation/device-mapper/era.rst b/Documentation/device-mapper/era.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..90dd5c670b9f --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/device-mapper/era.rst @@ -0,0 +1,116 @@ +====== +dm-era +====== + +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 |