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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/device-mapper/thin-provisioning.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/device-mapper/thin-provisioning.txt | 39 |
1 files changed, 38 insertions, 1 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/device-mapper/thin-provisioning.txt b/Documentation/device-mapper/thin-provisioning.txt index a119fbdd0604..310c1201d621 100644 --- a/Documentation/device-mapper/thin-provisioning.txt +++ b/Documentation/device-mapper/thin-provisioning.txt @@ -169,6 +169,38 @@ ii) Using an internal snapshot. dmsetup create snap --table "0 2097152 thin /dev/mapper/pool 1" +External snapshots +------------------ + +You can use an external _read only_ device as an origin for a +thinly-provisioned volume. Any read to an unprovisioned area of the +thin device will be passed through to the origin. Writes trigger +the allocation of new blocks as usual. + +One use case for this is VM hosts that want to run guests on +thinly-provisioned volumes but have the base image on another device +(possibly shared between many VMs). + +You must not write to the origin device if you use this technique! +Of course, you may write to the thin device and take internal snapshots +of the thin volume. + +i) Creating a snapshot of an external device + + This is the same as creating a thin device. + You don't mention the origin at this stage. + + dmsetup message /dev/mapper/pool 0 "create_thin 0" + +ii) Using a snapshot of an external device. + + Append an extra parameter to the thin target specifying the origin: + + dmsetup create snap --table "0 2097152 thin /dev/mapper/pool 0 /dev/image" + + N.B. All descendants (internal snapshots) of this snapshot require the + same extra origin parameter. + Deactivation ------------ @@ -254,7 +286,7 @@ iii) Messages i) Constructor - thin <pool dev> <dev id> + thin <pool dev> <dev id> [<external origin dev>] pool dev: the thin-pool device, e.g. /dev/mapper/my_pool or 253:0 @@ -263,6 +295,11 @@ i) Constructor the internal device identifier of the device to be activated. + external origin dev: + an optional block device outside the pool to be treated as a + read-only snapshot origin: reads to unprovisioned areas of the + thin target will be mapped to this device. + 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 |